Last updated on 02/26/2006 08:51.
2.0 DUTCH EXPLORERS AND EARLY
SETTLERS IN AMERICA
3.0 ULSTER COUNTY - OUR FIRST
AMERICAN HOME
4.0 EARLY AMERICAN VAN AUKEN
SETTLERS
5.0 FROM THE HUDSON TO THE
DELAWARE
6.0 EARLY VAN AUKEN SETTLERS IN
THE DELAWARE VALLEY
7.0 LINEAGE FROM MARINUS VAN
AKEN TO ME
8.0 THE MIGRATION OF THE VAN
AUKEN's FROM ULSTER COUNTY TO PORT JERVIS, N.Y.
9.0 PROFILES of MY DIRECT LINE
to MARINUS VAN AKEN
This report documents my direct line from Marinus Van Aken. Marinus was the first of my ancestors to settle in America. It includes a brief history of the early Dutch that settled in the Hudson River Valley, near Kingston New York, and discusses the immigration an d migration of the Van Aken / Van Auken's to the Delaware River Valley near Port Jervis, New York. Ancestors in my direct line to Marinus are documented in detail, while interesting stories related to Van Aken / Van Auken cousins are added.
Being an early American family, one that settled in America about 1685, certain lines of Van Auken lineages have been thoroughly researched and documented; however, little information is readily available related to my line. My research includes the study New York State and Federal Census records, obituaries, historical documents, historical publications, and genealogical reports. It involved many visits to government centers, historical societies, genealogy libraries, local libraries, and numerous cemeteries. Many letters of correspondence were written.
The search is not over; however, I've reached a point where I believe I have a credible line to Marinus and can therefore provide some useful documentation.
It should be mentioned that the only questionable connection, in my mind, is the connections of Peter to Johannes. Peter's connection to Johannes has been based on pension applications submitted by Peter in 1835 and the research of Glorya Welch of La Mirada, CA.
My g-g-g grandfather Emanuel's connection to Peter has been based on my research, which discovered J. W. Johnstons reference to Emanuel as a son of Peter as well as Sullivan and Pike Co. land, deed, and census records. I'm still trying to get more proof for this connection and Peter's connection to Johannes; in any event, I am confident we are connected to Marinus Van Aken of Cadzand Holland who settled in the Town of Esopus, Ulster County, NY, through one of his four sons, three who migrated to the Delaware Valley from the Town of Esopus near Kingston, New York.
In 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of Dutch merchants, explored the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers searching for a Northwest Passage to India; he layed Dutch claims in North America. In 1610 Dutch merchants dispatched a ship under Capt. Van Campen to the Hudson to trade with the Indians. A year later Captains Block and Christiansen of Amsterdam traded with the Indians on the Hudson and aroused Dutch interests in the potentials of the area. By 1613 Capt. Block established a trading post of four houses on Manhattan Island and Capt. Christiansen sailed up the Hudson and built Fort Nassau on the remains of the french fort on Castle Island. Two men were left at Esopus (Kingston, NY) to set up trade. In 1618 a permanent trading post was established at Kingston to set up trade and a year later the Dutch West India Company was established to develop the commercial potentials of the New Netherlands.
In 1625 Peter Minuet mapped the South River (Delaware) and the Hudson River. By 1626 Minuet, now the director of the Dutch West India Co., purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for 60 Guilders in trade goods.
In 1659 The Dutch West India Company directors in Amsterdam wrote to Gov. Stuyvesant that a trader-prospector, Claes de Ruyter, had shown them in Holland specimens of copper ore and reports of a gold mine that he should investigate when de Ruyter returns to New Netherlands. Later the same year, de Ruyter was back in New Netherlands at Esopus (Kingston) acting as Stuyvesants "confidential agent" in negotiating a peace after an uprising of the Esopus Indians. In 1661 Esopus (Kingston) the northern termination of "The Old Mine Road", consisted of a small palisaded fort and a trading post managed by the Schuyler family with a population of about 60 Dutch families.
In 1664 Charles II of England overwhelmed Manhattan and Gov. Stuyvesant reluctantly surrendered without a fight. By 1673 the Dutch re-captured New Amsterdam, now New York, and held it for five months. Foolishly, they traded it back to the English for Surinam, in South America, at the Treaty of Westminster.
In 1680 William Penn was given a charter for Pennsylvania. Thomas Paschall, a pewterer who emigrated to Philadelphia from England, wrote to a friend in 1683 that the Swedes, Finns, Dutch and English had settled everywhere along the Delaware to a distance of 160 miles. This would include the Minisink Valley (1).
"Ulster County was formed November 1, 1683, and included the country extending from the Hudson to the Delaware Rivers, bounded on the north and south by lines running due east and west, from the mouths of Sawyer's and Murderer's Creeks. Portions of the county have since been annexed to other counties, and some additions have been made to it. In 1614, the Dutch established a trading-post where Rondout now is. The first fort there is said to have been in the western part of Rondout, on a level piece of ground, still called by its Indian name, Ponckhockie. This trading-post was established six years before the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts was founded, and it is thought that a few Dutch families settled there not long after. This settlement was soon broken up by the Indians, and a new one was commenced between the years 1630 and 1640. In 1655, owning to the fearful ravages of the Indians near Manhattan, now New York, all the settlers at Esopus left their farms enmasse. In 1658 a site for a village was selected, and staked out, by governor Stuyvesant who came there from New York, its enclosure being two hundred and ten yards in circumference, and a guardhouse sixteen feet by twenty-three was built. The governor left twenty-four soldiers there to protect the place..." (2).
The 1652 Esopus colony was started by Thomas Chambers. The village was called Wiltwyck. In 1664 the English took control of the area and New Netherland became New York, Wiltwyck became Kingston.
"A major portion of the Town of Esopus was originally known as Klye Esopus, to distinguish it from the larger tract called Esopus, north and west of the Rondout and Wallkill Rivers."
"Early Dutch settlers came to Esopus before the year 1700 and built their sturdy stone houses, many of which are still in use today. The earliest record shows a purchase of a tract of ca 1960 acres by Fredrick Hussey on June 12, 1685. A part of this tract which has a high elevation, is known as Hussey Hill. Some of the early Van Aken families built along the eastern and northern portions of Hussey Hill, as evidenced by references to it in their deeds. Esopus, bounded on the east by the Hudson river, and on the West and North by the Rondout and Wallkill Rivers, proved to be a good place for the pioneers to live, for there was, and still is, plenty of fish and game. A good place to live in the 1700's...." (3).
