Olan Rogers Van Zandt was born in 1896 in Tioga, Grayson Co, Texas, the son of John Henry Van Zandt and Nancy Jane "Nannie" Rogers . Olan was the grandson of John Franklin Rogers and Mahalia Carolyn Graves, known as "Ma and Pa Rogers".  His grandfather donated land to the Shiloh Methodist Church.  Olan R. Van Zandt was one of the church's member.

SIBLINGS

• William Calvin Van Zandt
  1882-1968
• John Henry "Jonnie" Van Zandt Jr.
  1884-1885
• Effie Van Zandt
  born 1884
• Mahalia Ima Jean "Gina" Van Zandt
  born 1891
• Bertha Elizabeth Van Zandt
  born 1893
• James Omer Van Zandt
  1896-1960
• Cora Van Zandt
  born 1898
• Zada B Van Zandt
  born 1899
• Orus Ross Van Zandt
  1898-1968

As a small child Olan was hit in the eye with a projectile from a sling-shot which put his eye out. A few years later he was driving a cow in from the pasture and hit the cow with a stick which broke. The broken end flew back and hit him in his good eye, putting it out.  He was sent to a school for the blind and then on to college and law school.  Education was important to Olan's father as his father had been a school teacher at the Mt. Zion School east of Tioga in Cooke County and then later in Pilot Point, Denton County.

Olan married Beatrice Murrell Burnam VanZandt.  They had four children: a son, Rogers VanZandt of Weldon; three daughters: Mrs. Murrell Benedict of Milano, Italy; Mrs. Clare E. Johnson of Coolidge, Arizonza; and Mrs. Elizabeth Ingles of Myrna, Tennessee.

Read the Handbook of Texas entry for Olan VanZandt


Olan R. Van Zandt was a State Representative, then a State Senator in 1934, serving in the Texas Legislature from 1926 to 1942. Upon his return to Grayson County, Olan R. Van Zandt practiced law in Tioga before moving his practice to Sherman. He was one of the first blind people to receive a law degree.  He died in 1985 in Sherman, Texas and is buried in the Tioga City Cemetery.