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Carl & Elaine (Grove) Rhodes' Genealogy Pages

This Site is Dedicated to Our Forebears, and their Descendants

Isaac Van Meter

Male 1713 - 1745  (32 years)


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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  Isaac Van Meter was born in 1713 (son of John Van Metre and Margaret Mollenauer, son of John (Jan) Van Meter, III and Margaret); died on 3 Sep 1745 in Frederick, County, VA.

    Family/Spouse: Alice Scholl. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Isaac married Elsje Scholl in 1736 in Raritan Church, , Somerville, Somerset County, NJ. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Isaac married Alice School in 1739 in Somerset County, NJ. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


Generation: 2

  1. 2.  John (Jan) Van Meter, III was born on 14 Oct 1684 (son of John (Joost Jan) Van Meter, II and Sarah Dubois); died in 1745 in Winchester.

    Notes:

    "HISTORY OF SHEPHERD AND RELATED FAMILIES" by Frank Shepherd
    (1858-?) pub 1943 (Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN) "John
    III was an enterprising fellow who, in this Twentieth century would
    have been called a money maker, a colonizer. He was a shrewd Indian
    trader and thoroughly knew their ways. He continued to add acre to
    acre until he had a vast landed estate at his death in 1745 consisting
    of 3750 acres and much other property."

    John married Margaret before 1719. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 3.  Margaret
    Children:
    1. Maudline Van Meter
    2. Rebecca Van Meter was born in 1711 in Somerset County, NJ; died in 1770 in VA.
    3. 1. Isaac Van Meter was born in 1713; died on 3 Sep 1745 in Frederick, County, VA.
    4. Rachael Van Meter was born in 1719; died in 1744.
    5. Abraham Van Meter was born in 1721; died in 1783 in Martinsburg, Berkeley, WV.
    6. Jacob Van Meter was born in 1723; died on 16 Nov 1798 in Hardin County, KY; was buried in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, KY.


Generation: 3

  1. 4.  John (Joost Jan) Van Meter, II was born in 1652 in Gelderland, Holland (son of Jan Joosten Van Meter, I and Macyken Hendricksen); died on 13 Jan 1706 in NY.

    Notes:

    "AMERICAN VAN METRE FAMILY" Smyth (Allen County Public Library, Fort
    Wayne, IN) "John Van Metre was the first white man to visit the
    country south of the Conhongaru (Potomac) (Cartmell's History of
    Frederick County Va., p. 12 et seq.) Mr. John Van Metre of New York
    gives an account of his accompanying the New York Delaware Indians on
    their raid against the Catawbas--They passed up the South Branch of
    the Potomac, and he afterward settled his boys there. (W. VA. Hist.
    Mag. III, p. 191, II, p. 17) At the mouth of the Antietam Creek,
    then in Prince George's County, MD, between 1730 and 1736, occurred
    the famous battle between the Catawbas and the Delawares by which the
    Catawbas secured the victory. This took place what is now the
    coke-yard of the Antietam Iron Works, three miles from
    Sharpsburg--where numerous skeletons and war implements have been
    found. (Scharff's "History of Western Maryland," II, p. 1204) John
    Van Metre, a Dutchman from the Hudson, was an Indian trader and
    pioneer explorer of the Shenandoah Valley, who spied out land about
    the time of Governor Spottswood's expedition in 1716. He traveled
    with a band of Delaware Indians at his own expense and traveled far
    southward and over unknown lands in the Wappatomaka Valley, on the
    South Branch River above the 'The Trough' as it was the finest land he
    had ever discovered. (MacKenzie's Col. Fam. of the U.S., VI)
    "SHEPHERD AND RELATED FAMILIES" by Frank Shepherd (1858-?) pub. 1943
    (Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN) "Jooste Janse Van Meter
    was known as 'Van Meter the Indian Trader'. He and his father, it
    seems, were known to have made many expeditions into the Indian
    country for the purpose of barter with the Indians, even going as far
    as Central Virginia and over the mountains into the great Valley of
    the Shenandoah. It is claimed that he was the first white man to see
    this beautiful valley and was delighted with it. On his return told
    his sons to go there if they wanted good land, timber grass and well
    watered. It is known that John Van Meter passsed thru this valley as
    early as 1725 with a tribe of Delaware Indians on their way to the
    South Branch to fight the Catawbas. In this fight all the Delawares
    were killed except the two Indians who were with Van Meter."
    Birth, marriage and death dates taken from Ancestral file

    John married Sarah Dubois on 12 Dec 1682 in New Paltz, Ulster County, NY. Sarah (daughter of Louis Dubois and Catherine Blanchin) was born in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; was christened on 14 Sep 1664 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; died in Salem County?, NJ. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 5.  Sarah Dubois was born in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; was christened on 14 Sep 1664 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY (daughter of Louis Dubois and Catherine Blanchin); died in Salem County?, NJ.