"Marinus Van Aken was in Ulster County, NY sometime between 1683 and 1685. His marriage to Pieternelle de Pre in Cadzand, Holland took place on 11 Apr 1683. He took the oath of allegiance to the English government at Kingston, NY, in 1689. He was on the tax list on 9 Dec 1709 when he was taxed three shillings for '1 frye place and 1 slave'. He was also listed in the town of Rochester, Ulster Co., NY in 1711 and 1720/1. His children were all born (1685-1702) in Kingston NY." (4).
"Among the early families of Ulster County (or Esopus as it was more generally called in early days) that of Van Aaken is conspicuous, especially from the long line of descendants, now widely scattered and many of whom attained distinction." (5)
"In Holland the family name is traced back 1500 years, to the 4th century to John van Aken, the founder of the ancient city of Aken, now generally known as Aix La Chappele, located in Germany between the Rhine and Meuse Rivers, on the border of Holland .... There is a section called Aken or Acken, one mile south-east of Opmeer, a village eight miles north-west of Hoorn in the Province of North Holland, whence came some of the most prominent and enterprising of our early immigrants. In the same province are north and south Akendam, two villages, about six miles distant from Haarlem." (6)
"In French the name is Aix: in German, Aachen. 'It is evidently derived from the springs, for which Aix-la-Chapelle has always been famous.' The springs were early marked by a chapel (French chapelle) in which Pepin celebrated Christmas in 765." "Aiken represents Dutch long sound of a, as does also Auken." (7)
"In this country the name is first on record at Fort Orange (now Albany) in 1652, in which year Jan Koster Van Aaken, as he wrote his name, appears as a trader and purchaser of real estate on Broadway, State and James streets. He was made a magistrate in 1668. Although he could and did write his name, he like many others at the time, often made his mark-two triangles crossing each other. If he had descendants, they are not known. Van Aacken of Aken simply describes a person as of or from Aachen." (5)
"...Marinus Van Aaken, who, in 1689, was on the roll of persons who took the oath of allegiance to the English government in Kingston that year." (5) was my ancestor. "
"At what date Marinus settled in the Esopus country is not known. The first child born to him and his wife Pieternel de Pre, as per Kingston records, was Peter, in 1685." (5)
Marinus had four sons and four daughters. Three boys eventually moved down the Old Mine Trail to the Delaware Valley and settled near Port Jervis then known as Mahockamack.
Before we move on to the Delaware Valley I'd like to talk about the spelling of our name. Although the name has been spelled primarily Van Aken or Van Auken in my direct line, Abraham Van Auken (1791) offers an interesting observation in that "It is an unpleasant fact that we of our family are not at all agreed upon the manner of spelling our name. It is spelled Van Auken, Van Aaaken, Van Aken and even sometimes Van Aker by men from the same ancestor. I do not expect we can now agree on a correct way of spelling it, and it may be we will never know what is the proper way to spell it. The children of the first families were not educated, in consequence of which, when it became necessary to write their names in business transactions &c, the same was done in the Dutch tongue, without any other guide than that of the oral sound, and due to the lack of attention in always speaking names properly great changes have occurred in many surnames in this valley (Delaware Valley)." (8)
"An account of the Van Auken family history requires acquaintance with what is known as 'The Old Mine Road'. Travel through many of the lands of early America was made difficult by thick woods, mountain barriers, and by hostile Indians. 'when Col. Nicholls took possession of New Amsterdam for England in 1664, the entire country west of the Hudson River, including the territory of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, was still the hunting ground of the Indians. There were only three settlements of the white man west of the Hudson; Fort Orange or Albany, Esopus or Kingston, and the village of Bergen in New Jersey." (9)
"This was the nature of the land to which Marinus Van Aken came just prior to 1685 and settled in Esopus. With one exception, travel was largely restricted to waterways which, in this case, was mainly the Hudson River. The exception was the Old Mine road, '...originally an Indian path from the Esopus country to the Delaware River.' " Descendants of Marinus would later move up the Hudson to the Albany area, across the River to the Rhinebeck region, stay near Esopus, or move southwest along the Old Mine road to settle along the banks of the Neversink and Delaware Rivers."
"Marinus moved on it from Esopus to Rochester, now called Accord, in Ulster County, N.Y. In quest of land, his four sons all moved down the road into the Neversink and Minisink valleys. Son Pieter settled in Lehman Twp., Pike County: Isaak crossed the Delaware river to put down roots in Montaque; and Abraham moved farther down the road, both of these being in what was finally determined as being in Sussex County, New Jersey." The boundary between New York and New Jersey was not settled until 1772."
"At first the farms were spread out, isolated from each other. For mutual protection during raids of the Indians some of the more sturdy houses (usually those of stone construction) were designated as "forts" to which the settlers could flee in times of danger. There was a Fort Van Auken located in what is now Port Jervis, N.Y., and during raids by Indians under Chief Joseph Brant, Daniel Van Auken's farm was used for the same purpose, these centers often became the nucleus around which small communities developed. The Road was their lifeline, connecting them with each other and with the outside world."
"The Road extended southwest from Esopus through the Rondout Valley to the Neversink River and then south to what is now Port Jervis, N.Y. where the Neversink joins the Delaware river. The Road followed the north side of the Delaware (now in Pennsylvania), crossed the River at Walpack Center, and thence on the south side (now New Jersey) to the Delaware Water Gap." (12)
Many people moved down the Old Mine Road to the Delaware Valley including the Van Aken / Van Aukens. Marinus had four sons and four daughters.
Three boys eventually moved down the Old Mine Trail to the Delaware Valley and settled near Port Jervis then know as Mahockamack.
