New York

Manhattan

Every school child knows the story of how, in 1626, Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the Lenape Indians for $24 in trinkets. Modern scholars now estimate the value considerably higher. (A caution that not everything should be taken at face value.)

Manhattan was part of the larger area of New Netherland (Nieuw-Nederland), a Dutch colony in North America that existed from 1624 until 1664. In that year, the Duke of York sent four English frigates into the port of New Amsterdam and demanded the Dutch surrender.

New Amsterdam became New York City and Fort Orange became Albany.

The area was first explored by Henry Hudson in 1609. And the earliest settlements were built around 1613. Around 1619, Fort Orange, on the Hudson River (Beverwyck on the map) as a center for beaver trade with the Indians. In 1624, New Netherlands became a province of the Netherlands. The port of New Amsterdam was established to protect the beaver trade and transport the beaver pelts to Europe.

The Dutch, through the West India Company, established settlements along the Hudson river to promote trade with the Indians for beaver pelts. Emigrants to the province included Dutch, Danish, Frisian and Schleswigan, and Walloons, as well as African slaves.

In 1639, Jan Franse Van Husum arrived in New Amsterdam along with his new wife Volkie Juriens Van Husum. They settled in Rensselaerswyck, an area surronding Beverwyck, now Albany, New York. Jan Franse was appointed Commissioner of Lands for the Dutch West India Co., and lived at a fur trading post,  Ft. Orange. In 1662 Jan bought from the Indians, for 500 guilders in beavers, land at Claverack and several hundred acres of land along the river where today is the city of Hudson.

Jan and his wife Volkie eventually had thirteen children.Their sixth child, Johannes (John) VanHoesen, born 1655, lived in Claverack (check spelling Clavernack).

His son Johannes, born 1697 lived in Claverack. John Van Hooser, Jr. was a fourth generation VanHooser. He was born in 1723 at Claverack, Albany (now Columbia) Co., New York, the son of Johannes Van Hoesen or John Van Hooser and his wife, Elizabeth Christina Laux.
Image from Wikipedia.

Leaving New York.

Father and son left New York for Tulpehocken, Lancaster (now Berks) Co Pennsylvania, settling in an area of mostly Germans.

Father and younger brothers and sisters then migrated to Anson Co., North Carolina in 1753/4. The son made his will in 1763, signing it John Vanhosen. On deeds there his name appears as John Vanhouser and John Vanhooser.

"[Later]descendants of John Vanhooser retained the spelling, Vanhooser
and settled in Eastern and Central Tennessee. Those from Jackson
Co., Tenn. still spell the name with the small "h".

One branch of the family kept the spelling, VanHuss. They settled in southwest
Virginia and in Carter (later Johnson) Co., Tenn."

In 1845 Valentine W. VanHuss married Lucinda Campbell and raised seven children in Carter county, Tennessee. The children were:

1. VanHuss, James M - 1845
2. VanHuss, Isaac S - 1847
3. VanHuss, Daniel S - 1848
4. VanHuss, Susannah - 1852
5. VanHuss, Matilda - 1853
6. VanHuss, Robert - 1855
7. VanHuss, John - 1859

Later, in the 1880's four brothers, James, Daniel, Robert, and John, homesteaded in and around Beaumont, Kansas.