[2] Van Scoy's parents and the three youngest children in the family returned to the Indiana farm in 1860 after difficult times in Iowa.

[2] In Indiana, Van Scoy received his education in the local schools before joining the militia in 1865 during the American Civil War.

[2] After leaving the infantry in 1866, he enrolled at a school in Brookston, Indiana, for a few months and then at the Battle Ground Collegiate Institute.

[2] He then enrolled at Brookston Academy where he spent one year before entering Northwestern University in neighboring Illinois where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta.

[3] In 1875, he graduated from Northwestern (later inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society)[5] and began working as a minister in Rensselaer, Indiana, for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

[2][6] In 1879, he was hired by Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, to be chairman of the Greek department and to teach ancient languages.

[11] Van Scoy was the first minister at the Montavilla Methodist Church in Southeast Portland, dedicating a new building on October 19, 1893.