Colonel John Van Hoose, Revolutionary War Soldier, Pioneer, Farmer, and the Grand-daddy of all the Van Hooses in Eastern Kentucky, was born April 5,1760 in Arson (now Montgomery) County, North Carolina. He married, in 1788, in Montgomery County, North Carolina, to Mary Bryan, said to be the daughter of William Bryan and Mary Boone, sister of Daniel Boone.

John was 16 years old when the Revolutionary War came to his part of North Carolina and was harassed and threatened a great deal by the Torries. He was at home with his mother and little brother and sister (their father being dead and an older brother, Valentine Van Hoose, being in the Patriot army) when a party of Tones rode up armed only with swords and demanded to know where Valentine was. They cursed and threatened him terrible, but could not scare him into telling where Val was hiding.

According to the Mitchel Hall book "Jenny Wiley Country," John was 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighed 240 pounds and was 16 years of age when the Revolution broke out. John grew to manhood without learning, as there was little call in wartime for schools. He had been one of the strongest men that could be found in the old "North State", and one of the most devout Christians. He lived and died a hardshell Baptist.

About 1800 he moved to Washington County, Va. then to Cabell Co., West Virginia (now Wayne Co., WVA). Surveyed for John Van Hoose was 50 acres of land in Cabell County on the tract fork of 12 Pole River, by virture of an entry made Sept. 20 , 1809 on part of a land office Treasury Warrant for 1235 acres No. 4344 dated the 9th day of June 1809 and bounded as follows to wit: Beginning at two white oaks standing at the foot of a hill on the east side of said trace fork just above where said Van Hoose now lives thence N. 38 degrees West crossing said fork 42 poles to a beech and white oak on the bank of a branch then north 49 degrees east 86 poles to a sower wood of maple. North 84 degrees. East 96 poles to a white oak south 60 degrees east 60 poles crossing said fork again to a large white oak and sugar tree. South 36 degrees west 40 poles to a white oak and gum tree 39 degrees west 20 poles to an ash and maple south 70 degrees west 150 poles to the beginning variation four degrees east.

Later John moved to Jennie's Creek in Floyd Co. (now Johnson Co. Ky.) at a place now called Hager Hill. About 1820 he was one of the trustees of the first seminary founded in the Big Sandy Valley, Prestonburg Academy. In recognition of his services to his Country, his name, with others, is inscribed on a monument erected in the court house yard at Paintsville, Kentucky by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Johnson County. During the last years of his life he lived with his son Valentine, near White House on the Sandy River. He died 5 Jan. 1860 and is buried at the Van Hoose graveyard near White House, Ky.