John was the son of Aaron Van Cleave and Rachel Schenck. Contrary to popular belief Aaron and Rachel are NOT buried in the Joppa Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Davie County. The originator of this was a family member who created the theory in the 1930’s because the Boone’s are there and he presumed Aaron and Rachel were buried there too. However, Aaron was the leader of a group who meet for religious services at Dutchman’s Creek Meeting House, which is the Heidelberg Evangelical Lutheran Church. And that is the cemetery Aaron and Rachel are buried in.

Aaron was the first to Anglicize the family surname to "Van Cleave" doing so by at least 1744. His brothers used the German "Van Cleve" and the Dutch "Van Cleef."

With his siblings and Boone in-laws John pioneered what was originally called the Levisa country, later called Kentucky, in the mid-1770's. He and his brother William moved their families to Kentucky with Daniel Boone, leaving North Carolina on September 20, 1779 and arriving at Bryant's Station in Kentucky on November 15, 1779.

John's first wife, identified as Molly (Margaret/Mary Shepherd ?) by his niece Phebe Van Cleave Harris, was killed during the Long Run Massacre on September 13, 1781, in (then) Jefferson County, Kentucky. John buried Molly near where she fell, at Long Run, near present day Simpsonville, in Shelby County, Kentucky. As was the custom no headstone or grave location marking was done, due to the Indians digging up bodies and mutilating the remains.

Molly was NOT the daughter of Captain Thomas Shepherd of Shepherdstown, (West) Virginia as has widely been claimed. Her maiden surname may have been Shepherd but her father was NOT the Captain Thomas Shepherd of Shepherdstown, (West) Virginia. His daughter Mary was not married to a Van Cleave and is buried in West Virginia. She is well documented, and was born in 1752, which if she was married to John Van Cleave would have made her 9 or 10 when she had her first child by John Van Cleave. If John's wife was truly named Mary Shepherd she was most likely the daughter of one of the Shepherd men living in Rowan County, North Carolina at the time the Van Cleave family was also living there. This rumor of her being the daughter of Captain Thomas Shepherd of Shepherdstown (West) Virginia got started in the 1930's. The originator also stated that Captain Thomas Shepherd's wife, Elizabeth Van Mater, was the daughter of Neeltje (Nelly) Van Cleef. This too has been proven false. NO document has been found to date stating the fore and surnames of John's first wife.

John served in Captain Chenoweth's Company of Jefferson County, Kentucky Territorial Militia, District of Virginia, during the Revolutionary War.

John married (secondly), circa summer 1782 (estimated from several records of his movements), at the Low Dutch Station, in old Jefferson County, Kentucky Territory, to Rachel (Demaree) Ryker, the widow of Gerardus Ryker. Gerardus was killed by the Indians the day after the Long Run Massacre during a failed rescue and body retrieval attempt, referred to as Floyd's Defeat. He and the others killed were buried in a mass grave. A monument was erected at the grave site. Rachel and Gerardus were married on November 17, 1762, at New York City, New York. Gerardus was born on November 16, 1740, at Newton, Queens County, New York, and died on September 14, 1781, in old Jefferson County, Kentucky, the son of John Rychen and Grietie Wiltsee.

Rachel was born November 19, 1743, and baptized on April 1, 1744, at Hampton, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Samuel Demaree (Demarest) and Leah Demarest (cousins). Rachel died circa 1818 in Madison Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, where she was living with her son Peter Van Cleave. Both John and Rachel had 7 children each from their previous marriages. Between them they produced two children, Peter and David (named for both of her Demarest grandfathers). She is buried in the (old) Ryker Cemetery, near her husband and several of her children. She does not have a headstone.

John's headstone has the date of the probate of his Will instead of his actual death date. And, his surname is misspelled. His signed Will clearly has "Van Cleave." All errors committed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration after I requested a military headstone be created for him. His headstone was placed by Van Cleave and Ryker family members on July 2, 2008.

Aaron and Rachel Schenck Van Cleave are not buried in Joppa Cemetery. They are in the Heidelberg Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery to which they were members. If anyone has questions about these memorials feel free to contact me, or check libraries for copies of my books on the Van Cleave/Cleve/Cleef/et al family, which I published in the 1980's.

Source: The Pioneers, The Van Cleave Family, Volume II, by Allan Ray Wenzel, Library of Congress Card Catalog #86-50753, Copyright 1989, Seattle Publishing Company, and numerous documents.

It is stated in the Draper Manuscripts by Moses Boone (son of Squire Boone and Jane Van Cleave Boone), that his Grandparents (Aaron Van Cleave and Rachel Schenck Van Cleave) had 7 sons when they migrated from New Jersey to North Carolina. No records have been found for the two missing sons. There is a gap between the date of marriage (1734) for Aaron and Rachel and the birth of their eldest surviving son John (1739) for two additional sons. According to the Dutch naming system, which Aaron and Rachel followed, the names for these two sons would be, Isa (born 1735, died circa 1753) and Cornelius (born 1737, died circa 1753).