Gertrude (fl. 1847) to Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06253.01 Author/Creator: Gertrude (fl. 1847) Place Written: Oakley Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 2 May 1847 Pagination: 4 p. ; 25.2 x 19.3 cm. Order a Copy
A letter written by Gertrude to her younger brother Franklin Butler Van Valkenburgh. Gertrude discusses religion and family affairs, including the recent relocation of their family from the Valley of Prattsbugh to out west. In this letter it is mentioned that their minister, Mr. Stratton, had left the town to attend the General Assembly in Baltimore. There is a postscript written across the top of the first page of the letter. Written on the letter in pencil is the year 1847, but due to content we believe the letter to be written in 1848. Gertrude is referred to as Getty in this letter. Gertrude marries Otis H. Waldo, but it is unclear in what year the marriage occured.
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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