Biography

Van Duzer is mentioned in SSS letters from 1830s. Lived in Warwick, Orange County, NY and served in the NYS assembly in 1823. He married the older sister of Judge Gedney (Gidney) in 1826, another prominent Orange County citizen. He had a daughter named Mary who married and was the first wife of William Walsh. Mary died Oct. 18, 1801 leaving behind no surviving children. The History of Orange County has this to say about him: "Isaac R. Van Duzer, who married in 1826 the older sister of Judge 
Gedney — their daughter, Charlotte, being married to Joseph W. Gott in 
1847 — was, undoubtedly, the most brilliant advocate, with the single ex- 
ception of Ogden Hoffman, who ever addressed an Orange County jury. 
All the accounts of contemporaries and all the traditions of the bar unite 
in this verdict. Often have I heard Judge Wilkin, who as a boy heard 
him in Goshen, expatiate upon his transcendent powers. He died pre- 
maturely in his fortieth year, but the opinion entertained by his genera- 
tion was that, had he lived, his name would have gone down to history 
with the foremost orators of his age."