which matured as he grew in years.[14] But
an elder brother Tunis (his only own brother living, save Christopher, a
brassfounder, who died, unmarried, in the West Indies in 1773), having
served an apprenticeship with Fronce Mandeville, of Moodna, blacksmith,
married, in 1771, Jennie Wear, of the town of Montgomery, and the next
spring began married life on a farm of eighty acres, which he had
purchased, lying in that part of Hanover Precinct (now Montgomery)
called Neelytown. Much attached to Tunis, John thereafter spent several
years with him, attending school.

But now the growing controversy between the Colonies and the mother
country had ripened into actual hostilities; the first aggressive
movement in which this Colony took part being the expedition against
Canada, planned in the summer of 1775. It fired young Van Arsdale's
patriotism, and about August 25th he enlisted under Capt. Jacobus
Wynkoop, of the Fourth New York Regiment, James Holmes being the colonel
and Philip Van Cortlandt the lieutenant-colonel. These forces,
proceeding up the Hudson, entered Canada by way of lakes George and
Champlain; part of the Fourth Regiment, under Major Barnabas Tuthill,
taking part in the brilliant assault upon Quebec, December 31st, but
unsuccessful, and fatal to the gallant leader, General Montgomery, and
numbers of his men. On their way to Quebec, and especially in crossing
the lakes on the ice, Van Arsdale and his comrades suffered so intensely
from the extreme cold that the hardships and incidents of this, his
first campaign, remained fresh in his memory even till old age. Van
Arsdale having "served his time out in the year's service, returned to
New York," where the Americans were concentrating troops, in order to
oppose the royal forces expected from Europe. Here he assisted his
father on board the schooner in sinking the obstructions in the Hudson,
as before noticed, and when the enemy captured the city, accompanied him
to Orange County. It was on Sept. 16th, 1776, that the British forces
landed at Kip's Bay, on the east side of the island, three miles out of
the city. A great many of the citizens who were friends of their
country, made a precipitate flight, and the roads were lined with
vehicles of every kind, removing furniture, etc. The elder Van Arsdale,
with difficulty, and only by paying down $200, got the use of a horse
and wagon to take his family and effects from his house to the schooner
lying in Stryker's Bay