Van Dyke was born in Alexandria and attended the local public schools there. He taught primary school classes in surrounding Douglas County from 1899 to 1901. Later that year, he volunteered for the U.S. Army and served as a private in Company B, 15th Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish–American War. In 1916, he graduated from the St. Paul College of Law (later accredited as the William Mitchell College of Law) and was admitted to the bar at St. Paul. Van Dyke did not engage in extensive practice. He was elected Commander-in-Chief of the United Spanish War Veterans on September 6, 1918.
Van Dyke was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth, and Sixty-sixth congresses and served from March 4, 1915, until his death in Washington, D.C., May 20, 1919. On April 6, 1917, he voted against declaring war on Germany. His interment was in a mausoleum in Forest Cemetery, St. Paul, Minnesota.
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