"We find a deed dated April 23, 1730, by which Samuel Green conveyed to Solomon Davis, William Koole (or Cole), of Ulster County, and Abraham Van Auken, of Mahockamack, Orange County, seven hundred and eighty-three acres of land in the present county of Hunterdon, west Jersey, for the sum of two hundred pounds current silver money. It appears in the deed that Samuel Green purchased the lands from the Indians. These lands were at the south end of what was known at that time as the Mine Road, originally an Indian path from the Esopus country to the Delaware River. The Dutch account of the fine lands on the Delaware River induced many good citizens from Ulster County to purchase and locate on lands in that section. Among those who early settled there were the DeWitts, Schoonmakers, Beviers, Cuddybacks, Kuykendals, Swartwouts, Van Aukens and many other families. The district was long known as the Minisink Precinct. It extended along the Delaware River from Carpenters Point (now known as Tri-states) to the lower end of Great Minisink Island. It was claimed by both New York and New Jersey, and was finally assigned to the later (1766)". (13)
The Minisink region is that portion of the Delaware Valley "..below the forks of the two rivers (Delaware and Neversink), known as the Mahogomac region (Port Jervis), where the Delaware flats are from one to two miles wide, and stretching for a distance of forty miles to the Water Gap, was settled by the Hollanders earlier than Philadelphia, and was a prosperous settlement long before William Penn made his celebrated treaty with the Indians. The same remark is applicable to all that portion of the Neversink and Mammakating valleys, extending from the Delaware to Kingston; and the old Mine Road, as it was called, was at one time the principal route of communication between the Hudson and the Delaware."
"The great fertility of the soil of the valleys bordering the Delaware and Neversink was the means of their early settlement by the Dutch. The mountains and watercourses of the region formed a natural boundary to the State of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and also of the County of Orange, extending from the Hudson to the Delaware. All beyond the Tri-States lines was a trackless wilderness, as was most of the country between Goshen and the Delaware at the time the Battle of Minisink was fought". (14)
The Van Aken family entered the Delaware Valley about 1730-50.
The typical frontiersman in 1741 was "bold and undisciplined, accustomed to dealing with nature in the raw and to settling their differences by direct action-the fist, the club, the axe, the sword, whatever was handy . They were dressed in buckskin and homespun. The men wore their hair braided and tied up in clubs. Boys wore it loose on their shoulders. Old women of thirty tucked theirs under white caps. Girls wore long braids until they were married, which usually was between sixteen and eighteen."
"Their Domine (minister) spoke to them in Dutch, for that was the only language most of them understood. Englishman who came to these parts, if they did not speak Dutch, talked to the settlers in Indian tongue which, next to Dutch, was the language most generally used...". (15)
"Frontiersmen in the Minisink region lived under the "threat of massacre by the Indians... the Indians they had most reason to fear were the Minisink Indians - the Indians among whom they were living, on the edge of whose villages they had built their log cabins, who hung around their door-steps asking for rum and gaudy trifles, with whose boys their own sons hunted and fished and wrestled."
"The greed of the Pennsylvania proprietors was responsible for the alienation of these friendly Indians. In 1737, the very year in which the Minisink churchs were organized, the scandalous Walking Purchase engineered by Thomas Penn and his brother John, deprived the Minisink Indians of their favorite hunting ground in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania."
"The Penns knew that the Indians did not want to part with the lands north of the Lehigh......but their land agents went ahead anyway and sold the land-to the Depues, the Broadheads, the Dingmans, the Van Ettens, to Juraian Westfall, Cornelius Van Auken (my 6g-grandfather) and a host of others, so that by 1737, there were enough Dutchmen living on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware...to resort to trickery in order to extinguish the Indian title to the land." (16, 17)
"Penn's purchase was to extend back into the woods 'as far as a man can go in a day and a half.' From the point where the walk ended, a line was to be drawn to the Delaware, thus establishing the northern boundary. But instead of running this line east to the Delaware and striking it at the nearest point, which would have been in the vicinity of Easton, and which was what the Indians expected, the surveyors ran the line north and it met the Delaware at the mouth of the Lackawaxan."
"This was a smart trick, but the settlers in the Minisink country paid for it in years of terror and bloodshed." (16)
"The Minisinks tried to protest this action and reclaim their lands. They attended a council of the Iroquois chiefs, Six Nations, in Philadelphia. But the council publicly insulted the Minsi Indians and their allies. Primed with gifts received from Pennsylvania the Six Nations ordered the Minsi to evacuate the lands. This drove hordes of the Minisinks and their friends west to the Ohio River, where the French received them with "open arms and a promise to restore thier lands providing they would join them in an attack on the English." (18)
"The first attack upon the Minisink settlement was in the winter and spring of 1756, by small parties of Western Indians, who made frequent incursions into its territory, destroying a vast amount of property and taking many lives. At this time the settlement is said to have contained thirty families who had begun the settlement previous to the year 1664, although the patent granted to Aren't Schuyler for lands was not issued until 1697 this included what is now known as Port Jervis and Carpenters Point (Tri-states).... Indian raids of 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1781 (occurred) in rapid succession, as a foretaste of that bloody policy resorted to by the British to restore the allegiance of its colonies to the Tory government." (19)
In 1744 men in the region were enlisted in the militia. By 1754 the F&I war began. The first massacres were confined to Pennsylvania but by 2/23/1756 the Governor of N.Y. reported an Indian attack resulting in five murdered people. This took place in what is now Huguenot at Philip Swartwouts farm. Attacks continued.
"In August (1756), Abraham Van Auken was attacked. He lived where the Port Jervis County Club is today. He was in his field loading hay, when an Indian fired at him from the cellar of an old house nearby, taking off a finger. Van Auken called to his daughter who was on the load to jump and run for her life. But in doing so, she lost her footing and fell. Instantly the Indian was upon her, his tomahawk raised. In spite of his wound, her father went for him with his pitch-fork. Her brother, Daniel, hearing the shot and the scream, grabbed his musket and fired. The Indian dropped the girl's hair and ran. As he reached the edge of the field, two other Indians were seen to join him." (20)
"The loss of life which occurred during subsequent raids by the Mohawks and Tories under Brant did not approach the atrocities perpetrated in this year of 1758 on the inhabitants of Maghaghkamik and adjacent settlements." (21)
"After the French and Indian War there was relative peace in the area until the Revolutionary War. "The first incursion of the Indians after the commencement of the Revolution, was in 1777, when they attacked the family of Mr. Spraque, who lived in Deerpark." (22)
"For the first three years of the war, there was no fighting here (Minisink region). Prices soared, people were put on short rations. Abraham Van Auken made a few shillings ferrying prisoners across the Neversink en rout to the jails at Kingston and Newton."
