THE KUYKENDALL
FAMILY
Since its Settlement in
Dutch New York
in 1646
WITH GENEALOGY
As Found in Early Dutch Church Records
State and Government Documents
TOGETHER WITH
Sketches of Colonial Times, Old Log Cabin Days,
Indian Wars, Pioneer Hardships, Social Customs, Dress and
Mode of Living of the Early Forefathers
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
--BY--
GEORGE BENSON KUYKENDALL, M. D.
KILHAM STATIONERY & PRINTING CO.
PORTLAND, OREGON
1919
DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER
JOHN KUYKENDALL
Whose kindness, solicitude, watchcare and guiding hand, during the tender years of childhood and youth, whose fatherly counsels during young manhood, directed my purposes and kept me from straying. The memory of his nobility of character, his unswerving rectitude of principle and purpose, his devotion to right and splendid example, have been the guiding star of my life.
As time has sped by, as the world, times and men have changed, his character and life have towered, as a great lighthouse, above the mists of the years, and illumined the voyage of my life. To him, to whom I owe the most of all I have ever been, or ever accomplished, of worth to myself or the world, I inscribe this volume,
In gratefull remembrance.
Introductory Considerations. Object of this work--General indifference to family history--Kuykendall history covers a long time and wide area--Author's recollections of the past--Usual dryness of genealogy--Connecting up events in family history with contemporary events.
Story of Search After History and Genealogy of Kuykendall Family. More than genealogical facts given--Author's knowledge of the family history--Family traditions--Sending searching party to Virginia--Difficulty in getting data--Holland Society of New York--Findings of its genealogist. Mr. Versteeg--Mr. Nearpass and "Church Life"--Mr. Stickney and Mr. Van Sickle--Ancient Kuykendall Deed--Sale of first ancestor's home at Fort Orange, N. Y.
Origin of the Name Kuykendall. Its meaning and derivation--The name is Dutch--Traditions in regard to name--Mr. Van Laer's suggestions--Roosevelt and Kuykendall names formed similarly--Given names in the Dutch records.
Changes in the Name Kuykendall and How They Came. Different forms found in the old records--How some of the descendants explain the changes--Autographic signatures of some of the early Kuykendalls--Conclusions drawn from the manner of spelling the name.
Fort Orange New York, When Kuykendall Ancestor Came. Rensselaer's settlements--Description of Fort Orange at that time--Location of first ancestor's home--The old church, the bell and pulpit, at Fort Orange.
CHAPTER VI.
Dutch Reformed Church Records. What are they--Their value to Kuykendall family--Manner of keeping them--Minisink, Deerpark, and Walpack records.
Other Notes Connected With Early Kuykendalls. The first Dutch church of New York--Pre-American Kuykendall's home was in Gelderland, Holland--Marriage of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal--His children--The Tietsoort family--Marriage of Jacob Kuykendall.
Children of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal. Record of their baptism, as found in New York Dutch Records. Comment on his family record--Facts concerning his children's lives--Jacob Kuykendall's family record--Jacob with surveying party on Susquchanna--Further history--Reminiscences of George Labar.
The Family of Jacob Kuykendall. Minisink Island and the country around--Dutch ox carts--Wolves, panthers, and wildcats--Old home of Ks charming yet--Johannes Kuykendall marries Elizabeth Brink--Old cabin of John K--Millrace and masonry--Excerpts from Journal of House of Burgesses--Old deeds and records--Family record of Johannes Kuykendall, The Four Brothers in Indiana--Around old Vincennes, Indiana.
The Four Brothers, Continued From Last Chapter. Peter (5), eldest of Four Brothers--What we know of him and descendants--Daniel (5) of the Four Brothers--His descendants.
Descendants of Henry Kuykendall (5), Youngest of Four Brothers. Marriage--Settlement--Mill building and other activities--Family record--Henry's sons George, John, and activities--James Wesley, son of Henry--Biographic sketch.
CHAPTER XII.
Descendants of Jacob Kuykendall, Continued. Jacobus (3), (James), son of Jacob--His children's baptismal record--Benjamin (3), son of Jacob--His public activities--Connection with early Virginia courts--Benjamin's death--Will and mention of children's names.
CHAPTER XIII.
Nathaniel Kuykendall 1st and Descendants. Nathaniel's life in Virginia--His family record--Nathaniel's descendants--Dr. Jacob Kuykendall of Vincennes, Indiana--Other Nathaniel descendants--Some of later generations--Biographic sketches--Captain Isaac Kuykendall and descendants.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cornelius Van Kuykendaal, Family Record and Comments. Short recapitulation--Cornelius' family baptismal record--Analysis and comments thereon--Leur, son of Cornelius, marries Lena Consalisduk--The name Manuel--The Gunsaulus family--Descendants of Cornelius.
CHAPTER XV.
Mattheus and Arie Van Kuykendaal. Birth and marriage of Matthew--Arie--His connection with the Quick family--Thomas Quick, Sr.--His murder by the Indians--Baptismal record of Arie Kuykendall's children--His daughter marries Roelof Brink--The Brink family--Recapitulation and remarks.
CHAPTER XVI.
Pieter Van Kuykendaal and Descendants. The family record--Marriage to Femmetje Decker--The Decker family--Early times at the old Kuykendall home--Moses Coykendall and descendants--Samuel Decker Coykendall, capitalist and philanthropist--Other descendants of Pieter--Recent prominent Coykendalls.
CHAPTER XVII.
Pieter Kuykendal Descendants, Continued. Those who lived about Sussex, New Jersey--Others about Port Jervis, N. Y.--The Wilhelmus branch--About the Mamakating regions--Burial place of Wilhelmus Kuykendall and wife--Pieter's descendants in Cayuga county New York--Old deed for slave--Further Pieter Kuykendal family data.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Correspondence from Kuykendall Descendants. Regions where the first Kuykendalls lived--Letters from Western Virginia Kuykendall descendants--From John A. Kuykendall--From his daughters--Some Illinois and Indiana correspondence.
CHAPTER XIX.
Southwestern Kuykendalls and Correspondence. Remarks preceding letters--Kuykendalls in early Carolina history--Excerpts from North Carolina Colonial Records--Activities of N. C. Kuykendalls near Rock Hill and Yorkville, South Carolina--Letters from Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and other states--Correspondence of Judge W. L. Kuykendall, and son, John M.--Biographic sketches.
CHAPTER XX.
Southwestern Correspondence, Second Series. Letters from Tennessee--and Texas descendants--Kentucky and other correspondence--Early Kentucky settlers--Trials and hardships--Moses Kuykendall and descendants--Summary and comments.
CHAPTER XXI.
Descendants of Kuykendalls who Settled in Southern Indiana and Illinois. General considerations--Grouping of letters--Vienna and Carmi, Illinois, Kuykendalls--White River, Indiana, early settlers.
CHAPTER XXII.
Texas Kuykendalls--Captain Abner Kuykendall first of family in Texas--Early pioneer struggles--Excerpts from early Texas history--Death of Captain Abner Kuykendall--Judge William Kuykendall of Tilden, Texas--His narration of family history--Benjamin Straysner Kuykendall, sketches and incidents by himself and others.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Kikendalls and Kirkendalls. Most Kikendalls trace back to New Jersey--Kikendall letters from Michigan--Washington state--Kentucky--Illinois--and other states. Change of name from Kikendall to Kirkendall--Letters showing ancestry of the two branches--Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Kirkendall branch and others--West Virgina and Iowa Kirkendalls and Curkendalls and others.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Cuykendalls and Correspondence. Martynus Cuykendall--His autograph signature--Cuykendalls who settled near Owasco, New York--Letters from Cuykendalls in various parts of the country.
CHAPTER XXV.
Coykendalls and Correspondence. The spelling Coykendall a more recent form--All Coykendalls are from the Pieter Branch--Michigan and New York Coykendall correspondence--Mrs. Dr. Pott's family record--Letter of M. A. Coykendall--Family history and sketch--Letter of John F. Coykendall and other correspondence.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Some Early Pennsylvania Kuykendalls. Sketches of early Allegheny and Beaver county settlers--Henry Kuykendall in Baptist Church records--Ira, James, and Christian Neff Kuykendall.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Kuykendalls in the Revolutionary War. Scantiness of Revolutionary soldier history--Difficulty of finding data--Revolutionary War Pension records obtained by author--Names and history of Kuykendall pensioners.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Early Migrations and Settlements of the Family. No nawspapers to tell of their moves--Early settlements all near the old home--Much moving after the Revolutionary war--Moved in caravans or in boats on the rivers--Crossing the Plains--Starting on the journey--Crossing Missouri--Prairie dog country, rattlesnakes, owls and Indians--A terrible thunder storm and rain--Alkali water and thirst--Night visits of coyotes--Beautiful mirages but deceptive--An experience with service berries--Crossing Snake river at Salmon Falls--"Cussing" as an aid in wading a river--Grotesque and hard ways of travelling--Down the Columbia in a barge--Death of little girl--Oregon at last.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Genealogy of the Kuykendall Family in the Order of Generations.
CHAPTER XXX.
The Rifle, Axe and Log Cabin. The axe hewed the way for civilization--The fall hunt--Yaugh houses, or bunting houses--The pioneer log cabin--The fireplace--Furniture and equipment--Dogs of the early settlers, their helpfulness to the pioneer.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Mode of Living and Home Life of our Ancestors. Women's work--Spinning, weaving, making clothes--Men's work clearing farms--Passing of the walnut tree--How our fathers obtained their shoes--Domestic wares--Cooking--Soap making--Maple sugar making--Pastimes and social amenities--Dress--Keeping time, time pieces--How our fathers made fires and lights--Corn, its uses and ways of making meal--Hominy block--Handmills or Querns--Tub mills--Makeshifts and substitutes.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Schools, Teachers and Education in Early Times. First schools of our Dutch forefathers--School discipline--Punishments and the instruments used for this purpose--Old time school books--Rusty cups and iron combs--Goose quill pens.
Churches, Sabbath and Religious Meetings. The Early Dutch Reformed Church--Carrying guns to church--Early day singing--Sunday a day for rest and amusement--Lorenzo Dow waking people up.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Marriage Customs and the Old Time Weddings. Forms of betrothal--Weddings great events--An old time wedding--Assembling of bride's friends--Company of the bridegroom--Run for the bottle--The wedding--Wedding dinner--The dance that came afterwards--Fiddles and fiddlers.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Sickness, Medicines and Medical Treatment. Housewives were the doctors--Herbs, barks, and roots--Spring medicine--Mustard plasters--Worms, symptoms and remedies--Rheumatism and cures--Bleeding--How it was done.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Indian Warfare, Forts and Indian Atrocities. Stockade--Forts of the early settlers--Night flight to the forts--Boy fort soldiers--Life in the forts--Capture of white women and girls--Hard times and hunger--Going armed to farm work--Indian attack on early Virginia planters--When our fathers dreaded fine weather--Artifices and cruelties of Indians--A Kuykendall Enoch Arden.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Pests, Outlaws and Tories. Many small insect scourges--Malaria--Milk sickness--Its work swift and fatal--Frontier renegades--Their miserable work among Indians--Tories--Their treatment by our forefathers--Branding with a hot spade--Tarring and feathering incidents.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
The Old Mine Road and the Early Kuykendall Home. Mine road historic--Romance and mystery connected with it--Old copper mines--Tunnels--Myths and traditions--The old road connected with thrilling historic events.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Forms of Servitude, Peculiar Customs, Witches and Old Time Superstitions. "Binding children out"--The Redemptioner--Slavery and the Kuykendalls--Witches--Signs, omens and superstitions--Testing witches--Washington Irving's Legends told by our ancestors--Amulets and charms.
CHAPTER XL.
Kuykendall Descendants in the War with Germany.
CHAPTER XLI.
