Valentine "Felty" Van Hooser (1726 - 1781)

Genealogy can be a veritable alphabet soup, sons are named after fathers or grandfathers, or uncles. Names appear and reappear quite frequently making it difficult to distinguish one apple from another, or in this case, Valentine Van Hooser from another.

New York

This Valentine Van Hooser (1726-1781) was born 16 Jan 1726 in Claverack, Albany, New York. If we are looking for namesakes, then Valentine takes his name from his mother's father, Johann Valentin (Laux) Lauck. "Felty" which is often attached to Valentine's name is but a nickname like Tom, Dick, or Harry.

Valentine a fourth generation Van Huss, and direct descendant of Jan Franz Van Husum. As is often the case with children not the first born, they move on to other lands. So it was that Jan Franz Van Husum who settled in upstate New York near present day Albany would watch as later born children moved on. In the case of the Van Husums, Van Hoesens, Van Hoosers, and Van Huss, it was west to Pennsylvania, south to North Carolina, up to Virginia, then across the Smokey Mountains to Tennessee and beyond.

Pennsylvania

Our fourth generation Valentine finds himself in Tulpehocken (Land of the Turtles), Lancaster County (now Berks), Pennsylvania, home to many German families like the Laux and the Zerbe that mixed with Valentine on the maternal side of the family, and interestingly, the ancestral home of Abraham Lincoln and the birthplace of Daniel Boone. Valentine came there in 1728 at the age of 2  with his parents and siblings. They settled among Germans who had first come in 1723 and squatted on land that by rights belonged to the Indians. Thus, when the Van Hooser family arrived, the dispute with the local Delawares had yet to be settled. Only in 1732, when Thomas Penn purchase of the land from the Indians, were things made right.

Then, there was the matter of his marriage to Maria Barbara (Zerwe) Zerbe on 22 December 1746 in Tulpehocken. The couple had begun a family by the 5th of March 1750, when Valentine took out a land patent for 50 acre.

North Carolina

Perhaps the reason was the impending Indian troubles, or the growing number of German immigrants moving in, or just the need for change and new land, but, for whatever reason, the couple moves to Rowan County, North Carolina.They would travel by wagon drawn by horse. Their route was The Great Valley Road, aka the "Great Wagon Road," "Great Warriors' Path," "Valley Pike," "Carolina Road," or "Trading Path" which forked at Big Lick Virginia (Roanoke) and took our travelers south to Salisbury North Carolina where they found land.

North Carolina had its own Indian troubles and then there was the matter of the Regulators, who were incensed at paying taxes to absent British "landowners". The farmers "rebellion" against British authority culminated with the Battle of Alamance in 1771, which the Regulators lost. Many of the farmers who had taken up arms then fled to the hills of Tennessee or Virginia.

Virginia

This would explain the strange case of McKenney vs. Preston--O. S. 308; N. S. 110, Chancery Court, Chalkley's Chronicles, Vol 2, Court records of Augusta Virginia, page 228.

Thomas Beelor being deposed remembers:  "...[The] family Hooser or Van Hooser, as they were called, ... settled on North Fork of Clinch near Flat Lick in 1775. The oldest Van Hooser (deponent understood from his father) made the upper improvement, and the old man's son John was the next oldest man and made an improvement near the old man."

Various sources state that Valentine, 51 years old, died at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Valentine's name is not included among those listed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, but there is a note that the list is not complete.

Sources

* History of Tulpehocken, Berks County by Judy Thayer

Van Hooose, Van Hooser, Van Huss (Van Hoesen, Van Husum and other variations) Family in America by Joyce Lindstrom

Stille Nacht

I often remind myself that though we are different in many ways, we are one family sharing a belief in a greater goodness.

