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Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh (1835-1924) to Otis H. Waldo Esquire

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06253.23 Author/Creator: Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh (1835-1924) Place Written: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 21 April 1857 Pagination: 4 p. ; 20.2 x 12.8 cm. Order a Copy

A letter written by Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh to Otis H. Waldo, the husband of his sister Gertrude Coeymans Waldo. This letter is the reply to letter GLC06253.08 that Waldo sent Van Valkenburgh. Gertrude is referred to in this letter as Getty.

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.

Grant, E.F., fl. 1857
William H. Grant
Grant, Gordon, fl. 1857

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