Ancestral Photographs of Upstate New York

Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches

Some of the following information originally came from my grandmother's book, "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches" (published 1987). This book is known to contain some errors. If you have any corrections or additions, please contact me.

Much additional information and several family photographs have been very generously contributed by relatives.

VAN KLEECK

Page 2: Jeremiah Van Kleeck (1800 - 1885) and Descendants

Palentown Cemetery in Ulster County, New York with the Catskill Mountains in the distance. Several of this Van Kleeck line are buried here. These photos were taken in October 1990.

Jeremiah Van Kleeck (1805 - 1885) and Sally Avery / Every (1809 - 1872), sister of Andrew Perry Avery / Every (1794 - 1883), the War of 1812 Veteran. Jeremiah and Sally were married in 1828. Jeremiah bought the family farm in Samsonville for $300 in 1847. Jeremiah and Sally are buried in Palentown Cemetery near Samsonville, Ulster Co., NY. A list of re-interments from cemeteries on Ashokan Reservoir property shows that they were moved there from "Winchell Cemetery". For more information on Sally's family, see my Avery / Every page.
The above photo of Jeremiah and Sally is a large tinted ferrotype (or "tintype") about 6 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. Since tintypes are positives and therefore mirror images, I flipped it digitally. I also brightened it up a little as the original is a bit murky.
- Jeremiah Van Kleeck's stone in Palentown Cemetery. The photo on the left was probably taken in the 1970s. The photo on the right was taken in May, 2002. Click the photos to see larger images.
- Sally (Every) Van Kleeck's headstone (I have also seen her name spelled "AVERY" in some places). The photo on the left was probably taken in the 1970s. The photo on the right was taken in May, 2002. Click the photos to see larger images. The stone reads as follows:
  
  SALLY EVERY
  Wife of
  Jeremiah
  Van Kleeck
  Died May 15, 1872
  Aged 63 yrs 5 mos
  & 14 days
Information about Jeremiah from "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches":

OUR JEREMIAH VAN KLEECK, born 1805, paid $300 cash on 15 June 1847 for 25 acres more or less bound by tract formerly owned by Robert Beatty called "SUEBATTY LAND". This is the property where they lived in Samsonville at the foot of HIGH POINT Mountain. Jeremiah was a farmer and a blacksmith. The 1850 census lists him living in a log house. He died 6 December 1885 and Sally died 1872, and both are buried in Palentown Cemetery in Samsonville.
Jeremiah Van Kleeck, near his 80th birthday, with wintergreen he had gathered, walked to Kingston and sold it at a drug store. That evening, he went to the Bijou Theater and won $10 dancing a jig in an amateur contest.
His grandson, Abram Van Kleeck, remembers that his grandpa, Jeremiah, cured Abram and his brother, Henry, of fighting - at least in Grandpa's presence. One day when the boys had been doing a lot of disagreeing, Grandpa went out and cut a switch. Whenever there was a lull in the arguments, Grandpa got his switch and made the boys go back at it, even though they wanted PEACE. After that, they were very careful not to have any arguments in Grandpa's hearing...