"Besides the official forts at Maghaghkamik, the newly erected brick house of Abraham Van Auken - the first brick house in the vicinity - was prepared to resist an invasion." (23)
On July 22, 1779 the Van Auken's were involved in a number of incidents with Joseph Brants raiding Indians. "....This day there had been a funeral (at Van Auken's), and Major Decker and some others on their eturn on horseback met the Indians, who shot and wounded the Major, who rode into the woods and escaped. There was some firing at the Van Auken fort, and one man (James Van Auken) was killed. An Indian attempting to get to a building near the fort to set it on fire was shot. By this time the smoke of the dwellings was seen ascending in many directions, and generally known that the Indians with Brant at their head were there. The very name of this leader struck the inhabitants with terror, as when 'the lion is known to prowl around an African hamlet'. An occurrence took place here which shows that this cruel and hard hearted warrior still contained a perk of humanity."
"The Indians had visited the school house, and threatened to exterminate one generation of the settlement at a blow. Jeremiah Van Auken was the teacher,and they took him from the house, conveyed him half a mile away and then killed him. Some of the boys in the school were cleft with the tomahawk, others fled to the woods for concealment from their bloody assailants; while the little girls stood by the slain body of their teacher bewildered and horror struck, not knowing their own fate, whether death or captivity. While they were standing in this pitiful condition, a strong, muscular Indian suddenly came along, and with a brush dashed some black paint on their aprons, bidding them to 'hold up the mark when they saw the Indians coming, and it save them;' and with the yell of a savage plunged into the woods and disappeared. This was Brant, and the daughters of the settlers were safe."
"The Indians, as they passed along and ran from place to place, saw the black mark, and left the children undisturbed. The happy thought, like a dash of lightning, entered the minds of these little sisters, and suggested that they could use the mark to save their brothers. The scattered boys were quickly assembled, and the girls threw their aprons over the clothes of the boys and stamped the black impression upon their outer garments. They in turn held up the palladium of safety as the Indians passed and re-passed, and these children were saved from death to the unexpected joy of their parents. Mrs. Leah Van Auken escaped by hiding herself in a ditch. This was the day before the battle of Minisink. During this invasion the Indians took or destroyed the goods and chattel's of the people, plundered and burned their houses and barns-and with them the first old church built there for the Mahackemack congregation on the confines of the three states." (24)
That church was located where the old Maghaghkamik cemetery is currently located in Port Jervis, New York. This cemetery is adjacent to the St. Mary's Cemetery on East Main Street.
Another incident involving Brandt is reported in the "Battle of Minisink" by Vernon Leslie where it is reported that "...Captain Martinues Decker and John Van Auken, on a scouting party, met Brant and six Indians near Matamoras. Van Auken was a swift runner. The Indians fired. The Captain ran for the fort. Brant pursued him, the others pursued Van Auken. As Brant neared the fort alarm was given. Brant fired a horse pistol at the captain and hit him in the ear. Decker, the blood flowing freely over his face, fired, the blood preventing his seeing the sights. Van Auken and Brant both escaped." (25)
In my 4g-grandfather Peter's Revolutionary War pension application he claims that he served with his brother John at Fort Defiance in Matamoras, Pa. He claims he served with Capt. Jacob Dewitt's PA militia as a volunteer from 1779 to 1781. Peter also claims that "Fort Defiance was attacked by Colonel Brant and his troops who after a siege of a few hours were repulsed by us and compelled to retreat across the Delaware and join his main party in Orange Co. This was a few days previous to the fatal battle of Minisink..."
Before I discuss the migration of the Van Auken's from Ulster Co. to Port Jervis, N.Y. I will first list the individuals in my direct line, starting with Marinus Van Aken. Marinus was born in Cadzand, Holland and immigrated to the United States about 1685. He and his wife settled in the Town of Esopus, Ulster Co., near Kingston, NY.
Marinus Van Aken
Cornelius Van Aken
Johannes Van Aken
Peter Van Auken
Emanuel Van Auken
John Gardner Van Auken
Horace Bradford Van Auken
Joseph Henry Van Auken
Bradford Joseph Van Auken
Bradford Joseph Van Auken Jr.
Born Also resided
__________________________ _______________
Marinus Van Aken ca. 1660 Cadzand, Holland Ulster Co. NY
Kingston NY
Cornelius Van Aken 25MAY1690 Ulster Co., NY Pike Co. PA
Kingston, NY near Milford PA
Johannes Van Aken 28JAN1728 Ulster Co., NY Pike Co. PA
Nepanoch, NY near Milford PA
Peter Van Auken 12SEP1766 Pike Co., PA Sullivan Co. NY
Milford, PA Mongaup, NY
Emanuel Van Auken ca. 1795 Pike Co., PA Pike Co. PA
Milford, PA Pond Eddy, PA
John G. Van Auken 22MAY1823 Pike Co., PA Orange Co. PA
Pond Eddy, PA Port Jervis, NY
Horace B. Van Auken 15JUN1852 Orange Co., NY Orange Co., NY
Bolton Basin, NY Port Jervis, NY
Joseph H. Van Auken 02JUL1881 Orange Co., NY Orange Co. NY
Port Jervis, NY Port Jervis, NY
Bradford J. Van Auken 28JUN1921 Orange Co., NY Volusia Co., FLA
Port Jervis, NY Holly Hill, FLA
Bradford J. Van Auken Jr. Orange Co., NY Dutchess Co. NY
Port Jervis, NY Wappinger FL NY
Williston VT
Marinus Van Aken
Cornelius Van Aken
Johannes Van Aken
Peter Van Auken
Emanuel Van Auken
John G. Van Auken
Horace B. Van Auken
Joseph H. Van Auken
Bradford J. Van Auken
Bradford J. Van Auken Jr.
Note: numbers in parenthesis represent points on a map (figs. 9 and 10). The figures will be added later.
Marinus Van Aken, who was from Cadzand Holland, settled in the Town of Esopus near Kingston, N.Y., about 1683. He had a son named Cornelius who was born in Kingston, N.Y. about 1690 (1).