Johannes Van Husum and his wife Volkie, spoke either Dutch or German. They came from the Cimbrian Peninsula, now called Jutland, an area inhabited by the ancient tribes of Cimbri and Jutes. Johannes lived in the coastal town of Husum. It is for this reason, that the name Van Huss and Van Hoesen and all the other variations owes its existance. Volkie Van Nordstrand grew up on the adjacent island of Nordstrand.

Tragedies are both devastating and uplifting. They define the human spirit, for no matter how deep and difficult the loss, it is the human spirit to rise above difficulties and persevere. So it was on the night of October 11, 1634, when a devastating flood swept over the island of Nordstrand and much of the coast, killing thousands and rendering many thousands more homeless as winter approached.

The story of  the flood and its aftermath is best told by Cor Snabel.

But what Cor Snabel doesn't tell us is that a young Volkie and her sister survived the storm, even though they lost their parents. Volkie and Jan would meet, move to Amsterdam. They fell in love, married and set sail to the New World two years later.

The German language and its Dutch variation lingered on in America for well over two centuries. And it is known that many of the descendants of Jan and Volkie spoke German in their homes. This was true at least until the lives of  Valentine Van Huss and his son Mathias, who lived in Tennessee. This became known when a modern descendent discovered hidden in a barn two religious books written in German.

It is to Valentine and Mathias, to Jan and Volkie and to all those who have suffered tragedy in life that I dedicated this beautiful rendition of Silent Night in the original German.

May you know the peace of God's mercy.

 

Along the Schuylkill River

By the third generation, the Van Hooser family was ready to move again. This time the family would move from upstate New York to the Township of Heidelberg in the County of Berks, Pennsylvania.

The Van Hooser family had come to America in 1639. The first Van Huss name was Jan Franz Van Husum, so called because he came from the small coastal town of Husum in North Friesland. He arrived in New York, along with his wife Volkje Juriens or Jurrianse.  She was from the neighboring island of Nordstrand which had been devastaed by the Nordstrand Flood of 1634.

Note. You will have noticed that I have already spelled the last name several ways. That is because over the years the name changed according to location and use. Jan was originally Van Husum, literally "from Husum". In New York the accepted spelling was Van Hoesen. This then became Van Hooser or Vanhooser. The "e" was sometimes left off, giving us Vanhoose. One wonders about the German influence on the name. One also wonders about the similarity to the Indiana nickname "Hoosier". Van Huss, which is the spelling of my wife's family, did not come into use until after 1795.

Eventually, Jan and Volkje would make there way to upstate New York, settling in the Rennsylaerwick colony. Jan did well, trading with the Indians for beaver, buying land and raising at least nine children. It was their seventh child Johannes Van Hoesen, who was to father a son, also named Johannes, who would emigrate from New York to Pennsylvania.

This Johannes, grandson to Jan and Vlokje, was born in 1697 in Kingston, New York. In 1720, he married Elizabeth Christina Laux (Lauck). They lived for awhile in New York, but in 1728, followed Elizabeth's brother Abraham to Pennsylvania. They settled on land in Heidelberg Township next to the Tulpehocken Creek along the Schuylkill River. The area is now an historic district.

Johannes and Elizabeth lived in Heidelberg Township until 1753 or 1754. Their neighbors included Conrad Weiser, an early settler who spoke Mohawk and help to mediate between the Indians who lived along the Schuylkill and the white settlers. See Conrad Weiser. When Johannes and Elizabeth left Pennsylvania for North Carolina, Conrad Weiser along with Abraham Laux would witness the deed selling their land in Pennsylvania.

Other neighbors included the Boone and Lincoln families. The Boone family arrived in Pennsylvania in 1717 and settled in Oley, near the settlement of the Vanhoosers in Tulpehocken, now called Robesonia. Mapquest shows it to be a scant 20 miles apart with Oley to the east of Reading and the Tulpehocken Creek to the west. Mapquest. The Lincoln family lived in Chester County for a period around the same time. The Lincolns would move to Augusta, Virginia. The Boones moved to Rowan and Anson counties in North Carolina, where Johannes and Elizabeth settled.