Jeremiah and Sally Van Kleeck had the following ten children: Jacob, William, Francis, Miriam, Rosetta, David, Jeremiah, Eliza Catherine, Uriah, and Sara Marie. I am descended from David Van Kleeck.
1. Jacob Van Kleeck (b. 1828) married Joanna or Jemima Elmendorf (dates unknown). They had eight children.
  1. Sarah Van Kleeck (born ca. 1851).
  2. John Van Kleeck (died 1937) married Mary Trimmer (died 1953). Before the Ashokan Reservoir was put in, John had a livery stable in Shokan, and later in Ellenville. Still later, he had an automobile dealership in Kingston. They had one son, Samuel, and three other children who died young.
  3. Elizabeth Van Kleeck (born ca. 1853) married Onse Quintes T. Stearns (born 1853). Their children were Jared J. (b. 1879), Ira (born 1882), and Joanne (b. 1887).
  4. Naomi Van Kleeck (born ca. 1855) married Darwin Stearns, a brother of Onse above. They had one child.
  5. Isaac Van Kleeck (ca. 1859/60 - 1954) married Minnie Reynolds (born 1868). Their three children were Harry (1888 - 1985), Nellie (1899 - 1902), and Bruce (born 1902).
  6. Uriah Van Kleeck (ca. 1861 - 1945) married Carrie Ellsworth (born 1870). Their five children were Georgiana (dates unknown), Uriah, Jr. (1899 - 1954), Mary Bell (died 1958), Leah (dates unknown), and Naomi (died 1963).
  7. Angeline Van Kleeck (born ca. 1863).
  8. Hewitt Van Kleeck (1870 - 1948) married Lucinda Every. They had a son Kenneth who lived to adulthood and two daughters who died in infancy.
2. William Van Kleeck (b. 1830) married Jane Silkworth or Mariah Jane Silkworth (1836 - 1919). They had fourteen children. This photo is a scan of a photocopy from my grandmother's book. The whereabouts of the original and the date it was made are unknown. I have had more information on this Silkworth family sent to me by Janice Miller, a Silkworth researcher (name and email posted by permission) and have added it to my Worldconnect database.
  According to "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches": "some of this family removed to Amsterdam, New York when the Rifton carpet mills closed at Dashville".
  1. Martin W. Van Kleeck (born ca. 1855)
  2. Jeremiah Van Kleeck (born ca. 1856). He lived in Florida and ran a hardware store. He had a daughter Anita.
  3. Sarah A. Van Kleeck (born ca. 1858)
  4. Gamaliel Van Kleeck (born ca. 1860) married Hester "Mollie" Markle.
  5. DeWitt Van Kleeck (ca. 1861 - 1938) married Jemima Bodley (1862 - 1928). They had six children.
  6. Phebe Van Kleeck (born ca. 1863) married a man named Bennett.
  7. Ellen Van Kleeck (born ca. 1866) married Arthur Robinson. Their children were Maude, Otis, and Jesse.
  8. Garrison Van Kleeck (ca. 1867 - 1880).
  9. Lucas Van Kleeck (born ca. 1870) married the daughter of Jerry Roosa. They had one son Alvah.
  10. Aaron William Van Kleeck (1873-1932) was one of the children (tenth?) of William Van Kleeck and Jane Silkworth. He married about 1900 to Meliska Palmer (1878 - 1904), who died early in the marriage. They had only one son, Carl, who died untimely in 1925, a few months before his own son's birth. After Meliska's death, Aaron married Mary Ambrose (dates unknown) and they had two sons: William (1914 - 1992) and Joseph (dates unknown). I am not sure which son is shown in the photo with Aaron, but it seems likely that it would be Carl. If the boy were a son by Aaron's second wife, she would surely have been included in the photo with her family.
  11. Charles S. Van Kleeck (born ca. 1875).
  12. Stephen C. Van Kleeck (born ca. 1877).
  13. James W. Van Kleeck (born ca. 1878).
  14. Arthur Van Kleeck (born ca. 1879).
3. Francis Van Kleeck (1833 - 1864) is listed as a master cooper (barrel maker) in the 1860 census of Olive Township, Ulster County, NY. He enlisted in the 5th New York Heavy Artillery in the Civil War. He was taken prisoner and died at Andersonville, Georgia, where he is buried in grave number 8806 in Section H of the cemetery.
  A cousin visited Andersonville National Historic Site in 2003 and took many photos. Click the photo of Francis' grave stone to see them. I hope to be able to visit someday myself.
  Grandma's book, "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches", says the following of Francis: "He enlisted 11 Feb 1864 in Civil War; served in 5th Art., wounded at Piedmont, taken prisoner, and died." (Andersonville death records say he was captured at Staunton, Virginia on June 12, 1864). Death date is given as September 15, 1864. He is listed as having married Mary Elizabeth Merrihew and had the following three children:
  1. Egbert (January 1860 - 1935, buried Tongore Cemetery). Egbert married Louisa C. Dudrey (1870 - 1958). Louisa was the daughter of John Dudrey, who was in the 5th NY Heavy Artillery with Egbert's father Francis. John Dudrey and his family are also buried in Tongore Cemetery. Egbert and Louisa had the following children.
    1. Florence Van Kleeck (born 1898) married John McDonald.
    2. Anna Van Kleeck married Arthur McDonald.
    3. Edna Van Kleeck married Joe Yerry.
    4. Mildred Van Kleeck (born ca. 1909).
  2. Alexander (born December 1862) married Joanna Embree.
  3. Francis W. (born January 1865). I am not sure that Francis W.'s birthdate is correct. Grandma's book shows that he married, but she apparently did not know his wife's name.
4. Miriam Van Kleeck (b. 1835) married John Shurter (dates unknown). They had five children.
5. Rosetta Van Kleeck (1836 - 1919) married Martin Sheldon (dates unknown). They had six children.
6. David Van Kleeck (1839 - 1902) and his first wife, Rachel Emily Osterhout (1842 - 1874). They were married in 1865. David and Rachel are my great great grandparents. Click for a page with further information on the photos and David's service in the Civil War. At the bottom of this page is a link to some photos of the Van Kleeck farm in Samsonville where David resided with his family. David and Rachel are buried in Palentown Cemetery along with their three children who died young (Sara, Alonzo, and Jessie). According to a list of re-interments from cemeteries on Ashokan Reservoir property, all five were moved to Palentown Cemetery from "Hollister Cemetery".
  Another picture of David Van Kleeck after he'd started growing his beard and mustache.
  Scan of a photocopy of some sort of pension-related questionnaire giving dates for both marriages and names and birthdates of his surviving children as of May 4, 1898. The marriages seem to have been filled out in reverse order on this form.
  Rachel's father Abraham Osterhout (b. 1813 - listed as "Abram P. Osterhoudt" in daughter Isabel's baptism record). Abraham was married to Nancy Van Keuren and they lived in Sawkill, NY. Click the photo to see a larger image. For more information on this line, see my Osterhout page.
  David and Rachel (Osterhout) Van Kleeck had five children:
  1. Sarah Catherine Van Kleeck (1866 - 1866)
  2. Alonzo Van Kleeck (1867 - 1874)
  3. Henry Francis Van Kleeck (1869 - 1927) married Julia Barringer (1877 - 1963). They had three children. Julia can be seen in a photo on the Barringer page that was taken in Phoenicia, Ulster Co., NY in 1919. Henry and Julia are buried in Palentown Cemetery along with their sons David and Ralph and his wife.
    1. Henry and Julia's daughter Reba Van Kleeck (1897 - 1987) married Harry Shurter (1895 - 1944), who was in the 334 Field Artillery, 87 Division in World War I. Reba and Henry are also buried in Palentown Cemetery. Reba and her mother are in a 1919 photo taken in Phoenicia, NY that shows several members of the Barringer family.
    2. David Van Kleeck (1909 - 1955) is buried in Palentown Cemetery and his name is listed with his parents on their marker. I don't have any other information on this David yet.
    3. Ralph Van Kleeck (1909 - 197?) married Gladys Wells (1916 - 1993). They are buried on the other side of Ralph's parents' stone.
  4. Abram Van Kleeck (1871 - 1954) and his wife Bertha Barringer (1874 - 1953). These are my great grandparents. Bertha's family is in the Barringer section. Clicking on the photo will bring up a page with additional photos and information on Abram and Bertha. They and their children moved around a lot in the early twentieth century - Grandma remembers stories about the "corkscrew curls" her mother used to give her and what "moving days" were like back in those times.
    Three family portraits (circa 1915, 1928 and 1933 - files are over 200k) of Abram and Bertha Van Kleeck with their children and grandchildren with labels added. Names of living individuals have been left off. One or two of the grandchildren depicted in the two later photos are now deceased, but I couldn't remember which ones, so I left the names off all the grandkids just to be on the safe side.
    Individual sections for the children of Abram and Bertha Van Kleeck. I have several more photos of these people, which I will upload as I can get time. Abram and Bertha and most of their children resided in and around Kingston, Ulster Co., NY, but their son Freeman moved his family to Florida in the 1940s.
