1840. 1850 and 1860 Federal Census of Carter County, Tennessee

The 1840 U. S. Census for Carter County, Tennessee at page 195, line 12, lists Mathia (Mathias) Van Huss, wife and seven  children. The names and ages of other family members are not given. One child was Valentine.

The U.S. Census of 1850 for Carter County, Tennessee (at page 172, beginning at lines 25) enumerates the family of Valentine and Lucinda H. Van Huss. Valentine, age 23, farms 100 acres. He is married to Lucinda and they have three young children - James, Isaac, and Daniel, ages four, three, and two. Robert Van Huss' grandfather John Finley Van Huss is not yet born.

Ten years later, the 1860 Census for Carter County, Tennessee again lists the family of Valentine and Lucinda Van Huss. The family still farms near the little town of Elizabethton. The census gives Valentine's age as 42, and the ages of the three older children as 14, 12, and 10. In addition, there are four other children Susannah, Matilda, Robert, and one-year-old John. Valentine through hard work now owns 300  acres of farm land.

Tour Elizabethton and Carter County online. The municipal golf course of Elizabethton, Tennessee is located on Buck Van Huss Drive.

Carter County prides itself as the first permanent settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.Carter County was a part of the Transylvania Colony settled as early as the 1760's. The area was explored by Daniel Boone, among others. Carter County today is known for its beautiful scenery and the Appalachian trail which runs through the county.

Goodspeeds' History of Tennessee - Carter County - 1887 gives a good history of the early history of the people who settled Carter County.