My Genealogy Hound

MYRON J. VAN DUYNE, an enterprising and well known farmer of the town of Varick, Seneca County, is the proprietor of seventy-nine acres of valuable land, which he cultivates in a most thorough and intelligent manner. He is a native of this state, and was born May 24, 1859, in Cayuga County. His parents were William and Maria (Vanderbilt) Van Duyne, likewise born in the above county. There the father grew to mature years, and after pursuing his studies for a number of years in the district schools, began learning the trade of a shoe-maker, which he followed until obtaining a start in life. The money which he thus saved he invested in one hundred and ten acres of land, which he later disposed of. He then passed the two succeeding years in the village of Auburn, and when ready to return once more to farm life became the proprietor of one hundred and two acres, on which the depot in Varick is now located.

Our subject’s home was in Cayuga County until eighteen years of age, and in the mean time he attended the district schools, afterward taking a course in the commercial college at Auburn. At the time of his father’s removal to Seneca County he accompanied him hither, and worked the farm on shares until attaining his twenty-fourth year.

Mr. Van Duyne was married, April 10, 1883, to Miss Mary Van Sickle, of the town of Varick, whose birth occurred in Cayuga County. Her parents were Garret and Sarah Jane (Smith) Van Sickle, the former of whom was born in 1825 and departed this life in 1885. The parents of our subject were both members of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics the father was a stanch Democrat, although in no sense of the term an office-seeker.

The parental family included four children, of whom Myron J. was the eldest but one. His sister Mary married George Selover, of Auburn, where he has charge of the Old Ladies’ Home. They have one daughter, Grace. Augusta Van Duyne married Charles Stengle, and they have two children. William is also married, and makes his home in Cayuga County, where he is a well-to-do farmer; he is the father of two children.

On the death of his father our subject fell heir to $2 ,000 worth of property, which he afterward sold, investing the capital in the seventy-nine acres which he still owns. On this place a comfortable dwelling was erected, it being very pleasantly situated near Varick Station. Mr. Van Duyne is a very methodical agriculturist and an esteemed and respected citizen of Seneca County. He is Democratic in politics, casting his first Presidential vote for Hancock in 1880. However, he is not strongly partisan, and in local affairs votes for the man whom he thinks will best discharge the duties of the office. In religious affairs he is a member of the Baptist Church at Geneva, while his estimable wife is an attendant at the Presbyterian Church of West Fayette.

To Mr. and Mrs. Van Duyne there has been granted a son, Harry, who was born in the town of Fayette; he resides with his parents and assists in the duties of the farm. In 1893 both our subject and his wife attended the World’s Fair held in Chicago, spending two weeks in that city.