    My grandmother remembers her father, Abram, and her older brothers Everett and Freeman working as laborers on the Gilboa Dam project. This photo may also be connected to Grandma's uncle Lester Personeus as he may have worked on that dam.
    1. Gordon Van Kleeck (1894 - 1977). Click the photo for a page with further info. Gordon was in Co. F, 51st Pioneer Infantry, American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. He was the historian for his unit and kept a journal, which I have uploaded here. Gordon married Genevieve Winne in 1923.
    2. Roxy Van Kleeck (1895 - 1984) married Ralph Yerry in 1920. Click the photos for larger versions. There is more on the Yerry family at www.geocities.com/purplesagenheather_00_00/
    3. Everett Van Kleeck (1898 - 1958). Click the photo for a page with additional information. Everett married Gladys Simmons.
    4. Vera Van Kleeck (1900 - 1997) married Bert Cramer Winne (1891 - 1978) in 1920. The photo on the right was taken in front of Kingston City Hall (Ulster Co., NY). Vera is the one in the center. Grandma identifies the lady on the left as Vera's sister Roxy and the lady on the right as Hazel Bishop. Both photos probably taken sometime in the 'teens. For a four-generation photo of Vera with her first baby, mother, and grandmother, see the Barringer section. Click the photos for larger versions.
      - The gas station run by Bert and Vera Winne at Mount Tremper.
    5. Freeman Van Kleeck (1901 - 1989). Click the photo for a larger image. Freeman married Reeta L. Peete (1900 - 1995).
      - Reeta (Peete) Van Kleeck (on the left in the dark dress) on a Harley Davidson motorcycle in 1924 (probably Freeman's). The woman on the right is Freeman's youngest sister - my grandmother. The Harley Davidson name on the fuel tank is clearer in the original high-res scan - it doesn't seem to show up at all in this JPG file. I think I've seen at least one other photo around here somewhere of Freeman with a motorcycle.
    6. Elta Ann Van Kleeck (1907 - 1986) married first to Clifford Rifenburg (1904 - 1962). Elta and Clifford were married in 1928. Sometime after Clifford's death, Elta married Alexander Daly (1907 - 1978). Clicking on the photo will open a page with more photos of Elta.
    7. Dorothy Emily Van Kleeck (born 1909) - my grandmother and the author of "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches". She married Earl Edward Smith.
  5. Jessie Van Kleeck (1873 - 1874), youngest child of David and Rachel (Osterhout) Van Kleeck.
  David Van Kleeck (1839 - 1902) and his second wife Adeline Van Leuven (1851 - 1928). David and Adeline were married August 13, 1874 and had four children. Click the photo to see a larger image. There is a photo of Adeline with some of her family at the Samsonville farm in the family farm section at the bottom of this page. I have a few additional photos of Adeline on another page. Adeline is buried in Palentown Cemetery in the same plot with David, his first wife, some children who died young, and David and Adeline's son George and his wife (see below).
  Adeline had a daughter named Lilly May from before she married David. David legally adopted Lilly May and gave her his name. She died in childhood and is buried in Palentown Cemetery. Lilly May's name is listed under David's first wife Rachel on the family monument along with Rachel's children who died young (no dates put with any names on this face of the stone - see entry for David and first wife Rachel) and this has apparently caused some confusion.
  Scan of a photocopy of some sort of pension-related questionnaire giving dates for both marriages and names and birthdates of his surviving children as of May 4, 1898. The marriages seem to have been filled out in reverse order on this form.
  1. Jeremiah David "Jerry" Van Kleeck (1876 - 1956) married Lizzie Decker (1880 - 1966) in 1900. They had two children, one of whom (Leonard Van Kleeck, 1912 - 1922) died young. Grandma says that Uncle Jerry worked on the Ashokan Reservoir, which was completed in 1916. Jerry, Lizzie and Leonard are all buried in Palentown Cemetery. Click the photos to see larger images.
    1. Two photos of Leonard Van Kleeck (1912 - 1922) as a baby. Click to see the full-size images. Leonard is also shown in a Van Kleeck family photo taken at one of the family farms in and around the Samsonville area.
  2. Roena Van Kleeck (1878 - 1955) married Arthur Barringer (1874 - 1950). They had three children. Roena and Arthur are buried in Palentown Cemetery along with their son Earl, who died young.
    