One can find online the deed of sale from Johannes and Elizabeth Vanhooser to John Joseph Derr and Henry Boyer. Joyce Lindstrom also reports the sale in her extensive family history. The deed reports the slae of 200 acres of land located between the properties of William Allen to the south and east and Abraham Laux to the north and west.

Note. Trying to exactly identify the location is difficult. Joyce Lindstrom reports that Johannes lived near present day Robesonia, near the larger city of Reading. Abraham Laux (Lauck) is buried in St. Daniel's Lutheran Church in Robesonia. Conrad Weiser's property is well to the west. William Allen owned property far to the south near Londongrove, but he also owned other property.

Johannes and Elizabeth's departure to North Carolina was well-timed. In 1754, the French and Indian War broke out along the Pennsylvania frontier. English General Braddock and colonial forces were defeated by French and Indian forces in the summer of 1755 in western Pennsylvania. In the fall the Indians killed 14 settlers and took hostage another 11 at Penn's Creek, which was much nearer to the Tulpehocken settlements.

Two times two and fifty exquisite Biblical Stories from the Old and New Testaments, for youth prepared to the best of his ability by Johann Hübnern,

Two times two and fifty exquisite Biblical Stories from the Old and New Testaments, for youth prepared to the best of his ability by Johann Hübner. Image by William (Bill) Meyers.

Johan Hubner, Two times two and fifty Biblical Stories

The Page reads in German:

Zweimal zwei und fünfzig auserlesene Biblische Historien aus dem Alten und Neuen Testamente,
der Jugend zum Besten abgefass von Johann Hübnern,
Rector des Johannei zu Hamburg. Nebst einer B[V]orrede E. Hoch=ehrwürdigen Ministerei der Stadt Hamburg. Aufs neue revidirt, von M. Joh. Gottfr. Fletch., Past. in Stürmthal
_______________________________________
Mit Kaiserlichen, wie auch konigl. Sachsischen allergnadigsten
Privilegiis
________________________________________
Leipzig, Johann Friedrich Gleditsch, 1814


The English translation reads:

Two times two and fifty (104) exquisite Biblical Stories from the Old and New Testaments for youth prepared to the best of his ability by Johann Hübner,
Rector (Master) of St. John's, Hamburg. In addition, Preface by the most-reverend Minister of  the city of Hamburg. Revised, by John M. Gottfr. Fletch., Pastor at Stürmthal (Störmthal)

____________________________________

With Imperial, as well royal permission of Saxony graciously given

Privileges (Copyright)

____________________________________

Leipzig, Johann Friedrich Gleditsch, 1814

Notes.  These Biblical stories were a popular source of instruction of youth within the German Lutheran communities both in Europe and the United States. In the early 1700's, there was a wave of German immigrants to America from the Palatinate Region, southwest Germany. This immigration was a result of the Thirty Years War and the religious intoleration that still existed in Germany.

Jan Franz Van Husum's grandson, Johannes Vanhooser married one of these immigrants, Elizabeth Christina Laux (Lauck). Their son Valentine Felty Vanhooser would marry Maria Barbara Zerbe. Her family had likewise emigrated from the Palatinate and arrived in America in 1710. German was spoken in many of the early communities.

A later edition of Hubner's stories was published in St. Louis in 1869. Allexperts.com. The notes from this source point out that "Johannei" (Johanneum in Latin, in English, we would think of it as St. John's Preparatory School) is the oldest academic secondary (pre-university) school in Hamburg, founded in 1529 by Johannes Burgenhagen. Burgenhagen was a spiritual emissary of Martin Luther. See also, Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums.

Johann Hübner, 1668 - 1731, (the modern day spelling drops the last "n" from the name Hubnern), was a German teacher, poet, historical author, as well as author of school books, and Protestant religious theorist during the Reformation. Johann Hübner, German Wikipedia. He originally published his Two times fifty-two Biblical stories in 1714.