More Light in Obscure Places in the History of the Kirkendalls. Correspondence of W. L. Kirkendale of Detroit, Mich.--Joseph Sargent Kirkendall--His family record--George Kirkendall, Shipping Master--Mrs. Jessie Polmeteer's letter--Tombstones of David Kirkendall and wife--Letter of Mrs. Proctor, Burlington, Ontario--Mrs. Daisy William's letter--Family record of David Kirkendall--Children of Samuel Kirkendall and Euphemia Lowry--William Kirkendall and Nancy Hess' family--Joseph S. Kirkendall of Carsonville, Mich.--Data from L. R. Kirkendall, Corning, N. Y.
CHAPTER XLII.
Additional Data Received too Late to Come in at the Proper Place. Statement of Henry J. Coykendall, Syracuse, N. Y.--Miss Harriet C. Johnson--Letter from Hiram Coykendall, Detroit, Mich.--McCage Kuykendall, letter--Family of Alfred Harden Kuykendall and Sarah L. Fort--Moses and Martha Andrews Kuykendall--McCage Kuykendall's family--Family of Garland and Belle Grattis Kuykendall--Lee and Oma Garret Kuykendall's family--Thomas and Maree Smith Kuykendall--Isaac N. Kuykendall's letter--Data from, Miss Mollie Cobb--J. M. Kuykendall, Cherokee, Tex.--Matthew Johnson Kuykendall--Wylie M. Kuykendall--Leander Kuykendall's family history.
CHAPTER XLIII.
Interesting and Curious Book Accounts and Documents, in Colonial and Ante Colonial Times. Ledger account of 1756, and 1757--Tinker's bill--Funeral expenses--Old tavern licenses--Price of bed with clean sheats--Cost of damning his royal highness--Doubling up, to cut cost of sleeping--Old time survey markings--Ancient deed of Walpack Church lot--Quotations from Minisink Valley Church records.
CHAPTER XLIV.
Genealogical Notes, Kuykendall and Stark Families. Rev. J. W. Kuykendall, biography--Early traits, education, "Boy preacher" at 18--Labors in Southern Oregon--Breakdown in health--Locates in San Jose, Calif.--His death--Rev. T. L. Jones' letter--Captain Isaac Kuykendall's family--J. Stewart Kuykendall--His public activities--Edgar Davis Kuykendall--College days--Studied law--Located in Greensboro, N. C.--Civil and military record--Capt. Isaac Kuykendall's daughters.
CHAPTER XLV.
Did More Than One Kuykendall Ancestor Come Over From Europe? Early Dutch New York documents--Powers of attorney--Accounts of Carsten and Urbanus Luursen--Church baptismal records.
CHAPTER XLVI.
Attempts to Trace the European History of the Kuykendall Family. Reference to "Willy Kukenthal" at Harvard College--Kuekenthal family history, back to 16th century--Ancestry of Maternal side of Kuykendall family--Tack family--Westphael ancestors of Jacob, Cornelius and Matthew Kuykendall's wives--Why we have no better knowledge of our ancestors.
CHAPTER XLVII.
Miscellaneous Portraits and Notes. Further sketch of Dr. William Kuykendall--Public activities as physician, in hospital, school legislation--Nathaniel Kuykendall, Gainesville, Tex.--Family sketch--Judge A. B. Kirkendall--His portrait--Family of Andrew Briggs Kuykendall--Group picture--Samuel D. Coykendall--Family record--Mrs. Harriet R. Frisbie's war work activities--Mrs. Mary K. Weaver, portrait--Charles Allen Kirkendall's portrait--Mrs. Nannie Kuykendall Collins.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Autographs of Some of the Early Kuykendalls, Comments and Other Topics. Sundry notes and observations--Kirkendalls and Klingensmiths--H. J. Kirkendall's statement--Further account of Judge W. L. Kuykendall of Saratoga, Wyom.--His son, John M. Kuykendall--J. B. Kuykendall, Vienna, Ill.--Kuykendall family historical association--Its object, suggested plan--How to carry on--Conclusion.
The following rough draft of George Benson's book. THIS HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD, so treat the information as such. If you do see any errors, please let me know.
INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS.
When the study of the Kuykendall ancestry was first begun, it was not with the idea of publishing the results of my researches, but only as a matter of my own satisfaction. For many years my time and attention were so fully occupied with an extensive medical practice that it was impossible for me to devote much time to ancestor hunting. The work was therefore carried on in quite an intermittent manner, and as a sort of change and relief from the daily rounds of duty.
The farther the work was pursued the more fascinating it became, and the determination was reached to gather what data could be found and publish it, that others might share the benefit and pleasure I had derived from the information obtained.
Often when young, incidents were told me that took place in Virginia, where my grandfather and great grandfather had lived. I had listened with breathless interest to stories of horrible cruelties and tortures inflicted by the Indians upon captive men and women, and even little children. In my fancy I had often pictured the place where my forefathers lived, the appearance of their homes, and tried to imagine how they dressed and looked, and what kind of food they ate and how they did when they first came to America. When older I had heard repeated the traditions of the family in regard to religious persecutions in the old country. All these things made a great impression upon my youthful mind. When it came to correspondence to gather information, it was found that some people are very indifferent about such things. One correspondent vouchsafed the expression that he did not "care whether his people came across the Atlantic in a ship or a wheelbarrow." A few even professed to think that it is a foolish waste of time to attempt to learn about our forefathers, and that the study of such things tends to "foster pride."
There are persons who have given much time to the study of the pedigree of their horses or hogs, or even of their chickens, who could hardly tell their grandfather's given name. To me as a physician, the study of genealogy has been peculiarly fascinating, because it brings us at once into contact with the laws of hereditary transmission of mental, physical and moral traits through generations.
It seemed to me that a work on genealogy would be more interesting and useful, if it gave something in the way of family history, as well as of the purely genealogical facts, and that it would add still more interest to give an account of the home life, dress, daily employments, the dwellings, environments, toils, dangers and privations of the people whose genealogy was treated, especially when conditions were so different in the times when they lived.
Accounts of the lives and adventures of our American pioneers have always been thrillingly interesting, but the interest is greatly
2............History of the Kuykendall Family__
enhanced when the pioneers happen to have been our own people, our grandfathers and great grandfathers or further back ancestors. It has been my aim, as far as possible, to answer such questions as would naturally arise in the minds of thoughtful people in regard to their forefathers.
Who of us have not often thought, "what was the origin of my family?" "Where did they come from, to America?" "Where did they land in this country, and where first begin to make homes?" "What kind of houses did they live in?" "What were their modes of travel and what was the condition of the country?" These and hundreds of similar questions have arisen in my own mind many times. The American history of the family Kuykendall began one hundred and twenty-six years before our government was founded, and to write it in full, would be almost to write a history of the country itself. A genealogy and history of the scope suggested by these questions would be impossible, yet we may so connect up the past of our family as to make it far more interesting than a bare genealogy. It has been my aim to show how the lives of our fathers were connected with contemporary people and with the events transpiring around them.
Coming from Holland, our forefathers spoke the Dutch language. They came from the old country with the old home traditions, predilections and tendencies. Most of our earliest American forefathers were members of the Reformed Dutch Church, and came to this country bringing their convictions and principles with them. No sooner had they founded homes for themselves, than they established religious worship, as was the custom of their fathers, and Dominies of the Reformed church were called to be ministers and pastors to their people. It should be a matter of pride to every Kuykendall descendant that the record of baptisms and marriages of our earliest American ancestors are found in the registers of the Reformed churches, in the Hudson and Delaware valleys, along with those of other old Knickerbocker families, who have helped to build up the civilization and institutions of the country.
When we look over the names of the very early settlers of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and what is now West Virginia, we find the names of many who were friends and neighbors of our fathers, families with whom they intermarried, associates in business, society, and in church relations, and in various business enterprises. In the registers of the early Reformed churches are the names of neighbors who were present and participated in the ceremonies attending the baptism of Kuykendall children, and our forefathers performed the same service at the baptism of their children.
When the history of a family embraces a period greater than the duration of the nation, and its events cover the area of a continent, and all this during the thrilling experiences of pioneer times and savage warfare, and through more than two hundred and
__Introductory Considerations............3
fifty years of the world's greatest activities, it is evident that such a history would have a great interest to its descendants.
We fain would roll back the screen of time and look upon our ancestors as they really were; we would like to know what they did, and to enter into their thoughts and feelings, their joys and sorrows. We would turn back the phonographic record of history and listen to voices that have been silenced for hundreds of years.
My object has been to gather such data as would enable living descendants of our ancestors to trace their family lines back to those who first came to America, to note the origin of our name and show the changes that have been made in it, and to account, as far as possible, for them. There are yet many sources of information relating to our family that have not been worked out, while the pre-American history has scarcely been touched. It is a matter of great regret that our fathers left such meager accounts of their history, that they did not write down and preserve records of their lives and what was going on around them. My correspondents frequently wrote regretfully, that they knew little or nothing about their forefathers. Nearly all American families have shown this same neglect to keep records of the back history of their people. I, myself, have been sorry that forty or fifty years ago, I did not obtain from my parents and the older ones of the family a full account of what they knew of their forefathers. If this had been done, and then all had been written down and preserved, my work would have been much easier. My own memory reaches back clearly to more than sixty years ago, and to some events sixty-five or more years. My grandfather was born in 1785, and had heard his father and grandfather tell their recollections of the family history, so as to carry the tradition many years further back. My great grandfather was baptized in the year 1741, and he no doubt could remember what his father and grandfather told, and if their knowledge had been preserved and transmitted, what a clearing up there would be of things that must forever remain unknown.
There are many Kuykendalls living today, who are from seventy to ninety years old. Every branch of the family has some of these very old persons. If all of these had learned from their fathers all they could, and had preserved it, we should be able to trace practically every Kuykendall living, and have enough data to make a complete genealogical record since the coming of our fathers to America.
A purely genealogical work is, as a rule, very dry and uninteresting reading, except to a very few.
An uncle of mine used to have family prayer night and morning, and read the chapters of the Bible in rotation, as they came, regardless of their contents. I remember of being at his home sometimes, when the morning prayer time came, which was always before breakfast; this I regarded as very inopportune in view of my appetite. On one occasion especially, the chapter
4............History of the Kuykendall Family__
happened to be where the genealogy of some of the ancient Jewish worthies is given, and where it tells of one patriarch begetting a son and giving him a jaw-breaking name, and the son in due time begat another, and conferred upon him another name fully as discouraging. The process was continued until there was a whole column of "begats" and tongue twisting names of the begotten. What most deeply impressed me at the time, was a "tired feeling," and regret that Jews living thousands of years ago should keep me so long from my breakfast.
With this personal experience still in my mind, I wondered whether there is not some way to obviate at least some of the tedium of a subject, that is usually as "dry as dust" to the ordinary reader. It could hardly be expected to invest a purely genealogical record with the charm of a thrilling narrative of personal adventures, and yet it seemed to me that we might combine the genealogical features with other relevant matter, that would make it interesting, especially to the family descendants.
It adds much to the bare facts of genealogy to keep in mind the contemporary history of the times in which the persons were living, and who were their neighbors, and how these ancestors were connected with the happenings going on around them. We can better appreciate the history of our ancestors if we keep in mind the condition of society, state of educational, industrial and scientific progress. All these things help to make genealogical charts and tables glow with interest, that would otherwise be dry. These thoughts have been kept in view while this work has been in progress. It is not possible to answer all the questions that will suggest themselves and that we should like to have answered, in regard to our ancestors. The time has been too long since our people came to America, and conditions and environments in early times were such that proper records could not be kept. It is hoped that our people will be pleased that even so much has been accomplished toward a genealogy and history of the family. With what is herein given many will be able to form a continuous line of descent from the first American ancestor of the family born in America. Hundreds have already had their ancestry traced back clearly, and by a little study and research many more will be able to straighten out the tangles in their family records.
STORY OF THE SEARCH AFTER THE HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE
KUYKENDALL FAMILY.