Cornelius had a son named Johannes who was born in Napanoch, Rochester, N.Y. (2). This is not the Rochester of western N.Y. but a town near, what is now called, Accord, N.Y.. Accord is near Rt. 209, about 15 miles south west of Kingston near Kerhonkson, N.Y. Route 209 follows what was once known as the 'old mine road'. The 'old mine road' was built along what was an ancient indian trail that connected the Hudson River (near Kingston) and the Delaware River (near Port Jervis, N.Y.). Cornelius and his family, including Johannes, moved down the 'old mine trail' to the fertile Delaware Valley and settled, prior to 1734, in Pike Co., PA.. They lived on a tract of land known as 'Theesacht' or Rosetown (3). This land is located between Matamoras, PA and Milford, PA near Rt. 84, and the intersection of Rt. 6 with Rosetown Road.
Johannes was born in 1728 and lived in Upper Smithfield or Pike Co. and had a son named Peter."
Peter was born in Pike Co. in 1766, and has been mentioned in a number of historical and government documents. He is reported living in Parkers Glen, PA at one point (4), but I don't know in what years. Parker's Glen is in Pike County on the Delaware River. It is located about 9 miles from the village of Milford, and about 3 miles up stream from Pond Eddy, PA. In 1810 and 1820 Peter lived across the river from Pond Eddy, PA in the Town of Lumberland Sullivan County, N.Y. (A). There he raised a family on 400 acres. Peter sold this land, lot 37 of the 7 division of the Minisink Patents, in 1834 to Patrick Smith; at the time he was living in Milford, PA. He eventually moved back to Sullivan, Co. however, to live with his wife Hannah and daughter Mary Van Auken Clark in Highland Township (1850) near Barryville, New York. Peter had a son named Emanuel. Emanuel was born sometime between 1794 and 1802.
Emanuel was my g-g-g-grandfather. He lived near Milford, PA and in 1821 moved his family to land he purchased "one mile south of Pond Eddy, PA on the Delaware River" (5). There he engaged in extensive lumbering operations on Broad Mountain. This land was directly across the river from land Peter lived on in Sullivan Co. between 1810 and 1820 and owned until 1834 (A). Both Peter and Emanuel, with their sons, were lumbermen and raftsmen on the Delaware. They rafted lumber to Philadelphia. Emanuel died sometime between 1832 and 1840. His surviving Family moved across the river to live in Mongaup, N.Y. Sullivan Co. about 1846 (B). The land they lived on was purchased by Emanuel's son Charles C., and was the same land his grandfather Peter owned until 1834. Emanuel had a son named John Gardner. John G. was my g-g-grandfather and was born at Pond Eddy in 1823.
John was married three times. He buried two wives, prior to 1859, in Mongaup, N.Y.. John's second wife was Clarissa Knight and they lived at Bolton's Basin, N.Y.. John and Clarissa had a son named Horace Bradford. Horace was born in 1852 at Bolton's Basin (6). Bolton's Basin is near Sparrowbush, New York and was a basin on the D&H Canal. At the time John worked for the D&H Canal Co..
Clarissa died in 1859. In 1860 John married Julia Vail and moved to Port Jervis, New York (7). They lived at 55 Canal Street until Johns death in 1901. Horace moved with his father and step-mother to Port Jervis in 1860. He eventually purchase a home at 70 King Street and lived there until about 1903 when he moved to 120 Jersey Ave. He resided there until his death in 1904. Horace had a son named Joseph Henry in 1881.
Joseph was my grandfather. He lived at 70 King St. (8) until about 1903 when he moved with his father and brother Horace Jr. to 120 Jersey Av. In 1917 he married Clara Doty and some time between 1922 and 1930 they purchased a home at 30 Prospect St. Joseph died in 1942. He had a son name Bradford Joseph.
Brad, my father, lived 60 years of his life at 30 Prospect Street (9). In 1981 he retired and moved to Florida. He and my mother Margaret (Kinney) resided in Holly Hill, Florida until 1997 when they both passed away; Peggy on 9/29/97 and Brad on 12/19/97.
I was born in Port Jervis and lived at 30 Prospect St. for 21 years, I then moved to Wappingers Falls, New York when I took a job with IBM. In 1993 I moved to Williston, Vermont to continue my work with IBM.
This concludes a brief description of the movement of the Van Auken's in my direct line who originally settled near Kingston, NY, migrated to Pike Co. PA, Sullivan Co. NY, Orange Co. NY and eventually to Port Jervis, NY.
Marinus VanAken was the first of my line to settle in America. He was born about 1660 in Holland. His first wife Prijntje Rents widowed him. He married Pieternelle de Pre van Wingen April 11, 1683 in Cadzand, Holland. They later emigrated to America.
Marinus Van Aken emigrated from Cadzand, Holland about 1683 with his wife Pieternelle. Marinus's ancestors are thought to have emigrated from the ancient city of Aken, now more generally called Aix La-Chappelle or Aachen, from whence the name of the family of Van Akens and Van Auken s in America is taken. The name Achen is evidently derived from the spri ngs for which the place has always been famous, and was the burial place of Charlemagne, the great German Emperor. Van Aachen or Aken simply describes a person 'as of or from' Aachen, of whom there were many of no relationship whatever, the place of primary residence becoming their proper name. Aken represents Dutch long sound of a, as does also Auken. In Holland the family name is traced back fifteen hundred years to the forth century when John Van Aken founded the ancient city of "Aken", located in Germany between the Rhine and Meuse rivers on the border of Holland.
Marinus and Pieternelle emigrated to America and resided in Ulster County, around 1683, in the town of Esopus. They later resided in Rochester (Accord, NY). Their farm near Kingston is said to be still in the possession of their descendants. They had eight children named: Pieter (1685), Sara (1688), Cornelis (1690), Catrina (1692), Rachel (1695), Neeltje (1697), Abraham (1689) and Isaak (1702).
Marinus died sometime prior to 1724.
Cornelius was the son of the emigrants Marinus Van Aken and Pieternelle de Pre. Cornelius was baptized May 25, 1690 in Kingston, New York. He married Zara Westbroek April 30, 1714. hey moved from Ulster County to Bucks (now Pike County), PA, at Theesacht (Rosetown), near Matamoras, in Westfall Township before 1734. They had nine children who were: Pieternelletjen (1715), Lena (1717), Abraham C (1720), Annaatjen (1723), Elizabeth (1725), Johannes (1728), Jannetje (1730/32), Jacobus (1734), Sarah (1737), and Gideon (1738).