    We are fairly sure that the man on the left is Roena (Van Kleeck) Barringer's husband Arthur Barringer (1874 - 1950). The man on the right is definitely Abram Van Kleeck (1871 - 1954, see above). We have two copies of this photo. One copy has written on the back, in Bertha (Barringer) Van Kleeck's handwriting:
    "Uncle Arthur Barringer
    Grandpa Van Kleeck"
    Arthur Barringer was the brother of Julia (Barringer) Van Kleeck (1877-1963, see the Phoenicia photo in the Barringer section). They were second cousins of Bertha (Barringer) Van Kleeck (see above).
    The other copy of this photo has written on the back in a different handwriting "Abram and Will Van Kleeck", but we know of no "Will" Van Kleecks in the right age range.
    1. Roena and Arthur's son Earl (1900 - 1906) died in childhood and is buried in Palentown Cemetery with his parents.
    2. Roena and Arthur's daughter Delia A. Barringer (dates unknown), wife of Frank Lewis. Delia and Frank had five children. Click the photo to see a larger image.
    3. Floyd Barringer (1903 - 1971) married Lena Constable. They had seven children.
  3. Phoebe Van Kleeck (1882 - 19??) married Alfred Lawrence (1881-1918) in 1903. She is shown here with their only child Raymond Lawrence (1905 - 1978). The portrait of Phoebe with Raymond was probably taken not long after Alfred died. The portrait of Raymond as a child is probably circa 1906? Click the photos to see larger images.
  4. George R. Van Kleeck (1887 - 1978) married Clara DuBois (1888 - 1980) in 1909. They had one son, Lester (shown in this photo with his father), who I think predeceased them sometime after his own marriage. I believe Lester was born sometime between 1915 and 1917. George was the last descendant of Jeremiah Van Kleeck and Sally (Avery/Every) Van Kleeck to live at the family farm in Samsonville, Ulster County, New York, where this photo was taken sometime circa 1920. There are photos of George on the farm with other family members in the "Van Kleeck Family Farm" section below. George and Clara were apparently involved in local folk events according to the information on this page about Camp Woodland (third photo down).
    George and Clara are buried in the Van Kleeck family plot in Palentown Cemetery. I find it interesting and unusual to see dates as late as 1978 and 1980 on a stone as old as 1874.
7. Jeremiah "Jerry" Van Kleeck, Jr. (1841 - 1917). "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches" says that he married Elizabeth Merrihew (dates unknown). This name is awfully similar to Mary Elizabeth Merrihew, the wife of Jeremiah's brother Francis (see above). There is a good possibility that Grandma got a little confused by all these similar names and mistakenly connected Jerry with his brother's wife. Recent correspondence indicates that he was actually married to Irene LeViness (1850 - 1905, the lady seated on the right in the family photo). Jerry and Irene are buried in Jerusalem Corners Cemetery in Pleasantville, Venango County, Pennsylvania. (See also the LeViness web page, which has cemetery photos and additional family photos of Jerry and Irene).
  Jerry was also in the Civil War - Grandma's book says "20th Regt., Co. B". The book also says that they moved to the Black Hills of Dakota and later settled in Carey, Ohio. They had a daughter (possibly adopted). The photo on the left shows Jeremiah in his Civil War uniform. The photo on the right is a scan of a photocopy from my grandmother's book of Jeremiah with his wife Irene (seated on the right) and daughter, probably taken in Ohio. There is a better scan of an original of this photo at the LeViness web site along with other photos of Jerry and Irene and members of Irene's family. Click the photos to see a larger image.
  We have so far been able to find very little trace of this Jeremiah between the end of the Civil War and his burial in Pennsylvania other than a Civil War pension filed from Ohio in 1896 (which confirms that he was in the 20th NY State Militia - also known as the 80th NY Volunteer Infantry). Records of that unit indicate that he was one of the 90-day volunteers in 1861. According to these records, Jeremiah was in Company C.
  UPDATE: A descendant of Jerry's sister Eliza (see below) remembers family stories of Etta (Merrihew) Gorsline (Eliza's daughter) remembering spending the summers with her Uncle Jerry on his riverboat on the St. Lawrence River. This is a great lead - I hope I can dig up more on this.
8. Eliza Catherine Van Kleeck (1844 or 1845 - 1933). A descendant generously provides the family photo on the left (click photo for details) and the others in this section as well as the following information on her family: Eliza married first to Truman Merrihew (1842 - 1878), with whom she had six children.
  Truman Merrihew was in the 5th N.Y. Heavy Artillery during the Civil War - the same unit as Eliza's older brother Francis (see above). Truman eventually died of illness related to his war duty.
  After Truman's death, Eliza married Lorenzo Conner (born 1846).
  My grandmother remembers:
  