It was a question with me whether to print only the results of my researches into our family history, or to tell something about how the results were obtained. It seemed to me that perhaps it would give more of a human interest and a personal touch to pursue the latter course, and that it would also add considerably to the pleasure of reading this volume. This latter course has been chosen, partly because many of my correspondents have written, "How did you learn of our family history?" "Where did you find all this,--it is very interesting!" "I wish you would tell more about where and how you learned all this." My aim has been to give our Kuykendall descendants the facts as nearly as possible, in regard to our ancestors, but in addition to the facts, inferences have been drawn from these; but where this has been done, they have always been stated as inferences.
It had always been said by my people that our ancestors were of Holland origin, and that in early times they spoke Dutch in this country, and that great grandfather Kuykendall spoke English with somewhat of an accent. I knew that both my grandfather and great grandfather and their brothers had lived in Virginia, that grandfather was born there, but whether great grandfather was born there or somewhere east was not known certainly by me.
Grandfather Henry Kuykendall, with three brothers, Peter, Daniel and John, went from Virginia to Indiana about 1805, and three of them located a few years later in Vigo County, Indiana, not far from Terre Haute. Grandfather Henry was the youngest of the four brothers. I had understood that he was with Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, which was fought in the fall of 1811. Great Grandfather John died before his sons left Virginia, and when grandfather was a small boy. When young I had heard grandmother tell of happenings in the Revolutionary war, and of persons, events, and certain things, in a way that I knew she must have heard these things from older ones of the family, and that our people must have lived near to some of the scenes of that war. She told of the Tories, British and the Hessians, and of the brutalities of the soldiers of the British, and I was very much impressed by her accounts of early Indian atrocities. I can remember in my childhood, that grandmother and the older ones of the family, when wanting a term to express the utmost depths of human depravity and meanness, would say "as mean as a Hessian," and this was supposed to be about the utmost limit, because the Hessians were the hired minions of the British in the Revolutionary war.
At first I did not know the exact year of birth of my great grandfather John, but knew it was along somewhere about 1740. There was a span of something over 160 years, to take in the history back to great grandfather's birth. Still back of this there was the
6............History of the Kuykendall Family__
earlier history, going back to the coming of our people from Holland, and just how far back that it could be traced I did not know.
Our own family records had been destroyed by fire, and the further back records of grandfather had been lost or destroyed.
The most valuable sources of information to be found were old court records of the counties where the Kuykendall people had lived, such as deeds, wills, contracts and property inventories. The next valuable perhaps would be the family records of the oldest living descendants of our forefathers.
With the undertaking before me as here outlined, the work was begun in an extensive correspondence, in the endeavor to reach as many people of our name as could be found. Thousands of letters were sent out to different parts of the country, some to the addresses of Kuykendalls I had been able to locate, and others to various county seats, to county recorders, asking for recorded data concerning any of our people whose names appeared on the county books, on deeds, wills, voting lists, or any other papers that might give information of a valuable nature. Editors of newspapers were written to, notices were inserted asking for information, and by these various means, information began to accumulate. I was brought into touch with many Kuykendall descendants of whom I had never before heard.
I had an aged uncle, the only living brother of my father, who was very much interested in the past history of our family. He was well along toward eighty years old. By correspondence with him, it was found that he was able to give me a great many facts and helpful suggestions.
He said that our ancestors were from Holland, that they came to this country at a very early date, landing somewhere near where New York City now is. The date of their coming he could not give, but it was while New York was still under Dutch rule. That they lived in that state for years, but that they became dissatisfied with conditions around them. A little later they heard of a beautiful valley out West in Virginia. Some of the Kuykendalls and their neighbors fitted out an expedition to go west and explore this new country. The expedition returned with a glowing account of finding a most beautiful valley, where the soil was very productive, but that it was far out beyond the frontiers among the Indians. This led a number of the Kuykendalls to sell their property in New York state and strike out for Virginia. As to the date when this took place, or what route they took he could not tell. They made the journey over the wilderness country and settled somewhere on the Potomac river, in a very beautiful valley. The country was very new and the date so early that our Kuykendall people were among the first settlers, and consequently had first choice of the lands. They lived there for many years and had a long and severe struggle with the Indians, and endured many privations and dangers, but finally succeeded in clearing up fine farms, and after a while owned negroes, and raised corn, cattle, hogs and other kinds of
__Holland Society of New York............7
products, among which were tobacco. He said they had to fight Indians every summer for years, and often had to carry their rifles when out at their farm work, and that they built forts into which they collected in times of Indian outbreaks. He seemed to have remembered remarkably well the traditions of the family. This was very interesting to me. I was staring into a study of the family history just a little more than a hundred years after they left Virginia.
One of the most discouraging things one meets in correspondence to get genealogical information from people in regard to their ancestors is the general apathy and indifference of the average person in matters of this kind. As a rule, however, our people were interested and glad to cheerfully co-operate, and wrote kind and appreciative letters expressing their interest and a wish for my success.
In the course of my correspondence articles and notices were sent to newspapers, making inquiries in regard to any Kuykendalls that might happen to see them. These brought many replies and much information. Correspondence was extended to librarians of the great libraries of the country, to state archivists, historians, genealogists, historical societies and various sources of information. It is a pleasure to note the fact that courteous replies were received, and a real interest was manifested by persons of learning and culture who had no interest in the matter other than a desire to be helpful to a fellow seeker after information.
Early in my researches I learned of the HOLLAND SOCIETY of New York. This society has for its object the collection and preservation of all information attainable, relating to the early history of that state, particularly while it was under the rule of the Dutch. The Kuykendalls having been pioneers of that state this society was evidently a favorable place to seek information. I found that Mr. Dingman Versteeg, the genealogist for the society, had discovered records of the Kuykendall family, in the old Dutch records of New York, going as far back as 1650. This was the first definite information received by me reaching so far back, and I was very much gratified, feeling that good progress was being made. Mr. Versteeg was employed to look the matter up and report to me. I was now anxious to learn the date of the first appearance of our people in Virginia, and wrote to the United States Census Bureau, asking the director for information. It was found that the census for Virginia, of the first United States Census was destroyed by fire, at the time of the capture of the city of Washington, in the year 1813, but there had been a census taken by the authority of the State of Virginia in the years 1782 and 1784. These returns show that there were no Kuykendalls enumerated in Virginia, anywhere except in Hampshire county (W. Va.), and knowing definitely that Great Grandfather John and his father had lived in Virginia, during these years, and as his name was found on the returns, it was certain that he was the John Kuykendall
8............History of the Kuykendall Family__
therein mentioned. Correspondence with the descendants of some of the Kuykendalls who now live in Hampshire county, showed that they are descendants of the same stock, the ancestors of those who came there in very early days from the Delaware valley and settled, some as early as 1743.
While this was developing, Mr. Versteeg, of the Holland Society, was working on the old Dutch baptismal records, and soon sent me a copy of the registry of Kuykendall descendants in the Reformed Churches of the Delaware and Hudson valley, going back to 1650. The data received from Mr. Versteeg showed that the first ancestor in America lived at Fort Orange, N. Y. (now Albany), and that he died there; that an account of the settlement of his estate had been found among the old Albany records. It was shown also that his son, the first American Kuykendall, had lived in the Hudson river valley, near Kingston, that he married there and had a large family, the records of whose baptisms were found, in the Dutch Reformed Church registers. All this was very interesting and marked decided progress.
Soon after beginning with my correspondence, my attention was drawn to the various ways the correspondents spelled their names, among them appearing Kuykendall, Coykendall, Cuykendall, Kirkendall, Kikendall, Curkendall and Kuyrkendall. The difference in all cases being in the first syllable of the name, there being only two exceptions to this; one family in North and South Carolina, (some of whom were found in Texas), spelled the last syllable dal, omitting one 1. Another family spelled the last syllable dol. The fact was disclosed that those who spelled the name Kuykendall, are found more in the west and south, while those who sign their names Coykendall or Cuykendall are found in New York and New Jersey, or are from ancestors who lived in times, not far back, in regions not far from Port Jervis, N. Y., or Sussex, N. J.
Quite a number of families supposed their own branches represented a distinct people from the others.
Correspondence with people of our descent in New York, soon brought me into touch with some of them who were very much interested in the family history. One of these in particular, had made quite thorough researches, and with valuable results. This was a lady, Mrs. H. R. Frisbie, of Roscoe, N. Y. She is a descendant of the "Wilhelmus" branch. Wilhelmus was the grandson of Pieter, the youngest son of Leur Jacobsen (Van Kuykendall), our first American born Kuykendall. So far as I have been able to learn, all of this branch retain the original spelling, Kuykendall. Great credit is due her for her intelligent, persistent and earnest efforts. Her work, however, was almost exclusively limited to her own branch of the family.
The work of Mr. Versteeg, of the Holland Society, proved to be very satisfactory, as he was very familiar with the Dutch language and the genealogy of a large number of the old New York families of Holland descent. A letter was written to the librarian
__Land at Old Kuykendall Home............9
of the Port Jervis, N. Y., Free Library, and she referred me to Hon. W. H. Nearpass, then Mayor of the city, who is one of the best informed men in all that country, on the history of the Dutch Reformed Church and the pioneer families in that part of the Delaware valley, and also the families of the Hudson valley about
Plat of Old Minisink Village, Made in 1725
Kingston. Mr. Nearpass had, something like nineteen or twenty years before, begun the publication of a paper at Port Jervis, called "CHURCH LIFE." In this paper he published a series of articles on the ancient Dutch Reformed Church at Machackemeck, giving genealogical sketches of the families that had from time to time
10............History of the Kuykendall Family__
joined the church, from its earliest history in that region. He published also brief historical notes and sketches of the old Dominies, elders, officers and leading members.
In response to my inquiries, Mr. Nearpass sent me a number of his papers, and among these was one that contained a genealogy of the Kuykendall family, and their connection with the Reformed Church, both in the Delaware valley about Port Jervis, and in the Kingston regions, on the Hudson river. He wrote me many letters afterwards, and sent me a tracing of a plat of the ancient village of Minisink, adjacent to the "Big Minisink Island," a few miles below Port Jervis, on the Delaware river. There appears on this plat the names of Jacob and Mattheus Kuykendall, who were owners of land there at that time, and who were interested in the founding of the old village, in 1725. On the plat the name is written Van Kuykendall, showing that our people at that time yet recognized the Dutch form of the name.
About that time I came across some of the writings of Mr. Charles E. Stickney, on the early settlement of that part of the Delaware valley, and was much interested in two series of articles published by him, in the "Wantage Recorder," a newspaper of which he was and is yet owner and publisher. One of the series was written upon the subject of "The Old Mine Road," and the other was the History of Deckertown." Deckertown was the early name of Sussex, in the County of Sussex, N. J. Mr. Stickney kindly sent me a number of the papers on the "Old Mine Road," one of which contained a brief sketch of the Kuykendall family as connected with the township of Wantage and the Sussex county regions, in early pioneer days, and of their neighbors who lived near to and traveled along that old highway. This old road was so intimately connected with the history of the family Kuykendall, that it deserves more than a passing notice, and if space will permit something about it, as related to our people, will be given elsewhere. For the present it may be said that the old mine road is a very ancient highway running from Kingston on the Hudson, N. Y., across the country to the Delaware river, and then down that river to an ancient copper mine, about three miles above the Water Gap. As nearly all the members of the first American Kuykendall family were born and raised in the vicinity of Kingston, and the family all migrated along down the old mine road and settled near it in the Delaware valley, anything about this old road very much interested me. It was much satisfaction to definitely locate exactly the home and scenes of our very early forefathers. It was learned by me that a gentleman named J. J. Van Sickle lived within a very short distance of the old home of Jacob and Mattheus Kuykendall, and that he was an authority on certain phases of the early history of that country and its pioneer settlers. He was written to, and he sent a very courteous reply, in which he gave some of the very information of which I had been in search. He mentioned certain old stone houses and scenes, that he thought would make an interesting
__Letters of Mr. Van Sickle............11
addition to the Kuykendall history, and offered to secure photographs of them. This proffer was accepted gladly.
It would perhaps be interesting to quote here some excerpts from Mr. Van Sickle's letters.