Johannes was born in Nepanock Rochester, NY January 28, 1728. He married Maria Van Garden (a native of Shippekonk, then residing at Minisink) January 18, 1754. They made their home at Upper Smithfield, Pike county and they had seven children who were: Lisabeth (1754), Femmetje (1756), Johannes Jr (1757), Ussetje (1760), Wilhelmus (1761), Peter (1766), and Jacobus (1767).
Peter Van Auken was born September 12, 1766 in the County of Northampton, PA. Peter stated in his Revolutionary War pension application that he was born September 12, 1766 in Northampton (Pike County, PA) and that "there is a record of his age in the possession of his brother who resides in the western part of the state of New York.
In the history of Wayne and Pike Co. it says Peter located near the headwaters of the Delaware River and later moved to Parker's Glen and Milford Pa. It also says that Peter resided on the banks of Walker Creek where Judge John Ryerson had a saw-mill near Carr's Rock. In the Commemorative Biographical Record it says Peter became a residents of Parkers Glen, Pike Co, where he followed farming and lumbering throughout the remainder of this life.
It appears that Peter also resided in Sulivan Co., N.Y. Quinland's History of Sullivan Co. says Peter lived in Mongaup, N.Y. near Joshua Knight and Sears Gardner; after the Revolutionary War. The 1810 and 1820 census confirms this.
Peters neighbors in the 1820 census were John Dirkenson (some VA children live with him); Joseph Drake, Daniel Drake, John Corwin, Samuel Knight. Drakes and Knights are buried in the lower Mongaup cemetery with Eunice Van Auken the wife of my great-great-great-grandfather Emanuel.
Peter married Hannah and they had, to the best of my knowledge, eight children; who were: Emanuel {Manual} (1794-1802), James Jeremiah {Jeremy} (1797), Mary {Polly} (1799-1805), Sears {1800-1810}, Samuel (Samachy) {1800-1810}, Jacob (1800-1810), Lucinda {Sarah} (1808), and David.
The list of names in {} was obtained from J.W. Johnstons book Reminiscence. Johnston was James Jeremiahs' attorney in 1856 and he was familiar with the family.
It seems that Peter spent most of his time in Pike Co. In his pension application he says he resided in Pike Co. from his infancy up to 1835, with the exception of about ten years (when he lived in Sullivan Co).
Various documents record him and/or his family living in Northhampton Co. (now Pike) during and after the Revolutionary War, Wayne Co, PA (now Pike Co.) in 1800, Sullivan Co, NY in 1810 and 1820, in Milford PA in 1834, 1840 and in Highland Township, Sullivan Co., NY in 1850. In my research I've found that some of Peters sons had a colorful past.
Peter filed for a Revolutionary War Pension. In the pension application he says he was attached to the company of Capt Jacob Dewitt in Col Strouds Regiment of the Pennsylvania militia as a volunteer in the month of April seventeen hundred and seventy nine. That he was stationed at a place called Fort Defiance during which year he remained there for six months. He traversed the mountains with others in order to gain and give information respecting the movement of the hostile Indians who were frequently making inroads and incursions upon the settlers. Fort Defiance is situated on the western bank of the Delaware River in Pike County, Pennsylvania. During that year Colonel Brandt, who commanded the Indians and Tories, burnt the fort in Orange County in the State of New York (Fort Van Auken) and the inhabitants were drove to Fort Defiance for the safety of their lives. On the morning following, Fort Defiance was attacked by Colonel Brandt and his troops who after a siege of a few hours were repulsed and compelled to retreat across the Delaware and join their main party in Orange County. This was a few days previous to the fatal battle of Minisink. In the winter of that year Peter returned home for a short time and in the spring followed viz: seventeen hundred and eighty in the month of April, he returned to the defence of the same fort under the same officer where he served for the space of six months. In the spring of the year seventeen hundred and eighty one Peter again returned to the defence of the fort under the same officers where he continued to serve for another six months.
April 28, 1835 Cornelius Middaugh and Jacob Lott attested that they saw "Peter under arms and stationed at a place called Fort Defiance it was attacked by the Indians as mentioned in .... Peter's pension declarations.."
Henry DeWitt filed a deposition in which be stated that Peter served at the same time and in the same company with his brother John Vanauken and Henry C. Midaugh his brother-in-law. He said that Peter was older than John which can be shown if necessary. John Vanauken and H.C. Midaugh both drew pensions during their lives and until their death.
It's unclear exactly when Peter died. James states in an 1856 pension application, that Peter died in the Township of Milford on or about the first day of January 1849 and was at the time of his death upwards of Ninety six years of age. I don't think this age or date of death is accurate because: 1) in James deposition he states that Peter did not leave a widow and Hannah died February 9, 1852 which means Peter died sometime between February 1852 and February 1856, and 2) Peter and Hannah were both alive in June 1850 when the census was taken.
Emanuel Van Auken was my great great great grandfather.
According to the census he was born between 1794 and 1802. His parents were Peter and Hannah Van Auken; however, I don't know where Emanuel was born because his father Peter lived both in PA and NY about the time of his birth. It appears Emanuel spent most of his life in Pennsylvania.
When Emanuels son Levi died, his obituary states that Emanuel was a member of one of the oldest families of the Upper Delaware Valley and descendant of Marinus Van Aken the emigrant, and Pieternella de Prez. Marinus Van Aken settled in Ulster County, N.Y. prior to 1685, and came from the ancient city of Aiken, now more generally called Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aachen, Prussia, from whence the common name of the families of Van Aken and Van Auken in America, is derived.
I believe Emanuel is the son of Peter Van Auken for the following reasons:"
Emanuel and Eunice moved to Pond Eddy, PA from Milford, PA about 1820 where they "engaged in extensive lumbering operations for many years, clearing extensive tracts of forest on Broad Mountain, in Pike County, and purchasing lumber from sawmill operators in Pike and Sullivan counties, which was rafted down the Delaware to Philadelphia. His sons Levi and Charles shared in the work and became familiar with the lumber business in all its details, and on reaching manhood they conducted a large business of their own for some years." "
Emanuel purchased land in Pond Eddy, PA., at least 4/5 of 104 acres from Mary Burrel and Susan Tower, "one mile below Pond Eddy on the Delaware River" in 1821. He and Eunice sold 2/5 in 1824 to Daniel Read and another 2/5 in 1832 to Fredrick Rose. The land in 1832 was sold at auction to resolve debts."