  I remember being very amused when in my early teens Eliza Catherine and her husband visited our house from Pennsylvania. She said she would be so happy to get back to Pennsylvania where they really knew how to fix mashed potatoes - called them "cream smashed potatoes" - but also noticed that she ate a full share of the type we had.
  Eliza Van Kleeck and Truman Merrihew had six children:
  Etta Merrihew (also see the photo below) and her younger brother Jeremiah.
  1. Cora W. Merrihew (1866 - 1921) married George Bell. They had one daughter.
  2. Phebe Ann Merrihew (1869 - 1870).
  3. Ella Merrihew (born 1871).
  4. Etta Merrihew (1873 - 1956) married Moses Dingee Gorsline (1866 - 1932). They had seven children, and possibly another who died young (see family photo above). This photo of Etta was taken in 1942 and was generously provided by a descendant. Another descendant, Etta's great grand-daughter Linda Louise Mackes Bartos (name and email listed with permission) has shared some memories of Etta and her family stories.
  5. Jeremiah Merrihew (1875 - 1944) married Emma Jane North.
  6. Eliza Merrihew (1877 - 1962) married Charles Dixon. They lived in Kingston, where Charles had a machine shop. They adopted a son Benjamin and also raised a niece and nephew: Ellsworth and Leona Dixon.
9. Uriah Van Kleeck (b. 1845) married Amanda Shurter (dates unknown). They had five children.
  1. Pratt Van Kleeck (ca. 1875 - 1958) married Arvetta Van Vliet. Their two sons were Percy (born 1911) and Stanley (died 1976).
  2. Mabel Van Kleeck (1886 - 1911) married Gideon Davenport. Their two children were Gideon and Doris.
  3. Howard Van Kleeck.
  4. Ralph Van Kleeck married a woman named Ella. They had a son named Robert.
  5. Edith Van Kleeck.
10. Sarah Marie Van Kleeck (b. 1847) married Charles Smith (dates unknown). They had eight children.
  1. Rose Smith
  2. Ase Smith
  3. Raymond Smith married Rada Koegan. Their two daughters were Phyllis Victoria and Martha.
  4. Della Smith
  5. Grant Smith (1869 - 1934) married Edith Silkworth. They had one daughter. Grant was a blacksmith in Hurley.
  6. Kate Smith
  7. Clara Smith
  8. Monte Smith

The Van Kleeck Family Farm

Photos of the Van Kleeck family farmhouse at "SueBatty Land" in Samsonville, Ulster County, NY at the foot of High Point Mountain. This was the family farm purchased by Jeremiah Van Kleeck in 1847 for $300. This section includes some photos of the Van Kleeck family taken on this farm.

(To be Added At Some Point in Future)
Cold Brook boarding house
Ulster County, New York
run by Abram and Bertha (Barringer) Van Kleeck
circa 1918

(To be Added At Some Point in Future)
Apple Street neighborhood
in Kingston, Ulster County, New York
where Abram and Bertha (Barringer) Van Kleeck resided
1920s - 1950s

VAN KLEECK page 1: Barent Baltus van der Lippstadt through Jeremiah Van Kleeck (1805 - 1885)

VAN KLEECK documents

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