"The stone house built by Jurian Westfall or Jacob Kuykendall is still standing in the old Minisink village. It was built about 1751, and is in a fine state of preservation. You should have a picture of this house. The parchment deed you spoke of, you will find, I think, by writing to Edward Everitt, Orange, New York, or to the heirs of Martin Everitt, Port Jervis, N. Y. It might be that the Historical Society of Port Jervis has secured it. One of the old
Ancient Stone House Built about 1754 on Lands once owned by Matthew Kuykendall
Westbrook or Kuykendall houses is still standing, that is referred to in the deal made for the cemetery purchased in 1731. Also the fort, built by the state of New Jersey (colony), in 1755. Pictures of these houses and some landscape views you should have for your history. In the old cemetery the headstones are lettered in Low Dutch language, and I cannot translate them. The first date is 1736." From another letter:
"In 1759, Sussex county was represented by Peter Kuykendall, and in 1760 by Solomon Kuykendall, as Chosen Freeholders. In the Continental army there were three Kuykendalls, Captains Samuel, Benjamin, and Simon. Samuel was wounded at the battle of Springfield, under Col. John Cleves Symmes. They were holding the British army in check, or covering the retreat of Washington
12............History of the Kuykendall Family _
across New Jersey. Samuel was wounded in 1776, and afterwards received a pension, on account of the loss of his hand from the wound."
The kindness of Mr. Van Sickle was very much appreciated and it gives me pleasure to acknowledge my obligation to him for many favors shown me. During my researches it was learned that at the time of the early settlement of the country, a certain deed had been given for lands that I was sure embraced the homes of some of the Kuykendalls. This old document was described as being written on parchment, and as having as the tribal signature of the Indians from whom it was purchased, a picture of a turkey, supposed to be the totem mark of the tribe to which the lands had belonged. This would be the first deed to the lands. I was much interested and determined to find the old document, if it was still in existence. After a long chase, by correspondence, covering a very wide range, it was finally located in Canada, or it was what I supposed was the deed sought. It was found belonging to the descendants of the Everitt family, and in possession of a daughter of Allen Everitt, Mrs. J. M. Hursh, of Macoun, Saskatchewan, Canada. She kindly consented to loan me the instrument, for examination, study and photographing. When the deed came, it was found to be, not the deed from the Indians, but far more valuable for me, because it had been given by Jacob Kuykendall, one of the original owners of lands at the old Minisink village, the very ancestor to which my own family traced directly back. There was his name signed to the document in his own hand writing. I had found not what I was looking for, but something of inestimably more importance. The venerable document was unrolled. It was stained and yellow with age, and one corner frayed and a small bit torn off, taking some letters of the latter part of the name of my great, great grandfather, Jacob Kuykendall. The deed was given nearly two hundred years ago. The writing was faded and the signatures were quite dim. It was written on sheepskin parchment, no doubt with a quill pen, for steel pens were not used for generations afterward.
What a tide of reflections came to me. What changes in the country since the deed was made. Since it was signed December, 1731, there have come a majority of all the great inventions and discoveries, in fact about all that now confer the greatest blessings and comforts of civilization. When it was made and signed there was no such thing as even a friction match for lighting a fire, no use of steam power, not a telegraph, telephone, steamer, or railway car for more than a hundred years afterwards. The United States and the American nation, with all their myriad population, had not yet even been thought of. These reflections crowded upon my mind, and then in imagination I went back to the old village and the time when the deed was signed. There were a few log buildings, in a sort of clearing in the woods, a little tavern, blacksmith shop and a trading post. What kind of a place was it? Who were present
AN ANCIENT DEED
Made by Jacob Kuykendall, December in year 1731
14............History of the Kuykendall Family__
when the deed was signed, besides those whose signatures now appear? What was said and done? How different the deed looked then, when clean and snowy white, with the beautiful writing, all fresh, and every letter and word standing out clear and sharp. Then I thought of the generations that have come and passed on since that time, nearly two hundred years ago. The makers and signers of the deed and thousands of their descendants have come upon the stage of existence and have passed away, their bodies have mouldered to dust, and even a knowledge of the resting places of most of them are lost. This old document was so valuable a find,
Ancient Indian Trail
that planning was at once begun to have it photographed, and many efforts were made to secure the best results. It did not belong to me, and if it had, it would not have been kept in my possession, but placed in care of some historical society for safe keeping. Various attempts were made at photographing it, and a number of processes were used to secure the best pictures possible.
While examining and handling this old deed the thought came to my mind, suppose that when the deed was signed and turned over to the party that bought the land, some one had said, "this deed will still be in existence two hundred years from now, and one hundred and eighty-three years from now a great great grandson
__Summing Up of Findings............15
of its maker will come across it, over three thousand miles from here, in a land now wholly unknown. The finder will cause a picture to be made of it, by sunlight, by a process that has never yet been conceived by man, and that will not be discovered yet for over a hundred years. When it is discovered, the children of the maker of this deed will have multiplied and spread all over North America from ocean to ocean." Such a prediction would have been considered the wild phantasy of a lunatic. Thus little do we know of the changes that time will work, or what will happen within two hundred years from now. The thought came to my mind, "Will any one, two hundred years from now be making any inquiry after us or know who we were, where we lived, or what we did?"
I had now the records in full, so far as known, of the Kuykendalls found registered in the old Dutch Reformed churches; had several fragmentary sketches of the genealogy of the Kuykendall family, or of that part of the family that remained in the country near where the fathers had lived. That part of the country comprised Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster counties, N. Y., and Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon counties, N. J., and a small strip of country on the other side of the Delaware river, in Pennsylvania, where a few of our people had lived.
I had the plat of the ancient village of Minisink, and of the old Jacob Kuykendall deed, and much other historical matter relating to the family, that I had not known of, before beginning my researches.
While all the work that has been described was going on, a correspondence was carried on both among the Kuykendall descendants in various parts of the country, and with the great libraries in various states, historical societies and all other known sources of information.
Letters had been received from Mr. A. J. F. Van Laer, State Archivist of New York, that were both very interesting and helpful. I shall never forget his unvarying kindness and the assistance he rendered me in looking up the Albany records in the Library of New York, at Albany.
Mr. Versteeg, genealogist of the Holland Society of New York, had already sent me a transcript of the sale of the house and lot of our Holland ancestor, Jacob Luyersen, after the ancestor's death, which must have occurred in 1656. Both these gentlemen took much interest in looking up the origin and derivation of the name Kuykendall.
The wording in the contract for the sale of that emigrant ancestor's property shows conditions existing at the time, that are very interesting, independent of that which attaches to the fact of his being our forefather from Europe. The record of the court, as found in the old Dutch minutes, will be good reading for Kuykendall descendants, and others, now, after a lapse of over two hundred and sixty years, and it is given below:
16............History of the Kuykendall Family__
Transcript from the Early Records of Albany County, 1656-1675.
"Terms and conditions on which the trustees of the estate of Jacob Luerszen propose to sell the house and lot of the said Jacob Luyersen, deceased, with the lot of the same, lying next to Fort Orange, according to the patent thereof. Ist there shall be delivered to the buyer of the house with all the fixtures and the lot, length 8 rods, breadth in front on the road 4 1/2 rods, breadth on the west side 3 rods 5 feet, all according to the patent thereof, except the gardenstof which is therein.
"Delivery shall be on August 20 of this year 1657. The payment shall be in good current seawant; the first installment to be on delivery of the house and the last on May 1, 1658.
"The buyer shall be held to furnish 2 sufficient sureties immediately to the seller's satisfaction. If the buyer cannot then furnish sufficient sureties, it shall be sold again at his cost and charge, and whatever loss it come to be worth, he shall be held to make good, and whatever more it becomes worth he shall enjoy no benefit therefrom. The auction fees shall become a charge to the buyer."
"After much bidding, Jansen Van Wytert remained the last bidder, for the sum of 813 guilders, according to the aforesaid conditions.
"Done in Fort Orange, July 18, 1657, in presence of
Louis Cobuson and Johannes Provoort."
_______________
Page 41.
"On this July 20 1657 appeared Andres Van der Sluys who delivered himself surety for the person of William Frederickse (Bout) in the action respecting the house which Hendrick Jansen Van Rytart, (Wytart) bought of the trustees of the estate of Jacob Luyersen, deceased, for so much as half of said house comes to, viz: 406 Guilders, 10 stivers.
Page 213.
"Paulus Martensen, (Van Benthuysen) grant and convey to Claes Cornelise Van den Bergh, a house and lot in the village of Beverwyck, near Fort Orange, bounded on the north by Captain Abraham Staets, south by the said Fort, as large as it lies in fence. according to the patent thereof, granted by the Lord Director General & Council to Jacob Luyerson, deceased, of date October 25th anno 1653, and the grantor acknowledges that he is paid and satisfied therefor: done in Fort Orange Oct, 12, 1662."
"Paulus Marten."
Witnesses:
Philip Pietersen Schuyler
Adrien Gerritsen (Papendorp)
__Indian Currency in Dutch New York............17
The wording of this transaction tells us something of the conditions existing at the time the sale was made. The price of the house and lot was stipulated to be paid in so many guilders, good current seawant. The term "guilders" shows that the country was under Dutch financial control as well as domination otherwise. Seawant was a sort of small sea shell money, or wampum, such as was the currency of the Indians. It was really Indian money. The scarcity of silver was so great that the inhabitants were compelled to resort to whatever makeshift expedients they could, to carry on trade and exchange among themselves and the Indians.
It will be noticed that the "gardenstof" was to be reserved, and not to go on with the building and lot. Wonder if the old lady, Mrs. Jacob Luyersen (Van Kuykendall), our maternal ancestor, had not planted and cultivated that garden patch herself, and claimed it for herself and the "kinder"?
As the old Albany court record that has been quoted above, has reference to the Holland ancestor of all the American Kuykendalls, and the disposal of his property after his death, it can hardly be otherwise than very interesting to his living descendants.
The question naturally arises, "Did this first ancestor come to America alone, or did he have brothers and sister or other relatives that came at the same time or afterwards?" A pretty thorough search of the early Dutch Reformed Church baptismal and marriage records was made by me in Albany and in New York City, and they reveal the fact that there were three persons of the same name as our ancestor came to this country, if not together, then at times not far apart. They were Jacob, Urbanus and Christian Luursen. The names of the first two are so associated on the baptismal records, that one cannot resist the conclusion that they were brothers. The other's relationship is not so clearly indicated, but a strong inference is created that they were of the same family, possibly a little more distantly related. A chapter was prepared for this volume treating this subject in detail and quoting the records in full, but for lack of space this will have to be omitted.
THE NAME KUYKENDALL,
ITS ORIGIN, DERIVATION AND MEANING.
For a number of years I have occasionally met a person who formerly lived in Holland, and on hearing the name Kuykendall, the first thing almost that was said, was, "Your name is Dutch, or of Dutch origin." Several have told me they used to know people of our name in Holland, but that it was spelled a little differently there.
There has been a rather widespread tradition, or it was claimed to be a tradition, that the name is of Scottish origin. If the original name could be shown to have been Kirkendale or Kirkendal, its structure might suggest a Scottish origin to some, yet it would be quite as easy to arrive at the conclusion that it was of Dutch origin, even admitting it was formerly spelled Kirkendale. While Kirk in the old Scottish dialect means church, in the older Dutch the word kerk or kerche means church also, and the name Kerchenthal and Kirkendal would have the same meaning, Church-in-the-valley. Quite a little effort was made by me to determine the real origin and meaning of the name.
Genealogists of learning and prominence, heads of historical societies and genealogical societies have, without a single exception, pronounced the name to be of Dutch origin. In the early Dutch records it is written Van Kuykendaal, the prefix Van meaning from. The natural inference would be that the family formerly lived in some place or old homestead bearing the name Kuykendall or some name of similar sound, from which Kuykendall was derived, Among the authorities consulted on the subject were persons connected with the Holland Society of New York, also historians, archivists and persons of Dutch ancestry, who were known to be well informed upon Dutch names and patronymics.
