Frank to Getty
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06253.21 Author/Creator: Frank Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: no date Pagination: 1 p. ; 19.4 x 14.6 cm. Order a Copy
A letter written by Frank to Gertrude informing her of the death of Kate who is to be buried in Racine County, Wisconsin. Kate is believed to be Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh's sister Catherine. It is unclear the relationship and identity of Getty and Frank because each name occurs twice in the letter. It appears as if the top of the letter may have been cut off as the top of the first line is missing. Written on the back of the letter in pencil is "Higgins House Racine." Gertrude is referred to as Getty in this letter.
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.
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