The Biblical stories were actively published from 1714 until either 1870 or 1902. The book that Bill Meyers has was published in Leipzig, Germany in 1814. During its active life, the book underwent 40 publications and 19 revisions, which included translations into six European languages, and also appeared in the USA. Johan Hubner.

Valentine Felty Vanhooser on the Clinch River, Virginia

This is just a draft that needs editing.

Valentine Velty Vanhooser and his wife Maria Barbara Zerwe arrived in western North Carolina somewhere between 1747 and 1754, settling in the Yadkin Valley close to the Virginia border. The area of their land holdings, in what is now Surry County, was originally called Anson county. Later, about 1753, Rowan County was formed from the western section of Anson County with a county seat at Salisbury. Still later, about 1771, Surry County was formed. For this reason, all of these counties will occasionally be referenced in records about the Vanhoosers.

Valentine and his wife lived for 20 years in North Carolina, producing thirteen children by some records, the last of whom, Valentine Felty Vanhooser, Jr., was born 1768 in Rowan County. This Valentine is Bob's ancestor. He would later migrate to Tennessee in 1795.

Valentine's oldest son John will be the subject of the deposition found in the Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Augusta Co., Va by Chalkey, Vol.2, pp. 227-8. In a deposition in 1814, John who was then 67 years old, testified that he and his family came to Virginia in 1777, as he recalled. Another deponent, Charles Carter remembered the family Vanhooser arriving in 1775 and settling along the North Fork of Clinch River near Flat Lick. By the time of this deposition, the elder Valentine had died, and his younger son Valentine Jr. had left Virginia for Tennessee, settling near Fort Watauga.

Valentine senior and his family prospered in North Carolina, as evidenced by the several land transactions in which he bought and sold land at a considerable profit. But, sometime around 1771, Valentine moved from North Carolina across the border to Virginia, first near Fincastle for several years, then to the North Fork of the Clinch River in what is now Tazewell County.

The North Fork of the Clinch River cuts across Powell Mountain on the extreme western edge of Virginia and crosses into Tennessee. Powell Mountain is crossed by U.S. Route 58, the "Daniel Boone Trail Highway", the Wilderness Road crossing the mountain nearby, at Kanes Gap. This is the route that Daniel Boone and a large party would take in September 1779, leaving the Yadkin Valley and crossing first to the area near Fort Watauga, in what is now eastern Tennessee, then to Kentucky.

Vanentine Vanhooser's reasons for leaving North Carolina after so many years are unknown. But many were fleeing the violence of North Carolina. These include the struggle between the so-called "Regulators" and the
taxing authorities. Indian troubles continued on occasion as Cherokees raided western settlements in North Carolina from time to time. The coming American Revolution also stirred up rival passions between those seeking independence and Tories who remained loyal to the British. One who left on this trek later recalled that the road out of North Carolina was so clogged with Tories leaving that a traveler "could hardly get along the road for them."

See Boone, a Biography by Robert Morgan, page 288.

In 1771, Lord Dunmore became governor of Virginia. He and others, including George Washington, were interested in land speculation west of the Alleghenies. His policy was to encourage settlement in the Shawnee Indians’ ancestral hunting grounds south of the Ohio River in what is today Kentucky and West Virginia. This led to what is known as "Dunmore’s War". In the summer of 1774, Lord Dunmore along with a militia from Augusta, Fincastle, and Botetourt Counties defeated the Shawnees at the Battle of Point Pleasant.  British and colonial success was overtaken by events at Lexington and Concord. The outbreak of the American Revolution divided loyalties between Tories and those seeking independence. Lord Dunmore would command the loyalists in Virginia during the war.

Later, the Virginia legislature, in 1779, passed a law that settlers who had taken up land in the western reaches of Virginia prior to January 1, 1778, might obtain 400 acres at a nominal price and preemption rights to another thousand acres at the usual price of forty pounds per hundred acres.