Elsewhere in this volume there is quoted a letter that tells of a tradition that our earliest ancestors lived in Scotland several hundred years ago, but that on account of persecutions because of religious belief they fled to Holland, intermarried with the Dutch people, and there acquired the spelling Kuykendall, from Kirkendale. It was claimed that the Dutch mistook the first two syllables of the name for their word kuchen, (little chicken), making the name mean Chicken-valley, a supposed valley where there were a great many little chickens.
Two hundred years ago spelling was in a very chaotic state, hardly any two persons spelled the words the same, one way being considered as good as another, so long as it sounded rightly when spelled. There was really no standard for spelling proper names of either persons or places.
This applies to the English as well as the Dutch language. There are several instances of noted persons who spelled their names
Meaning of Kuykendall 19
several different ways as shown by their autograph signatures still in existence. Mr. A. J. F. Van Laer, Archivist for the state of New York, and New York State Library, writing to me in regard to the ancient home of the Kuykendall family, and the name, said:
"I suspect that Kijk-in-'t-dal is a locality near Wageningen, which lies on a high hill on the bank of the Rhine, and commands a fine view of the river." In a letter written later he says:
"There seems to be no doubt that your family originally came from Wageningen. I am still inclined to think that Kijk-in-'t-dal may have been the form from which Kuykendall is derived, because there is an elevation near Wageningen, called Wageningsche Berg, from which one obtains a beautiful view of the valley of the Rhine, and secondly there are other names of similar construction in the Netherlands, the most striking being that of Kijk-in-de vegt, which is borne by a family in the province of Overijessel."
In relation to this subject, Mr. L. P. de Boer, historian of Dutch American families, wrote me in March, 1913: "I have struck analogies of the name Kuykendall in one of the Dutch periodicals, headed, "Rare and Curious Names," a locality, Kykenweide, near Overyossel, is mentioned to have existed in 1460-1496, 'Mead on View,' or 'View of the Mead.' I now remember to have seen a street in Groningen called 'de Ky-in-Jat Straat,' or "Look-in-the-gate' street. These examples strengthen my belief in the etymology of the name as suggested by Mr. Van Laer and you."
Kijk is an old Dutch word or form for view, and is pronounced as if spelled Kuyk or Kike. Mr. Van Laer says the derivation from Kijk-in-'t-dal, which in Gelderland dialect may well have been spelled Kuykendal or Kuukendal, seems altogether most likely.
Mr. Dingman Versteeg, genealogist for the Holland Society, says "That so-called Scotch tradition was simply invented afterwards, to account for the misspelling Kirkendall." It may help also to account for the mis-pronunciation of the name, for many even of those who spell it Kuykendall or otherwise, pronounce it as if spelled Kirkendall. Mr. Van Laer says "The explanation of the name meaning Chicken valley is absurd, for if named from a valley where young chickens abounded, it would be more likely Kippendal (chickendale).
There are several instances in the early records which would tend to show that the Kuykendall ancestors lived at or near Wageningen. We find Urbanus Luursen signed his name Urbanus Luursen van Wageningen, and the name of our ancestor appears in a power of attorney given by himself, signed "Jacob Luyersen van Wageningen."
At the time of the advent of our ancestor in America there were in use what are called patronymics, that is, father names.
The family name corresponded to what is the surname now, but was often the name of the ancestral home, and was preceded by the word van, meaning from. If the family had adopted the
20_____________History of the Kuykendall Family__
name of the place where their fathers lived, then the Van was begun with a capital V, for instance Van Etten, Van Meteren. Many patronymics had a suffix that meant son, or son of. For instance a man who was the son of a father named William was called William's son, which later became Williamson, the family name. Thus we have the names Johnson, Peterson, Davidson, and many others. In the case of Irish and Scotch names there were many that were preceded by Fitz or Mac, which being added to other names, as Simmons, Hugh, Donald, made Fitzsimmons, Fitzhugh, McDonald or Macdonald, the terms Fitz and Mac meaning son or son of. In all these instances and many other, if the families should now undertake to trace their names back to their original formation, they would come to a person bearing the name Simmons, Hugh, or Donald, or otherwise, and if they wished to go still further back, they would have to seek some other proof or data to enable them to proceed.
It appears that the Dutch, along about the time our ancestors came to America, preferred the use of the patronymic or father name. Mr. Versteeg, genealogist for the Holland Society of New York, mentioned before, who was for some years the editor and publisher of "The Netherland Register," had in one of the numbers of the magazine, a very interesting and instructive article pertinent to this subject. Speaking of changes of names he said:
"The Coykendall and Kuykendall families both trace their origin to Jacob Luurszen, but it was more than half a century after his death that his descendants began the use of the name Van Kuykendaal. The people were averse to using the family name, unless the person occupied a very prominent position." While, as Mr. Versteeg says, the family name Van Kuykendaal does not appear until fifty years after the death of our Holland ancestor, the evidence as to our lineal descent from Jacob Luurszen cannot be doubted. It is clear from the record that our ancestor's name was Luurszen. The Kuykendall family name is not peculiar or different in this respect from many other names found all over the country.
Take the name Roosevelt, for instance. The ex-president's ancestors came from Holland, and as it happened, from the same province of Gelderland as our Kuykendall ancestor. The Roosevelt name as found in early New York records was Claes Martinszen. His name is usually found written this way, and only twice as Claes Martinszen Van Roosevelt.
The family dropped the Martinszen and the Van, and adopted Roosevelt as the family name, so that now it is Roosevelt (Rose-field), the locality in Holland from whence the family came.
In precisely the same way the Kuykendall name was Luurszen, and our ancestor's name was Jacob Luurszen (Van Kuykendaal), as has been shown. Our people dropped the Van and the patronymic Luurszen, and retained the present family name Kuykendall.
Given Dutch Names in the Dutch Records____________ 21
During an extensive correspondence with Kuykendall descendants throughout the country, letters were frequently received in which the writers mentioned the fact that their forefathers had "Bible names."
This was thought by the writers to be peculiar to their own families. This idea was found to be quite prevalent. Whoever will take the trouble to inquire, or will notice the names of people who lived three or four generations ago, will find that Bible names were extremely prevalent in nearly all families, especially those among Christian Bible reading people. The Kuykendall family was not peculiar or different in this respect, from many others in the country.
As found in the Dutch Church records and other early writings, even very common names such as Peter, Matthew, Solomon, are often much different from what they are today. One is frequently puzzled to know what would be the English equivalent for some of the names there found. If one happens to be familiar with the Dutch language and names, this difficulty would perhaps not be so great.
Having the records of the Kingston Reformed Church before me, I note the following: Styntie, for Christina. This was the name given to the first Kuykendall girl born in America. Marretjen, for Mary. The first Mary of the family was Marretjen, daughter of Cornelius, son of the first American born ancestor. She was named for her mother, Marretje Westfall. Jacobus(1), for James. The first James in the K. family, was Jacobus, son of Cornelius. Annaatjen, daughter of Ary Van Kuykendaal, the first Annie or Ann of the American born Ks. Catryntie, the first Catherine, Fammetjen or Famety, (Sophronia), the first of the family was named for her grandmother Fammetjen Decker, wife of old Pieter Kuykendal of Machackemeck, now Port Jervis, N. Y. Tatje, spelled sometimes Tjatje, stands for Charity, sometimes recently called Chatty. This name for girls was very common, especially among the descendants of old Pieter. Teunis was Anthony, Claes, for Nicholas, Ary, for Arian or Adrian, and sometimes for Aaron. Solomon was frequently Saam, Sarah and Solomon were often begun with Z, as Zara and Zaloman or Zaam. These are only a few of the old formations of the given names used by people of Dutch descent nearly two hundred years ago.
On the old baptismal records there were never found any middle names for two or three generations.
(1) Jacobus is often found in the Dutch baptismal records and always
means James. It was sometimes shortened to "Cobus" and "Cobus"
Keykendall is found in the Pennsylvania census for 1790.
CHANGES IN THE NAME KUYKENDALL AND HOW THEY CAME ABOUT
In the old baptismal registers the name Kuykendall is spelled in at least nine different ways, and frequently the same individual's name is spelled in from two to four ways. We must remember that the names in the registers were not written by the persons themselves, but by the Dominies or a clerk. How the name appears in the register is no indication whatever how the person spelled it. Before the beginning of the nineteenth century it was never written in the records Coykendall or Kirkendall. Keykendall, Kirkendall and Kikendall were quite common about Revolutionary war times, in the old military records. There were instances in the old records where the widely different ways of spelling the name of the same individual led to the impression that there were two or three different persons referred to where only one was meant. Among the old Albany court minutes there appears an affidavit of Jacob Cuykendall and Thomas Kuick, (Quick), in relation to Indian robberies at Minisink, Orange County, N. Y. This affidavit bears date of May 9, 1723. We know, however, that Jacob wrote his name Kuykendall as it appears signed to the deed made by him in 1731, which has been referred to before. Unless we have an actual autograph signature of a person's name written in those early days, we cannot know how he himself wrote it, and even then some spelled their own name in more than one way. In "New York in the Revolution," there appears the name of "Peter Kuykindolph, in Klock's regiment and Westfall's company."
It might be interesting to many of our people to know how some of the changes in spelling of the name came about, and there will here be given the statements of some of those who have written me in regard to their family history and genealogy. These instances are not given in any special order, but are taken at random as they happened to come.
Dr. J. L. Kirkendol, of Millen, Ga., writing on the subject, says, "Your way of spelling the name is correct. You will see on my letterhead how I spell my name. Mine has been changed from your way to the way we spell it now, by my immediate family, the idea being to shorten as much as possible, (without change of the original meaning), a long and hard name, and render it more easy of pronunciation, when seen in print."
Prof. J. W. Kuykendall, Superintendent of Schools, Fort Smith, Arkansas, wrote: "The name is said to have been derived from the Dutch word Kuyken, their word for chicken. Before the Revolutionary war, the family came from Holland to North Carolina. This was supposed to be a part of a general migration from Holland to North Carolina. There were three branches, supposed to be the sons of the three first emigrants. One branch went into Pennsylvania, another is thought to have gone into the Northwest Territory,
__Corespondents Tell How Family Names Changed___________ 23
and the third to have gone into Tennessee. Of the latter, we of Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas are descendants."
John Wesley Curkendall, of Volga, W. Va., wrote me February 23, 1913, and among other things said, "Kuykendall is the right way to spell the name, but we spell it Curkendall because it is more convenient to use than Kuykendall or Kikendall."
Z. W. Curkendall, brother of John W., wrote, "My father's name was John Curkendall, and he was the son of Simeon Curkendall. I do not know of any of the relatives here spelling it other than Curkendall." He then gave the names of his father, brothers and a brother Noah, who moved to Bloomfield, Iowa. Upon writing to them, I found that they nearly all spelled their name Kirkendall. one brother only spelling it Curkendall. It was also discovered that a branch of this family retained the old original spelling, K-u-y-k-e-n-d-a-l-l.
During my researches I came across a newspaper from Oklahoma City, Omaha, containing a natice of a physician of that place, who spelled his name K-u-y-r-k-e-n-d-a-l-l. This I supposed was an error in printing the name. In replying to my inquiries in regard to the matter, he wrote me:
"I am sure we all sprang from the same branch, and that through vanity or some such peculiarity, of some of the members, the name has been changed to suit their fancy. I am enclosing a copy of a letter that I found in my father's prescription book, which may throw some light upon the subject."
The old letter he referred to is dated from Northfork, Henry County, Tenn., September 24, 1885, and is addressed to Dr. W. A. Kuyrkendall, (father of Dr. L. C. Kuyrkendall), and is signed R. A. Kuykendall. At the bottom of the copy is a note which says: "Dr., from this I conclude that my grandfather was the one who added the R to our name, and my father concurs with me in that same opinion." It seems most likely that he had pronounced the name as if it were spelled Kirkendall, even when he spelled it Kuykendall, and the r was added to make it spell Kirkendall, even if in a rather singular manner.