Emanuel and Eunice had at least three sons that I know of and maybe a fourth. Charles, the oldest, was born in 1819 and lived in Pike Co. with his parents until he moved to Monguap, NY about 1846. He and his wife and family spent most of their lives on a farm near the mouth of the Mongaup River. The last four years of his life was spent in Sparrowbush, NY. John G. was born in 1823. John was my great-great grandfather. John moved to Port Jervis, NY about 1860 and worked on the D and H canal most of his life. Levi was born in 1828 and worked both on the D and H Canal and the Blue stone quarries at Parkers Glen, PA. He finally settled and died in Sparrowbush, New York where he owned a general store. George W. moved to Mongaup, NY with Charles and Eunice about 1846. I suspect he might also be a son. George lived next door to Charles C. in Mongaup, NY. John G. named one of his sons George.
Eunice shows up the ahead of household in the 1840 Pike Co. census, while the deed sale for land in 1832 states that Emanuel and Eunice lived on their land in 1832. Therefore I suspect that Emanuel died sometime between 1832 and 1840.
Eunice was a Gardner. Her ancestry is English and runs back into early colonial days. Both Emanuel and Eunice decended from hardy, sturdy, pioneer families.
John Gardner Van Auken was the first Van Auken to live in Port Jervis, New York. He was my great-great grandfather.
John G. was born in Pond Eddy, PA. May 22, 1823. It appears he lived at Boltons Basin in Sparrowbush, N.Y. about 1850 and moved to Port Jervis, N.Y. about 1860.
Johns parents were Emanuel and Eunice Gardner Van Auken. They lived on a farm near Milford, PA about one mile south of Pond Eddy, PA. Emanuel and Eunice owned about 80 acres of land which they purchased in 1817. Emanuel engaged in extensive lumbering operations for many years, cleari ng extensive tracks of forest on Broad Mountain, in Pike County PA. He purchased lumber from sawmill operators in Pike and Sullivan Counties, which he then rafted down the Delaware to Philadelphia.
John had an older brother Charles and a younger brother Levi. Charles owned a hotel in Pond Eddy, NY for two years until he purchased a farm in Mongaup, NY where he lived until the last 4 years of his life which he spent in Sparrowbush, NY. Levi originally worked in the lumber business with Charles and his father Emanuel. Levi also was a foreman on the D&H Canal, owned a store in Sparrowbush, NY and engaged in the bluestone-quarrying business in Pond Eddy, NY.
It appears that John was married three times. His first wife was Susan who died in 1850, she and at least one child George M., who died in 1848, are buried in Mongaup, NY at Knights Cemetery. His second wife was Clarissa Knight my great-great grandmother. She had at least three and maybe four children; Charles (who might have been Susans child), Horace (who is my great grandfather), Henry (who died as a child and is buried in Knights cemetery), and Susan A. Clarissa was the widow of Charles S. Corwin, who died in 1848, when she married John G. about 1851. John's third wife was Julia A. Vail who he married in 1860. John and Julia had one child named John G. Jr. They were married for over 40 years. Julia A. was a daughter of Gilbert Vail and Julia Ann McGowan of Vails Gate, NY. Her great grandfather was Gilbert Morse Vail, born at Shelter Island in 1739, whose wife was Hannah Arnot, daughter of Peter Arnot. He was a private in Col. Hathorn's (Orange Co) Regiment, under Captain Wood, and was killed in action in the Battle of Minisink, July 22, 1779.
John and Julia moved to Port Jervis, NY about 1860 and resided at 55 Canal Street until Johns death in 1901.
It appears that John worked on the D&H Canal most of his life. He was a watchman, a lock tender, Canal superintendent, and a scow foreman. As the activity on the Canal ebbed in the late 19th century he worked as a boatman, cartman, and a teamster in Port Jervis. In his later years he and Julia shared their home with their granddaughter Maude Merrit. I expect that John also worked in the lumbering business with his father and brothers at one point in time.
John was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. He and Julia are buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Port Jervis, NY.
Horace Bradford Van Auken was my great grandfather. He was born June 15, 1852 at Boltons Basin, New York. Boltons Basin was located on the D&H Canal near Sparrowbush N.Y., it no longer exists.
Horace had an older brother Charles F., a younger brother John, and a younger sister Susan A. At the time of Horaces death Charles lived in Kingston while John lived in Maybrook.
His parents were John and Clarrisa Knight Van Auken. Clarrisa died when Horace was about 7 years old. His father, John G., later married Julia A. Vail and they moved to Port Jervis, NY. about 1860 and lived at 55 Canal Street.
Horace married Gertrude Stone Clauson on Christmas Day 1877. Gertrude was previously married and had one son Henry J. Clauson who lived with them. Horace and Gertrude had two sons, Horace Bradford Jr., born 1880, and Joseph Henry, born 1881.
In 1880 Horace, Gertrude, Henry, Horace Jr., and Gertrudes mother Maria Singler lived on First Street in Port Jervis. Sometime prior to 1889 they moved to 70 King St until about 1903 when they moved to 120 Jersey Ave. Horace lived on Jersey Ave until his death in 1904.
In early manhood he was employed by Buchanan's livery stable. For the last 26 years of his life he worked for the Erie railroad in various capacities; such as galvanizer, car inspector, and car repairer in the Erie round house. Horace was a member of St. Mary's Church, the League of the Sacred Heart and Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen.
Horace died on 12NOV1904 at his home of typhoid fever and grip, following and operation."
Joseph Henry Van Auken was my grandfather. He was born in 1881 at Port Jervis, New York. His parents were Horace Bradford and Gertrude Van Auken.
Joseph had an older brother Horace Jr. and a step-brother Henry J. Clawson.
Joseph lived at 70 King St. until about 1903 when he moved with his family to 120 Jersey Ave. He continued to live there with his brother Horace after the death of his father and mother. Joseph and Horace both married and lived with their wives at 120 Jersey Ave.
