Stop, before we move forward let’s back track to see where the journey began.
Our trail leads back to Wythe County, Virginia, then Rowan County, North Carolina. The trail leads back north to the Schuylkill Valley and Tulpehocken Creek in Pennsylvania. Again, north to the Hudson River Valley, to Albany and Claverack, thence across the Atlantic Ocean. The year 1642, to Amsterdam. Jan Franz Van Husum and Valkie Van Norstrom are married there in …..
But their journey begins near the village of Husum on the western coast of the Jutland Peninsula. The year 1634 is pivotal. That was the year the Second Grote Mandrenke struck.
Perhaps they met during the storm or its aftermath. Perhaps they met by chance as refugees in the city of Amsterdam. That story is lost, but we do know that they married and sailed on a ship to a new life.
And that was the beginning of the family Van Huss in America.
It is 1795. The first Van Huss in Tennessee is Valentine Vanhooser.
In 1795 Valentine Vanhooser settled on one hundred acres, next to Cobbs Creek in Carter County, Tennessee (formerly Washington County, North Carolina). North Carolina was for the princely sum of 50 shillings an acre.
According to Map Quest, the area is just north of present day Watauga Lake and east of Elizabethton, now part of the Cherokee National Forest. Historically, the area was near Fort Watauga.
Two additional generations of Van Husses lived in Tennessee before emigrating to Kansas. Mattias Van Huss and Valentine Worley Van Huss. Valentine Worley Van Huss left for Kansas with his several sons after the Civil War. This Valentine left behind an extended family which still lives in Tennessee.