Hugh Thompson Kirkendall, of No. 9 Central Avenue, Kansas City, in a letter dated November 14, 1913, says: "My father, Jacob Kirkendall, was born in Crabb Orchard, Ky. My father had two brothers who died in Platte City, Mo., about 1860. Their name was Kuykendall. One of them has a son in Saratoga, Wyoming."
D. W. Kirkendall, of Crawfordsville, Ind., wrote me: "My father, Jacob Kirkendall, was the son of Richmond Kirkendall and wife Elizabeth, and he was born in Barren County, Ky., August 11th, 1805. If my father had any brothers I have no record of it. Father was the man who changed the spelling from Kuykendall to Kirkendall, for what reason, I cannot say."
John S. Kikendall, of Albion, Mich., in a letter dated April 29, 1912, wrote me as follows:
24_____________History of the Kuykendall Family__
"I remember hearing my father tell of visiting an uncle Manuel Kikendall that lived in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. Father had three cousins that came to Michigan about the same time that he did, viz: John, James, Matthew and Cornelius; they all spelled their names Coykendall. Father's brother, Joseph, lived in Steuben County, New York. I never saw him or any of his family. I understand that he and his sons were in the Civil war, and that he always spelled his name Kirkendall." Here we have this one branch of the family with three different modes of spelling the name. This man, John S. Kikendall, has, or then had, a brother, James P. Kikendall, whose home was Eaton Rapids, Mich. He wrote me: "I think our forefathers came from Holland about 1640 or -45. My father's only brother Joseph, lived in Steuben County, New York. He spelled his name with an r in it. He said every one called him Kirkendall, and so he would have it so. The name of my brother, who lived in your state, was Charles M. He left three children, two girls and a son named William, who has lately died. My nephew's name is James E. Kirkendall."
Judge A. B. Kirkendall, of Creola, Ohio, says of his people: "In my family Jonathan Kirkendall came from Holland or Germany, before the Revolutionary war. He married an Irish girl named Nicholson. He had sons, John and Solomon. Solomon was a scholar, but we have no track of him. He changed the name from Kuykendall, 'Chicken Valley,' to Kirkendall, 'Church in the Valley.'"
C. A. Kirkendall, of Louisville, Ky., made a visit to Ohio the forepart of April, 1914, and there met Judge A. B. Kirkendall, and in writing to me of the visit and the family data gathered while he was there, says in reference to Judge A. B. Kirkendall's family history: "One of his father's sisters is still living and is 83 years old. She says her grandfather was John, Jonathan or Yohonnes Kuykendall. Her grandfather John had two brothers, Solomon and Eli. John and Eli had no education, but Solomon had, and the two brothers changed their names to Kirkendall, and all came to Ohio, on the old National road, and stopped at Columbus, and went to the southern part of Ohio. She has the families of this old John, her grandfather, run down to the present date, but knows nothing of the families of Solomon or Eli."
Rev. H. W. D. Kirkendall, of Wenatchee, wrote me regarding the origin of the spelling Kirkendall in his own family, as follows:
"My father was Nathan Kirkendall, of Berwick, Columbia County, Pa., who was the son of Emanuel Kikendall, of Mifflin Township, Columbia near Berwick, Pa. My great grandfather, Emanuel Kikendall migrated into that part of Pennsylvania from some place in New Jersey, when he was a young man. He had four sons, Joseph, Levi, Cornelius and Leonard, all of whom settled on adjoining farms, Levi and Cornelius dividing the old home. The place became known as 'Kikendall's Hill.' Emanuel Kirkendall, who settled in Wilkes-Barre, left a family there, some of whom have
__Autographs of Early Kuykendalls ___________25
illustration of signatures
become prominent. The family name was changed from Kikendall to Kirkendall when I was a boy of about fifteen. It was not by design, but other people began writing the name that way, and gradually the whole race adopted the spelling except Stephen K., who persisted in the old way."
Emmett R. Kirkendall, of the firm of Roth & Kirkendall, of Toledo, Ohio, (attorneys at law), wrote me a short time back:
"I have in my possession an old book of numbers prepared in school by my great grandfather, James Kirkendall. It gives the
26_____________History of the Kuykendall Family__
date of his birth as February 9, 1794, and his 'master as Sam Flemin.' By master he meant teacher no doubt, since teachers in those days were generally called 'school masters.'"
This book gives the name of three of his children as follows:
Samuel Kuykendall, born August 7, 1816.
Sary Kuykendall, born May 16, 1819.
Christeny Kuykendall, born January 10, 1822.
I had looked at this book many times before, but this is the first time that I ever noticed that the name was spelled Kuykendall. I can get no idea from the book, however, as to where James was at the time he wrote it, and can only guess from vague tradition. The names of these children may have been written by some other person than James Kirkendall, and I can't understand why my father's name is spelled Kuykendall, when my father never heard that spelling before. My family has always lived near Athens, Ohio, until a few years ago, when they all went to Oklahoma, except me. I know nothing of 'Christeny' Kuykendall other than what I have given you from this book. Sary Kuykendall, my father tells me, was married to Milo Kirkendall, her cousin."
We have in the statement given by W. H. D. Kirkendall a very clear account of change in the name of his family. I had hoped that it would be found that the manner of spelling of the name might indicate what branches the different families belonged to, but it is evident that we have here no definite guide. Some conclusions may be drawn, however, in regard to the matter of names that may be of some value. Among these are the following:
1. All persons spelling their names Coykendall or Cuykendall are the descendants of Pieter Kuykendal, the youngest son of our first American born ancestor, Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal.
2. There is only one of the Pieter Kuykendal branches that has retained the original spelling, beginning the name with Kuy, and this is the branch of Wilhelmus Kuykendall, grandson of the first Pieter.
3. Among the Peter branch, there are those who spell the name Coykendall, Cuykendall, Kirkendall, Kikendall and Kuykendall.
4. The descendants of Jacob, Cornelius and Matthew have, for the most part, clung to the old original spelling, and begin the name with the first syllable spelled Kuy, though there are some exceptions to this rule, as seen in the form Kuyrkendall and Curkendall.
No ancestor will be found in the second or third generation with an "r" in the name. Those who undertake to trace their ancestry must expect to come to where the name was Kuykendal, as found on the baptismal registers of the Dutch Reformed Church.
It is perfectly clear that our early ancestors understood that the first part of the name had the long sound of i, or of uy in the name Schuyler, Stuyvesant and similar Dutch names.
The change from Kuy to Ki was among the first made, and was evidently an attempt to spell phonetically.
FORT ORANGE, NEW YORK.
WHEN THE KUYKENDALL ANCESTOR ARRIVED THERE.
It will be interesting to many of our people to know something about Fort Orange, N. Y., the place where our Holland ancestor lived when he first came to America. Here was his first home in this country, and here he lived until his death, which occurred in the latter part of 1656, or beginning of 1657.
Fort Orange received its first settlers in 1624, and the fort was built the same year, near the present foot of Madison street, Albany.
The first settlers were Walloons, refugees who had fled to Holland, from France and Flanders, to escape persecution.
Two years later their settlements were broken up by hostile Indians. In 1629 Killaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy diamond merchant of Holland, sent over other settlers to develop and improve a large tract of land he had acquired, lying up and down and back of the Hudson river.
Van Rensselaer's place of business was Amsterdam, and his home was in Gelderland, the same province in the Netherlands the Kuykendall ancestors came from. The Walloons of Fort Orange were a Protestant people, who had come to America seeking religious freedom and an opportunity to make homes. To meet their religious and social needs, the Dutch Reformed Church, in 1642, sent over from Amsterdam a pastor for their church people at Fort Orange.
From the beginning, there were Indian troubles, and the savages attacked and captured even some of the missionaries who were laboring among them trying to help them. Father Yogues, a French Catholic missionary among the Mohawks, was captured, held and tortured, and the Indians refused to give him up, even when offered a large ransom.
The Dutch aided the unfortunate priest in escaping and kept him secreted, until the Indians were pacified and agreed to his ransom.
Dominie Megapolensis, the Reformed Church pastor, was very kind to the Catholic Father and secured his passage back to France. It is pleasant to relate that two years later, Father Yogues showed his honor and gratitude by refunding the money paid for his ransom, after he had returned to America to take up his work again.
This same priest, in writing back home to France, describes Fort Orange in 1643 thus:
"There are two things in this settlement, which is called Renssellaerswick, as if to say settlement of Rensselaers, who is a rich Amsterdam merchant.
"First, a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built with logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivels. This has been reserved and is maintained by the West
28_____________History of the Kuykendall Family__
India Company. This fort was formerly on an island, which the river makes; it is now on the main land, toward the Hiroquoise, a little above the said island.
"Second, a colony sent over here by this Renssalaer, who is a Patroon. This colony is composed of about a hundred persons, who reside in twenty-five or thirty houses built along the river, as each found convenient. In the principal house lived the Patroon's agent. The minister has his apart, in which service is performed. There is also a kind of Bailiff here, whom they call the Seneschel, who administers justice. Their houses are all merely of boards and thatched. There is as yet no mason work except their chimneys. The forests furnishing them many large pines, they make boards by means of their mills, which they have for that purpose."
In 1650, the year our first American ancestor was baptized, the first school house at Fort Orange was built. Rev. Gideon Schaats was the Dominie of the D. R. church and the pastor of our Holland ancestor from the year 1652 until the time of his death, and no doubt performed the funeral rites at the time of his burial.
October 25, 1653, our forefather at Fort Orange was granted a lot in the village of Beverwyck, close up to Fort Orange, and received a patent for the same from the Lord Director General and the Council. The year following there was a great freshet in the Hudson river, that washed away one of the bastions of the fort, and must have come up very close to the house of our ancestor.
Up to that time most of the houses of the village had been erected close up to the fort and near the river, but the great rise of water and the damage to the fort caused some of the inhabitants to move their buildings back toward the hill, and new structures erected after that, were built further back on the street that is now called Broadway. There was but a narrow strip of flat land along the river, and from that the land rises quite abruptly, and was at that time covered with stumps and brush, so that it was natural for the settlers to build first lower down.
Peter Stuyvesant became Director General of the New Netherlands in the year 1646, and came to America about the same time that the first Kuykendall arrived. In the year 1656 John De Decker, the Patroon of the colony of Rensselaer, with the other church people, decided to erect a building that would serve as a fort in time of Indian outbreaks, and as a church in time of peace. Accordingly they raised a thousand dollars and proceeded to build what was called the "Blockhouse Church." It was fitted up with loop holes from which to shoot at hostile foes, in case they had uprisings. Three small cannons were mounted at the corners, in such way as to command the roads leading past the church. Having now a new church with cannon attachments, they were prepared to preach the gospel of civilization from the pulpit or to be the real thing in way of church militant, and preach with the booming of cannon.
__Dutch Church Gets a New Bell ___________29
The people now decided that they must have a new bell and pulpit from Holland, and these were ordered from Amsterdam, but did not arrive until the next year, but as soon as they came they were duly installed in place, and began their long and honorable career.
The same pulpit, or "Predick Stoel," has been in use there ever since. When I was in Albany, N. Y., in the summer of 1914, it was my pleasure to sit in the First Reformed Church of Albany, built on the same spot, and listen to a sermon from the same pulpit that was built in Holland two hundred and sixty years before.
The John De Becker mentioned above is claimed as the progenitor of the large family of Deckers of the Delaware and Hudson river valleys in pioneer times, many of whose descendants still live there, and many hundreds are scattered all over the United States.
Peter Kuykendall, the grandson of the K ancestor who lived at Fort Orange, married Femmetje Decker, a descendant of this John Decker, and there were many intermarriages of the two families for nearly a century later.
The following rough draft of copy of pages 37-64 George Benson's book. THIS HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD, so treat the information as such. If you do see any errors, please let me know.