It is not known whether Valentine Vanhooser participated in Dunemore's campaigns. He had however moved to Virginia at about the time of the outbreak of hostilities. His move to the mountains of western Virginia would have traded troubles with the Cherokees for Dunmore's campaign against the Pawnees. And, Valentine Vanhooser's known Tory sympathies make his move to Virginia away from North Carolina more logical.The question of family loyalties during the Revolution was not always clear. Even a loyal patriot like Daniel Boone had members of his wife's family who had Tory sympathies during the war.

References and source:


Valentine Felty Vanhooser

About 1771 Valentine sold his land in Surry Co., NC and moved to Virginia, settling just across the border in what was then Fincastle (now Carroll) Co., Va. He lived there for about four years before moving north and west to the North Fork of the Clinch River in what is now Tazewell Co., Va. According to Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Augusta Co., Va by Chalkey, Vol.11, pp. 227-8, Valentine and his oldest son, John took up land in that area, but only lived there two years before they were driven out by Indian uprisings. They returned to their former piece of land which was located along New River and Little Reed Island which was then in Montgomery Co., which became Wythe Co. in 1789/90 and Grayson Co. in 1792 and finally Carroll Co. in 1842.

Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Augusta Co., Va by Chalkey, Vol.2, pp. 227-8

March 1814 John Hooser, aged 67, deposes, came with
his father Felty and brother Abraham to this country 37 years ago. John
has a brother Jacob who was never out in this country. 

March, 1811, Elisha Wallen, aged 27, deposes. Caveat, 12th August, 1799, by John
Mackenny and Elisha Adams against John Donnell, assignee of Andrew
Cowan and John Campbell, Jr., for 400 acres in Lee County on North
Fork Clinch. Donnell and Campbell were granted a certificate by the 
Commissioners 8th August, 1781. Caveators claim under an entry made by
James Dugless, 1780, and sold by him to John Balfour, who has sold to
caveators. Thos. Beelor was an early settler on the land. 29th May, 1811, 

Charles Carter deposes, in Lee County, remembers that Titus and John
Benton were killed by Indians in Rye Cove in spring of 1777. He remembers 
the family Hooser or Van Hooser, as they were called, who settled on
North Fork of Clinch near Flat Lick in 1775. The oldest Van Hooser
(deponent understood from his father) made the upper improvement, and
the old man's son John was the next oldest man and made an improvement
near the old man. Deponent remembers two other members of the family,
Abram and Isaac. Deponent lived with his father in the Rye Cove at the
time those improvements were made. Never heard of Jacob Hooser. 
Deponent's statement is founded on hearsay. 

14th May, 1814, James Dugless
deposes, at dwelling house of John Smith in Madison County, Ohio, shortly
after 1780 deponent moved from Washington County, Va., to Kentucky.
26th February, 1812, Doswell Rogers deposes, in Lee County, he settled on
North Fork Clinch the same year that the Hoosers settled. The settlement
was broken up by Indians for several years. The Wallens, Bentons, Wm.
Roberts and others named these streams as they went through hunting
lands. The Bentons were killed 35 or 36 years ago in April next. 

29th May, 1811, Peter Fulkerson deposes, in Lee County, the country was 
unsettled and dangerous in 1785 on account of Indians. Deed, 30th May,

page 227








1803, by William McCutchen of Carter County, Tenn., John McKinny
of Lee County, land in Lee County. Corner Nathaniel Taylors, 16,000
acres survey. Corner George Goff, 200 acres bought from Nathaniel 
Taylor. Recorded in Lee County, August, 1803. Deed, 31st May, 1803, by
Nathaniel Taylor of Carter County, Tenn., to John McKinney of Lee... 

See The Daniel Boone Trail for a discussion of the route that Daniel Boone took passing by Valentine Felty Vanhooser's holdings on the Clinch River.

The Gwinns, for a discussion of Augusta County, Virginia and Dunemore's War.