Joseph married Clara Belle Doty, originally from Dingmans Ferry, PA. 23 May 1917. Clara was a widower; her first husband was Henry L. Millspaugh who died 27 AUG 1912 leaving her with an infant son Henry. Clara was left to raise Henry on her own until she married Joseph. She supported herself and Henry by working at the H&M Knitting Mills in Port Jervis where she eventually was promoted to forelady of the shop.
Sometime between 1922 and 1930 Joseph and Clara moved to their own house at 30 Prospect Street in Port Jervis. Joseph and Clara had two children Marion born 29NOV1919 and Bradford Joseph born 28JUN1921.
At 18 Joseph was a grainer working at a tannery in Port Jervis, he later joined the Erie Railroad and worked there for 44 years. His work primarily involved working in the air brakes section of the Erie car shops.
Joseph died in 1942 of cancer.
Bradford Joseph is my father. He was born in Port Jervis, New York in 1921. His parents were Joseph Henry Van Auken and Clara Belle Doty.
Brad had an older sister Marion and a half-brother Henry Millspaugh.
Brad lived most of his life at 30 Prospect Street in Port Jervis, NY. He graduated from Port Jervis High School in 1939 and was employed by the Erie Railroad. He joined the Navy in 1942 and served in the Pacific, Atlantic, and the Mediterranean aboard a Destroyer Escort. He was a torpedoman. On March 3, 1945, while still serving in the Navy, he married Margaret Adelaide Kinney. Peggy also graduated from Port Jervis High School and later attended and graduated from the New York Foundling Hospital in New York City. They were married at Sacred Heart Church in the West End of Port Jervis. Brad and Peggy had 4 children, one girl (Susan) and three boys (Brad, Stephen, and Hugh). They lived at 30 Prospect Street until a couple of years before their retirement, when they sold their house and moved to a Garden Apartment in Port Jervis. Prior to her retirement Peggy worked as a practical nurse for Saint Francis Hospital and later spent 10 years with the J.C. Penny Co.
In 1981 Brad retired from the Erie and he and Peggy moved to Daytona Beach, Florida. In 1986 they purchased a home in Holly Hill, Florida where they lived until 1997 when they both passed away.
Bradford Joseph Jr. was born in Port Jervis, NY. His parents are Bradford Joseph and Margaret Kinney Van Auken."
Brad has two younger brothers (Stephen and Hugh) and a younger sister (Susan)."
Brad lived the first 21 years of his life in Port Jervis, NY at 30 Prospect St.
In June 1967 Brad married Marilyn Grusz who also graduated from Port Jervis, High School.
Brad and Marilyn have two boys (Brad and Trevor) and one daughter (Mia). Mia was born in Korea and adopted. In 1967 Brad and Marilyn moved to Wappingers Falls, New York. They lived in the village of Wappingers Falls until they purchased a house in the Town of Wappinger, NY. Brad and Marilynn moved to Vermont in 1993. Brad is currently an Advisory Engineer with IBM working in Williston, Vermont.
1. Information and map extracted from - A Chronology of New Neterlands and the Minisink by W. Mead Stapler
2. A Historic Account of Ulster County, The Heritage - New York, Vol 1 Ed122
3. A Flyer, Explore the Town of Esopus, Port Ewen, N.Y
4. First Footsteps in America - R.A. Van Aken, Van Aken / Van Auken Newsletter, Vol. 3 No.4 15 November 1986, p37.
5. From Aardryks Kundig Hand Woordenbodt Van Nederlan (Geographical dictionary of Netherland) by S. Gille Heringa, 1874, p.4.
6. The Van Aaken and Allied Families, OLDE ULSTER, Compiled by Miss Annie R. Winfield. Vol. 4 - Sept.
7. Uster County Pioneers by A.M. Ronk dated 7/22/1900. Newburgh Evening News.
8. The Van Auken Family in New Jersey, personal letter by Abraham Van Auken 1871.
9. Early Dutch Migration in America, BULLETIN OF THE WHATCOM GENEALOBICAL SOCIETY, P.O. Box 1493, Bellingham, Washington, Vol. 7, No. 3, P. 123.
10. A. M. Ronk, The Van Auken and Allied Families, NEWBURGH SUNDAY TELEGRAM, 9 September 1900.
11. Church Life, the Reformed Dutch Church of Deerpark, Vol IX, No.s 2-3, May-June 1896.
12 .The Old Mine Road by Robert A. Van Auken, Van Aken / Van Auken Newsletter Vol. 1 no. 4; 15 November 1984.
13. Ulster County Pioneers by A. M. Ronk dated 9/9/1900, NEWBURGH EVENING NEWS."
14. Port Jervis Evening Gazette, The Demon of the Minisink, by Victor M. Drake in the Goshen Republican; 1878.
15. Fifty Years on the Frontier with the Dutch Congregation at Moghaphkamik. (Port Jervis, N.Y.) p.1.
16. Ibid., p5,6.
17. Walking Purchase, see Buck, Wm. J., History of the Indian Walk; Alienation of the Delaware and Shawa nese Indians (London, 1759; reprintd by John Cambell, Phila,.
F18. Fifty Years on the Frontier with the Dutch Congregation at Maghaghkamik. (Port Jervis, N.Y.) p.7,8.
19. Port Jervis Evening Gazette, "The Demon of the Minisink", by Victor M. Drake in the Goshen Republican; 1878.
20. The Pennsylvania Gazette, August 26, 1756, reprinted in H.J. Archives, XX., p.59 and in Fifty Years on the Frontier with the Dutch Congregation at Maghaghkamik., p12.
21. Fifty Years on the Frontier with the Dutch Congregation at Maghaghkemik. (Port Jervis, NY) p.14.
22. Port Jervis Evening Gazette, The Demon of the Minisink, by Victor M. Drake in the Goshen Republican; 1878.
23. Fifty Years on the Frontier with the Dutch Congregation at Maghaghkemik. (Port Jervis, NY) p.27,28.
24. Port Jervis Evening Gazette, The Demon of The Minisink, by Victor M. Drake in the Goshen Republican; 1878.
25. The Battle of Minisink, Vernon Leslie, p.224.
26. Peter Van Auken's Revolutionary War Pension Application #P10803.
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