OTHER NOTES CONNECTED WITH THE VERY EARLY KUYKENDALLS
We have seen that our first ancestor born in this country was baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New York City. Before going on with a fuller account of the Kuykendalls mentioned in the records by generations that have gone before, a few words in regard to the history of this first church of America, where was baptized the first Kuykendall of America, will be interesting to our people. This interest grows out of the fact of the relation it bore to the beginning of our family history in this country.
This church of New Amsterdam, now New York, was organ-ized in the year 1628, and has continued to this day, and is now the wealthy Collegiate Church of New York City, and has ten buildings and fourteen ministers. It was founded and organized by Rev. Jonas Michaelus. The church building in which our first American born Kuykendall was baptized was a stone structure erected in the summer of 1642, and therefore was at the time of his baptism a new building. The pulpit and bell were made in Holland and shipped over to New York.
It was not the custom at that time to enter the name of the mothers, when children were baptized, and hence w~ do not see in this record the name of the mother of our first ancestor of American birth. This is unfortunate, as we are left without a knowledge of the early history of the first ancestor's mother, and family.
It is elsewhere explained that the patronymic, or father name of our first ancestor was Luur or Luer, or some modification of that name and that among the first baptisms of his children, the name Van Kuykendaal did not appear.
As stated he lived in Celderland, Holland, in the vicinity of Wageningen. He and Urbanus Luursen probably came to this country together in the employ of the Dutch West India Company. The affairs of that company were at that time under the supervision of Killiaen Van Rensselaer, who was a wealthy dealer in diamonds and pearls in Holland. This man purchased a large tract of land on the Hudson river and sent over a lot of Holland people,-farmers, mechanics and artisans, to develop the lands.
Jacob and Urbanus were undoubtedly brothers, and it would seem, from the evidence of the old records, that they came over to New Amsterdam about the winter of 1646. Probably both were mechanics, the records say that Urbanus was a mason. We do not know whether Jacob was married before leaving Holland or not.
He went to Fort Orange soon after arriving in America, and may have been in the employ of the company up to the time of his death. He must have died in 1656. He had a grant from the Lord Director General and Council for a lot for building purposes, dated October 25, 1653.
__Beginning of the Family Kuykendall............35
On this lot he had a home and little garden. Owing to the fact that the name of his wife does not appear anywhere in the records, we are unable to follow her later history as we should like.
There is little room to doubt that Leur grew up from early youth in the Esopus country, (the region about Kingston), and, as he married there and lived there, it is most likely that his mother, after the death of his father, moved from Fort Orange to Rochester, (now Accord), soon after she was left a widow.
At about the age of thirty, he married, in the year 1680, at Kingston, the daughter of a Hollander who lived in Esopus, her name being Grietje Tack, daughter of Aert Pietersen Tack and Annetje Ariens. The Tack family came from Holland at a very early day and settled at Esopus. Some of the family descendants lived there several generations.
There is today, at Stone Ridge, a little town of New York, about ten miles out from Kingston2 an old hotel that was built by Johannes Tack, the great grandson of Cornelius Tack, the father-in4aw of the first Kuykendall born in this country.
Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendall and his wife, Grietje Tack Kuykendaal, continued to reside in the vicinity of Rochester, until about the year 1700. During this interval they had seven children, all of whom were baptized at Kingston. Their eighth child, a daughter, Annetje, was baptized at Minisink, thus fixing the date that the family moved from Rochester to Minisink. At the time of their removal, Leur, father of the family, was about fifty years old. He had lived in that vicinity for probably forty years. He then had one daughter and five sons. We have here the beginning of the family Kuykendall on the western continent, now moving from Esopus, then one of the oldest and most thickly settled communities on the Hudson river, going to the Minisink country, then a far out frontier.
William Tietsoort was the first settler in the region to which they were moving. He had preceded the Kuykendalls about six years, having gone in there about 1694. Previous to that he had been living in Schenectady, a few miks out from Fort Orange, the childhood home of Luur's father. While Tietsoort was living there, the Indians attacked and burned Schenectady and he fled from there down to Esopus, (Kingston), where his brother Abram lived. The Indians in the Minisink country were friendly with the whites at that time and invited the blacksmith Tietsoort to go to their country and start a blacksmith shop.
He made his home there and the Indians deeded him a tract of land, the title of which they never afterwards disputed.
It was not long after that time that Luur Jacobsen Van
Kuykendaal moved to Minisink. Later Jacob, Luur's son, married
Adrientje Tietsoort at Kingston, daughter of the brother Abram, of
William, the blacksmith.
Quite likely the fertile soil, beautiful country and fine hunting and fishing opportunities had some influence in inducing the move.
36............History of the Kuykendall Family__
Jacob had by this time probably begun his fur trading with the Indians, and Minisink was a famous fur trading point.
We have now traced the family down to the Minisink country on the Delaware. They went along down the old mine road, for there was at that time no other road to travel.
It has been stated before that the children of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendall's family were baptized and the record of their baptism made in the registers of the Reformed Dutch registers, in the churches where the family lived. All baptisms were recorded in the order of the date upon which they were performed, and as a matter of course, the names of other children would come between the names of the children of any one family. It will aid us to understand what the records really convey, to know something of the customs and practices of the Dutch Reformed Church in those days, in regard to baptism. Our forefathers were very punctilious in regard to their observance of the rite of baptism, and there were many little details carried out that are not observed today. Only such can be mentioned as will help to an understanding of what the record conveys.
When a child was presented for baptism, it was required that there should be two sponsors for the one baptized, if it were an infant; two witnesses, if it were an adult. The sponsors were supposed to take upon themselves the responsibility of the religious training of the child, and were to answer the questions and baptismal vow required. It was the father's place to see that witnesses were present and it was usual to have the sponsors or witnesses persons related to the baptismal candidate.
When therefore we see the record of the baptism, we know that the witnesses were not persons picked up by accident or con-venience only. They were generally some way related by blood or marriage, and not merely friendly assistants; but circumstances sometimes caused variations from this rule. We may not at first discover the relationship between the parties, but on investigation it will generally be found that some kind of relationship existed.
We see from this that the witnesses or sponsors will, in many cases, afford a clue to the relatives of the family. In the forepart of the next chapter will be given the record of Leur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal's children's baptisms, with names of witnesses and sponsors.
NOTE-It Will be seen that the name Luur is spelled Leur also. It was spelled variously in the baptismal records.
CHAPTER VIII
CHILDREN OF LEUR JACOBSEN VAN KUYKENDAAL-RECORD OF
THEIR BAPTISM AS FOUND IN THE OLD
DUTCH CHURCH RECORDS.
We present below the family record of the first American born ancestor of the Kuykendall family. The spelling is given just as it occurs in the old church registers, with names of sponsors or witnesses so as to convey a correct idea of the original record.
They are scattered throughout the register, according to the date of the baptisms. They have been brought together here in the order of the births, so as to appear as one complete family record, that can be easily referred to in the study of the family history.
The record is presented in three columns, the first column contains the names of the children and the dates of their baptism; the second contains the names of the parents, while the third shows the names of the sponsors or witnesses.
Child's Name and............................................ Name of Parents........................ Names of Witnesses ...
Date of Baptism. ................................................................................................or Sponsors
Styntie............................................................ Leur Jacobz, ..............................Stintie Douwes,
April 2, 1682.................................................. Grietje Artz Tack....................... Claes Teunisse.
Jacob, ............................................................Luyr Jacobs,............................... Annetie Arys,
August 12, 1683............................................. Grietje Tack............................... Jacob Jans Van Etten.
Johannes........................................................ Leur Jacobs, ...............................Cornelis Aartz Tack,
April 20, 1685............................................... Grietje Tack................................. Sytie Van Etten.
Cornelis,........................................................ Leur Jacobs, ...............................Johannes de Hooghes,
May 30, 1686............................................... Grietje Tack................................ Jan Evers, Grietje Adriens.
Johannes, .......................................................Lur Jacobs, ................................Johannes de Hooghes,
September 30, 1688...................................... Grietje Tack............................... Johannes Evers, Grietje Adriens.
Mattheus was born about 1690, no baptismal record found.
Arie,.............................................................. Leur Jacobs,.............................. Jan Van Etten,
June 8, 1694.................................................. Grietie Tack.............................. Janette Rosa.
Pieter,............................................................ Luir Jacobs,.............................. Peter Van Etten,
May 1, 1698. ................................................Grietje Tack.............................. Hyltje Van Etten.
Annetje,......................................................... Luir Jacobsen,.......................... Willem Van Vreedenburg,
May 19, 1700................................................ Grietje Tack. ...........................Cornelia Swart.
Sara,.............................................................. Luir Jacobsen,.......................... Pieter Van Etten,
June 14, 1702 ................................................Grietje Tack.............................. Eva de Hooghes.
Seyte,............................................................ Leur Jacobsen Van ...................Manuel Van Etten,
October 27, 1706.......................................... Kuykendaal,............................. Gertruy Tietsort.
......................................................................Grietje Tack.
38............History of the Kuykendall Family__
In view of the fact that most of our people have heretofore known but little about the very early history of the family, I feel sure they will be pleased to see the family record of the first Ameri-can born ancestor. It can confidently be relied upon as correct, as it is a faithful copy from the old Dutch Reformed Church baptismal registers. If carefully and intelligently studied, it will convey more than at first sight appears.
There is nothing to show that Mattheus was ever baptized, though it is highly probable that he was, and that the record was lost. His birth coming between the births of his brother Johannes, 1688, and Arie, 1694, the birth of Matthew has been placed at 1690. His marriage is recorded under the head of "Marriages," in the Kingston Dutch Reformed Church register, as follows:
"14th Jan. 1715.
"MATTHEUS VAN KUYKENDAAL j. m. born in Ray-cester (Rochester) and JANNETJE WESTVAAL, j. d., born in Kingston and both residing in Mennising, (Minisink). Banns registered 3, April."
Rochester, (now Accord), is a little village about fifteen miles in direct line from Kingston. While Mattheus and his bride, at the time of their marriage, lived in the Minisink region, not far from Machackemeck or Port Jervis, they chose to go back to Kingston to be 'married, for this was the old home of both.
One of the first things that attracts our attention in the record is the great variation in the spelling of the names. Our ancestor's first name is spelled Leur, Luyr, Luir, and Lur, they all having the same sound. In those days they spelled by the sound, that is pho-netically. If a word sounded right it was accepted without criticism.
It will be noticed that in every instance the mother's name is given as Grietje Tack. When Seyte's baptism was registered, the father's name is written out in full, LEUR JACOBSEN VAN KUYKENDAAL. It is clear from this, that the name was all along understood to have been Van Kuykendaal, but according to the custom of the time, in writing the name, the patronymic only was used, as Mr. Versteeg suggests.
We have in this baptismal record an illustration of several of the peculiar features connected with the baptism of our forefather's children, as, for instance, the custom of giving the maiden name of the mother, instead of the name by marriage, and of having witnesses or sponsors for each and every child baptized.
We notice in this family there were two children named Johannes. When a child was baptized, and afterward died young, it was a very common custom to give some child born later, the same name; this was done to perpetuate it in the family, or as they often said, "hand the name down" in the family. Many instances of this kind could be given both in church and family records of the time.
__The First Ancestor's Family History............39
STYNTIE or CHRISTINA, the first child, a daughter of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal and wife Grietje Aertze Tack, grew up with her parents about fifteen miles from Kingston, New York. She married Jurian Westfall, about 1710; the baptism of their first Child took place in 1711. Jurian and his wife, Christina Van Kuykendaal, lived nearly eleven miles below the present site of Port Jervis, on the Delaware river, in Sussex County, N. J., adjacent to what was then called the "Big Minisink Island." Here Jacob Van Kuykendall and his brother-in-law, Jurian Westfall, lived on part of a tract of land they had bought jointly from Thomas Stevenson, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, containing 500 acres. They sold a part of this tract to a man named Johannes Westbrook, and divided the remainder between them.
The plat of the old original village of Minisink, made April 7, 1725, shows the names of both Jacob Kuykendall and Jurian West-fall and also that of Jacob's brother, Mattheus. Just what time they might have moved on to this place is not known, but it may have been any time between 1714 and 1725, but was probably nearer the first named date.
