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unknown (fl. 1908) to Mrs. Gerit Smith Van Valkenburgh

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06253.18 Author/Creator: unknown (fl. 1908) Place Written: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Type: Typed letter Date: 20 February 1908 Pagination: 1 p. ; 27.9 x 21.7 cm. Order a Copy

A letter to Mrs. G. S. Van Valkenburgh. This letter details family affairs icluding the goings on of many of its members. The letter is unsigned, but it is believed to be written by a relative of Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh due to context. The letter mentions the inclusion of a picture of Franklin, which is not a part of the collection. Mrs. G. S. Van Valkenburgh is the wife of Franklin's brother Gerrit Smith Van Valkenburgh.

Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh was born February 21, 1835 in Prattsburgh, Steuben County, New York and died May 9, 1924 in Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. He is the son of Jacob Van Valkenburgh and Mary Bethiah Van Valkenburgh. Franklin Van Valkenburgh had a twin brother, Gerrit Smith, and was one of eleven children. Van Valkenburgh's great grandfather, Jacob Van Valkenburgh immigrated to the United States in 1746 from Holland and settled in Claverback, New York. His grandfather, Bartholomew Jacob, served in Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Van Duyck's Company in New York's 1st Battalion during the Revolutionary War and was married to Catherine Pruyn. Van Valkenburgh's father, Jacob, was the third oldest of ten children and was drafted into the army during the War of 1812. Van Valkenburgh's mother was a direct decedent of Mathew Gilbert, one of the original colonists in New Haven, Connecticut. Her baptismal name was Polly Bethiah Higgins, but she always wrote her name as Mary. Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh was a lawyer in Milwaukee who married Emmeline Wells Pratt and had three children.

Van Valkenburgh, Franklin Butler, 1835-1924
Vilas, Franklin Edward, fl. 1908
Minnie Schoyer
Poole, Mary

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