VAN BUREN"
706
VANDALS
wards the president's seat, bowing as he cnmo up, and said, "Mr. President, I want to talk.'' N(il)()dy knew him, and tlie president asked, "Arc you a member of this bod}', sir '?'' " No, sir," was the reply, " but I want to talk." The president reminded him that none but members had a right to sjieak, when an aged minister, who had just come in, recognised him, and said, " I move that the Rev. Elias Van Bunschooten have leave to talk." It was carried, and then the old patriarch went up to the president's tal)le, drew from bis pocket a large roll of bank-bills and counted them — $800. Then he took another package of obligations, amount- ing to $13,810, and counted this out, and, in a few well- chosen words, donated them to the astonished synod, and asked a committee of conference to arrange the conditions. Subseqnently, by will, he added other sums, the whole Ijping alloweil to accumulate until it reached •$•20,000. Such is the history of tliis endowment, which was, so far as is known, the first one made in our coun- try, and certainly the first made in the Reformed Church, Jbr tkeolofjical education. Not a dollar of it has been lost. The capital now amounts to over $20,000, while the interest has educated over one hundred and tirenti/- Jive yotnig men for the ministry, some of whom have been among the most eminent and useful in the service of the Church at home and in foreign lands. " And by it he, being dead, j-et speaketh." In 1817 5lr. Van Bun- schooten's remains were removed, by direction of the General Synod, to the graveyard of the ancient church in New Brunswick, where tliey lie beside those of his friend Dr. Livingston and other professors of theology. At the disinterment of his body, a respectable uncon- verted woman of his Chiu'ch, who stood looking on, was so powerfidly affected by the recollection of his faithful sermons and unheeded private teachings that, as she saw the coffin raised, she uttered a cry of anguish and became almost helpless from the rush of her feelings of sin and righteousness and judgment to come; she sank almost into despair, and it was nearly a year before she found peace in believing. The very singular and yet precise and pious terms of the formal bequest of Mr. Van Bunschooten, and which require it to be read at the regular meetings of the synods and classes of the Church, •' not for aggrandizement or self-ostentation, but to be an humble pattern to others," were drawn up, doubtless at his suggestion however, by the Hon. Abra- ham Van Vechten of Albany, an elder of the synod and member of the committee of conference. The ■' pattern" has been nobly -'followed by others." See McClure, in the N^ew Brnnswirk Ker. 1855: Todd, Life of Rer. P. Labaffh; (iunn. Life of Dr. J. H. Livingston; Corwin, Manual of the Ref Ch. in A merica, s. v. (W. J. R. T.)
Van Buren, P. H., a young minister of the Re- formed (^ Dutch) Church, was born at Fidton ville, N. Y., in 1846. He graduated with honors at the University of the City of New York in 18()4, and at the New Bruns- wick Theological Seminary in 18G7; was licensed as a minister in 18()7, and called to the Church at Freehold, N. J., but was prevented from settling by sickness, and died in 18G8. He had made thorough preparation for the ministry, but he resigned himself to the will of (Jod and departed in peace. See Corwin, Manual <fthe R<f. Ch. in A merica, s. v.
Vance, Aiidie'W, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born near Abingdon, Va., July 23, 1788. He was awakened to a .sense of his lost condition, and became so concerned that he neither ate, drank, nor slept, and was reduced almost to a skeleton. His whole care after conversion was as to how he could do the most good in the world, and he determined to preach the (iospel. Following out his purpose, he entered Washington Col- lege, East Tennessee, from which he graduated. He was prevented from entering Princeton Theological Seminary from want of health, and he pursued his the- ological studies with a private tutor. He entered the ministry in 1828 at Baker's Creek Church, E. Tenn.,
and was ordained and installed by the Union Presby- tery. At the division of the Church in 1837-38 he was the only member of the Presbytery who adhered to the Old-school side. As a result of his adherence bis prop- erty was all taken from him, and he was reduced to poverty. lu 1807 he attended the meeting of the Gen- eral Assembly at Cincinnati, O., after which he re- moved to Illinois and had several calls from churches in that state ; but Providence having opened a way for his reluru to his old charge at Baker's Creek, he avail- ed himself of it, and returned and resumed liis ministra- tions. Here he remained and tinished his long and use- ful labors. He died at Uniiia, Tenn., Nov. 1, 1872. See The Presbi/terian, Jan, 25, 1873, (W. P. S.)
Vance, Thomas P., a Jlethodist Episcopal minis- ter, was converted in 1827, joined the Kentucky Confer- ence in 1829, in which he continued faithful and suc- ] cessful until his death from bilious fever, Oct. 6, 1834. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1835, p. 343.