The marriage of Jurian Westfall and Styntie Kuykendall was
the first intermarriage of the two families. By this marriage Christina had three children, viz: Johannes, baptized June 24,1711: Jacobus, baptized February 8, 1713; Jacob, baptized June8.1715.
Christina must have died soon after the birth of this child Jacob, for her husband, Jurian Westfall, married the second time to Marytje Koddebeck, August 20, 1717. Both Cuddebacks and Westfalls intermarried with Kuykendalls afterwards many times.
Family records and genealogical charts taken alone are not usually interesting reading. Family history, all history, in fact, is mostly the sum of the biographies of the men and women connected therewith. As the genealogical record of the sons and grandsons, and daughters of Luer Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal are taken up, we shall note some of the facts connected with their life histories. Unfortunately there are some of them of whom we 1~ve no record, except that of their baptism.
JACOB VAN KUYKENDAAL, or Jacob Kuykendall, as he later signed his name, the second child of Luer, was baptized August 12, 1683, at Kingston, N. Y. He was reared to manhood in the region about Kingston, and married Adrientjen Tietsoort, who was the daughter of Abram Tietsoort of Kingston, and niece of William Tietsoort, the pioneer blacksmith. The Tietsoorts, (now spelled Tittsworth); and the Kuykendalls intermarried in several instances later, as when William, a son of Stephen Tittsworth, married Cath-crine Kuykendal, daughter of Hendrick Kuykendall and Eliza-beth Cole.
Jacob Kuykendall had Only one child, Margrita, by his first wife. She was baptized at Kingston, N. Y., September 11, 1709. This first wife, Adrientje Tietsoort, must have died soon after the
............History of the Kuykendall Family__Introductory Considerations............
40............History of the Kuykendall Family__
birth of her daughter Margrita, for his second marriage is recorded as having taken place at Minisink, February 3, 1712. The record in the Church register reads: "Married, Jacob Van Kuykendaal, wid'r of Adrientjen Tietsoort, and Sara Westvaal, maiden, both residing in Mennissing, (Minisink).
Family record of Jacob Van Kuykendaal now follows:
Margrita, baptized Sept. 11, 1709, by 1st wife Adrientje Tietsoort.
Johannes, (John), baptized Jan. 19, 1713, by 2nd wife Sara Westphael.
Jacobus, (James), baptized August 19, 1716, he and the others, by 2nd wife.
Dina, baptized Jan.28, 1719.
Marretjen, baptized Oct.22, 1721.
Benjamin, baptized Sept. 1, 1723.
Christina, baptized Feb.12, 1727.
Nathaniel, baptized Oct. 6, 1728.
Abraham, was probably born in Virginia, no record found.
The family of Jacob, with some of his brothers and their families, went to Virginia, as elsewhere related, and some of their descendants are found still farther west and south. Going out into the frontier so early, many of the descendants lost trace of their forefathers.
The descendants of Pieter, the youngest brother of Jacob, who mostly remained in the east, will be interested with Jacob's descendants, because they have heretofore known so little about the Kuy-kendalls of the far west, or the source from which they sprang. Those of the early forefathers who remained in the east had con-siderably better Opportunity of keeping trace of their ancestors, as they remained in the same locality, near the old ancestral home, generation after generation.
We find Jacob's name several times in the old records. He is mentioned in the Archives of Pennsylvania, as being connected with the survey of the line between New York and New Jersey.
There had been some doubt as to where the line really was, and the assemblies of the two colonies, New York and New Jersey, had passed several acts providing for the survey of the division line between them. The record reads:
"Whereupon the Commission ordered James Steel and Jacob Taylor to repair to Machackemeck, (a Dutch town on the east side of the Delaware river), when certain Commissioners from the above named provinces were appointed to meet." Steel and Taylor reported April 19th as follows: "We were appointed to set out on a journey to Machackemeck, in order to meet certain persons who were appointed by the government of New York and New Jersey, etc. "In pursuance thereof we sett out from Philadelphia, 20th day of same month (April)." The report goes on to say, they arrived there, "and having made inquiry of several Indians, and particularly
Jacob Kuykendall as Surveyor's Guide............41
of Solomon Davis and Jacob Kuykendall, (two Indian traders), about the branches of the river Delaware, that were between the said river, called the ftishkill and Susquehanna. The said Solomon Davis and Jacob Kuykendall, having, as well as those Indians, often traveled between those rivers, from one to the other, and therefore knew perfectly well what branches were to be found proceeding out of the Delaware.
The Commission appointed Maj. John Harrison to travel over from the ffishkill to Susquehanna, who took with him Jacob Kuykendall and an Indian for guides, and soon went on his journey, which he undertook on foot."
While this incident gives some account of Jacob Kuykendall's life, it also gives other co-related facts. Solomon Davis is well known to have been an Indian trader who lived in Machackemeck, near the present site of Port Jervis. He and Jacob Kuykendall had, as Indian traders, made many a trip along the Delaware, and be-tween that river and the Susquehanna.
The Davids were of English Origin, and the name frequently appears written in the old records as Davids, Davis or Devins. One of the sons of Solomon Davids married Marretje Kuykendall, (laughter of Cornelis, brother of Jacob Kuykendall.
Mr. Nearpass, in "Church Life," says, "This Solomon Davis was a son of Joris Davis and Johanna Davis, an Englishman, who first settled at Hellegat, on the Island of Manhattan, from thence he removed to Fort Orange (Albany), and in 1654, went with his family to Ulster County. He was a trapper, and in 1655 was an interpreter and principal mediator between Whites and Indians."
We have here disclosed the fact that the Kuykendalls and Davids began their acquaintance probably as early as 1654, at Fort Orange and may possibly have been acquainted several years before. for at that time our Holland ancestor, Jacob Luursen, was still living at that place.
Hanna, in his "Wilderness trail," mentions Jacob Kuykendall as Indian trader in Minisink, in 1719.
The next we hear of him is when a plat of the old Minisink Village is surveyed, at which time the name of Jacob with five others appears on a plat made by Cornelius Loew, April 7.1725. A cut of this plat in reduced size is seen elsewhere in this volume. The names that appear on the plat are those of Jacob and Matthew Van Kuykendall, Johannes and Anthony Westbrook, Jan Cortright and Jurian Westfall.
Jacob Kuykendall was still living there at the same place six years later when the people of the community were wanting a place for a school house and cemetery. Several of them formed an association and purchased a tract from Johannes Westbrook, which was, according to the deed, to be for a "burying ground and a schule house forever."
That same year. 1731, Jacob sold out his interests at the Minisink Islands. While he had lived there, he appears to have
42............History of the Kuykendall Family__
been in some sort of partnership with his brotherinlaw, Jurian Westfall. Jurian had died before, and when the deed from Jacob Kuykendall was made, it was to the heirs of Westfall, and conveys all Jacob's interest in the five hundred acres that he and Jurian had bought from Thomas Stevenson.
At that time there was a flourishing village at Minisink, just on the main land, adjacent to Minisink Island, on the Jersey side of the Delaware. It is said in history that it was the first village in Sussex county, New Jersey, with a store, blacksmith shop and tavern.
What there may have been there in the way of local industries otherwise, we do not know, but there were a number of residences and a fort and trading post of quite extensive note.
After Jacob sold out in 1731, he appears, the next account we have of him, apparently a little lower down the Delaware on the Pennsylvania side. In 1741 a petition was sent to Thomas Penn, then Governor of Pa., asking relief from the aggressions of the whites, who were said to be crowding over upon and taking the Indian's lands. They sent this petition by a man who carried a letter signed by Abram Van Vampen, Jacob Kuykendall, Nicholas Depui and James Kuykendall. James was a son of Jacob Kuy-kendall.
I found in one of the public libraries of New York, a little book entitled "Reminiscences of George Labar, the author of which was 107 years old in 1780. Labar was a pioneer in that part of the country about the Water Gap and Stroudsburg. He says, "The principal settlers in 1741, in that vicinity were N. De Pui, Abram Van Campen, Jacobus Kirkendall, Daniel Brodhead and Jacob Kirkendall, and that they had petitioned the Governor to send help, as the Indians were retaliating for the wrong of the "Indian Walk." That a great swindle was perpetrated against the Indians in that so called "Indian Walk Treaty" there can be no doubt. It is a pleasure to know that while our fathers were made to suffer for the wrongs against the Indians, Jacob and James Kuykendall were on the side of the Indian's rights, with their neighbors Depui and Van Campen.
Having now given some of the principal facts connected with the life of Jacob Kuykendall, eldest son of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal, down to the year 1741, from records that have been found, we may proceed to give an account of his children, so far as we have found data to do so. The record of their baptisms has been already presented in an earlier part of this chapter.
NOTE-It is quite possible that Jacob Kuykendall may not have moved down to the Water Gap. People anywhere within 25 or 30 miles were considered to be neighbors in those pioneer times.
FAMILY OF JACOB KUYKENDALL, FIRST SON OF
LUUR JACOBSEN Van KUYKENDAAL.
MARGARITA, was the first child of Jacob, born of his first wife Adrientje Tietsoort and baptized at Kingston, N. Y., Sept. 11, 1709, by Dominie Ganitherus du Bois. Her after history was not found.
Jacob's family was a healthy, vigorous one, and most of them grew to maturity and raised families. It was over thirty years after the birth of this Margarita that her father's family went to Virginia. In the meantime she may have married or may have died.
JOHANNES, the second in the family of Jacob Kuykendall was baptized at Minising, N. J., Jan.19, 1713, by Dominie Vas. He grew up to manhood in the region where he was born and baptized. The country all about was still far out on the frontier, and settlements were few and sparse. Jacob, his father, was at that time engaged in trade with the Indians, buying and selling the peltry of fur bearing animals.
His business called him away from home for considerable periods of time, while he was out on his trading expeditions along the Delaware, Mohawk and Susquehanna rivers and their tribu-taries.
Here at the old home on the Delaware, the family continued to live, farming, raising gardenstuff, and doubtless much of the meat used by them was procured by the rifle and fishing rod. Those Kuykendall boys had the finest fishing, hunting and trapping and Canoeing along the river. It was a beautiful place; the Dela-ware river and valley, and the hills back of the old place formed a charming picture.
There is nothing to show where Johannes received his school-ing, whether at a home school at the old Village of Minisink, opposite the Minisink Island, or above at the Machackemeck school, near the home of his uncle, Peter Kuykendall. For a number of years the old Minisink Village was one of the most widely known business trading points of all this region. The soil there was very fertile, and remains very productive yet, after so long a time. It produced large crops of corn, vegetables, wheat and oats. When the Dutch settlers first located there, they planted out orchards, and soon there was an abundance of apples and large quantities of cider was made for home use and for sale or exchange at Esopus, (Kingston.)
The old home of Johannes was near the ancient mine road which ran through the village. Along this noted highway there was much travel between the Water Gap and the old Dutch town at Kingston on the Hudson. The village was a noted stopping place for travelers and teamsters who hauled ore from the old mine up to Esopus. and for the settlers hauling their wheat, cider,
44............History of the Kuykendall Family__
feathers, peltry and other products to market. These sturdy old Dutchmen camped there on their way, and at night gathered about their campfires or at the old tavern, telling stories, smoking their pipes, drinking cider, and according to history, some of them took something considerably more stimulating.
If we could conjure up by some magic power, and bring back those old times and people, and listen to the stories they told, what thrillingly interesting things we should hear; what portrayals of fishing, hunting, Indian fighting and heroic exploits, and what marvelous narration's about ghosts and witches and the comedies and tragedies of early pioneer life in far back times!
At the old Minisink home, where Jacob and Matthew Kuy-kendall live there was an old Indian graveyard, where for ages the Indians deposited their dead. Almost within a stone's throw of this Indian burying ground is the ancient cemetery purchased in 1731 for the use of the first white settlers. It is all overgrown with brush and concealed from the public gaze. In the thick brush there are a number of graves marked by head-stones. Among them