    Notes:

    "AMERICAN VAN METRE FAMILY" Smyth (Allen County Public Library, Fort
    Wayne, IN) "Sarah du Bois, Jan's wife, who still retained her maiden
    family patronymic, established a home in Salem prior to 1709..." (Ear
    Mark Book, Salem County N.J.)
    "HISTORY OF SHEPHERD AND RELATED FAMILIES", by Frank Shepherd (1858-?)
    Pub. 1943 (Indiana State Library) p. 4,5,6. "On June 7 1663 the
    Indians raided the village of Hurley and carried away captive the
    wives and children of the settlers into the fastnesses of Catskil
    Mountains where they were held for three months. Owing to the rugged
    character of these strongholds covered with dense forest the capture
    of these savages and rescue of the women and children was a difficult
    matter. The wife of Louis du Bois and his three children with the
    family fo Jan Joosten Van Meter ...were among the captives. Capt.
    Martin Kreiger, and old Dutch soldier and familiar figure in the Dutch
    settlements along the Delaware River in the early days organized a
    rescue expedition with the help of Louis du Bois and punish the
    Indians. After three months of ineffectual hunting they finally
    rounded up the savages and returned the women and children to their
    homes. Prof. Obenchain of Ogden College, Bowling Green KY sponsers a
    thrilling story in this connection: 'About ten weeks after the raid
    the Indians decide to celebrate their skill in eluding capture by
    burning one of the captives alive. For their victim they selected
    Catherine du Bois. A large pile of logs was gathered and binding
    Catherine placed her on the pile with her little daughter, Sara, on
    her lap were about to apply the torch when she realized that death was
    just at hand, began to sing an old Huguenot hymn she had learned in
    childhood in Flanders. The Indians withheld the torch to listen. When
    she finished they demanded another, and so she sang on. Her voice
    carrying down thru the forest gorges reached the ears of Krieger's
    soldiers who rescued the captive women and children and gave the
    Indians a terrible beating. Seven years later the Indians again went
    on the warpath and Louis du Bois served in th Colonial force against
    them.'"

    Children:
    1. 2. John (Jan) Van Meter, III was born on 14 Oct 1684; died in 1745 in Winchester.
    2. Rebekka Van Meter was born on 26 Apr 1686; was christened on 26 Apr 1686 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; died in 1755.
    3. Lysbeth Van Meter was born on 3 Mar 1689; was christened on 3 Mar 1689 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY.
    4. Isaac Van Meter was born about 1692.
    5. Hendrix Van Meter was born on 1 Sep 1695; was christened on 1 Sep 1695 in New York; died in Dec 1759 in Salem, Salem County, NJ.


Generation: 4

  1. 8.  Jan Joosten Van Meter, I was born about 1621 in Thielerwaardt, Gelderland, Holland; died in Long Island, NY.

    Notes:

    "HISTORY OF SHEPHERD AND RELATED FAMILIES", by Frank Shepherd
    (1858-?) Pub. 1943 (Indiana State Library, Indianapolis) p. 7. "Upon
    Sept. 12, 1662, another ancestor, Jan Joosten Van Meter with his wife
    and five children, oldest fifteen and the youngest two and a half
    years old, arrived in New Amsterdam (New York City) on the good ship
    Fox from Teiderwaltd, Holland. Soon after landing they went up the
    Hudson River to settle in what is know Kingston, Ulster Co. NY. At
    that time it was called "Wiltwik" by its Dutch settlers. It may not
    have been religious persecution that brought the Van Meters to the New
    World for they were traders and here were great opportunities for
    barter with the Indians as well as acquisi(tion)-free acres to be had
    for the asking. John Van Meter's wife's name was Macyken Bendrichsen
    and she was from Mrpellen in the Province of Drueth Holland." (family
    record taken from this book). "The name of Jan Joosten appears among
    those who took the oath of allegiance to the New Netherlands Oct.
    1664. After this time his name appears prominently in the civil and
    religious life of Kingston and vicinity. In 1665 he was referee in a
    lawsuit and later appointed 'schepen', a minor judiciary position in
    civil matters less than 100 guilders ($60.00)....in 1667 he was
    elected a deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston...When New
    Netherlands passed from Dutch to English control, Jan Joosten took the
    oath of allegiance to the new monarch." "Twenty-four year after his
    first purchase of land in Ulster County, we find Jan Joosten hunting in
    East Jersey for lands to buy. All desirable farm land around their
    home was now occupied and they must look to the southward for fertile
    lands for their children to settle on." "The exact date of his death
    or that of his wife is not known. His will made in New York, Dec. 16,
    1681 was offered for probate June 13, 1706. Listed in the inventory
    as file is this interesting item: a slave with wife and four children
    valued at 145 pounds. The total value of the estate was 245 pounds,
    14 shillings....His son Jooset Jans was dead and his grandson, John
    Van Meter was the executor of the will. Under its terms according to
    ancient custom the older son (Jooste Jans/John Van Meter) was to
    inherit one half the entire estate and the rest divided among the four
    heirs at law." "...the Van Meters continued to buy land...about 6000
    acres in all."
    "JAN JOOSTEN'S FAMILY" His will is found filed, with an inventory of
    his personal property, in the Burlington County Surrogate's office...This
    instrument is endorsed 'Will of Jan Joosten of ...June 13th, 1706,'
    and is further marked 'Dutch'. His personal estate included six
    slaves, a negro man, woman and four children...(also) a 'testamentary
    disposition' signed jointly by Jan Joosten and his wife, Macyke
    Hendricksen, and dated 16th Dec. 1681, which reads: 'Macyke
    Hendricksen shall retain full possession of the estate. She consents
    that the survivor shall possess everything, lands, houses, personal
    property, money, gold, silver--coined or uncoined. After their
    decease the property is to be inherited by their children."
    Birth date and 1685/Long Island,NY death taken from Ancestral file

    Jan married Macyken Hendricksen. Macyken (daughter of Hendricks Of Laeckervelt and Anne Jan Jans) was born in 1624 in Meppelen, Dreuth, Holland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 9.  Macyken Hendricksen was born in 1624 in Meppelen, Dreuth, Holland (daughter of Hendricks Of Laeckervelt and Anne Jan Jans).

    Notes:

    Birth date taken from Ancestral file

    Died:
    Y
    Y
    Y
    Y

    Children:
    1. Lysbeth Van Meter was born about 1647.
    2. Geertje Van Meter was born about 1650.
    3. 4. John (Joost Jan) Van Meter, II was born in 1652 in Gelderland, Holland; died on 13 Jan 1706 in NY.
    4. Gysbert Van Meter was born about 1660.

  3. 10.  Louis Dubois was born on 27 Oct 1627 in Lille, Labarree, Flanders, France (son of Chretian Maximillian Des Dubois); died in 1695-1696.

    Notes:

    "HANS GRAF AND HIS DESCENDANTS" by Lindsey M. Brien. (Handtyped book
    at Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN: "The name du Bois means
    from the forest and was a family name in Artois and Normandy before
    William the Conqueror left his native shore. The Heraldic Records in
    the Royal Library of Paris declare that the DuBois family is one of
    the oldest of the noble families of the Bailiwick of Contentin,
    Normandy. The genealogy begins with Geoffroi du Bois, a Knight
    Banneret under William the Conqueror whom he accompanied in 1066 into
    England." The Du Bois is a very old family, also a military family
    and furnished to France some able soldiers. From Welles Ancestral
    Chart: "Louis DuBois was the progenitor of the family in America.
    He was the son of Chretian DuBois and was born on the farm at Wicres,
    Oct 27 1626, but little is known of his early life. His hand writing
    proves that went to school...It is certain that he was a protestant
    and a calvinest, or one who in his native land was called a Huguenot.
    When a young man he left his native land and went to Manheim in the
    Paltz, or German Palatinate; while there he married Catherine
    Blanchin, Oct 10, 1655. She was the daughter of Matthys or Matthew
    Blanchan, who came to New Amsterdam, 27 Apr. 1660 on the ship "Gilden
    Otter" (the wife of Matthew was Madelin Gore (or Goore or Jorissen, as
    it is sometimes written)" Baid--The Huguenot Immigration to America,
    p. 187 "Among the Walloons that came to New Netherland in the last
    days of Dutch occupation, was Louis DuBois, founder of the Huguenot
    settlement of New Paltz, in Ulster County, N.Y. Louis was the son of
    Chretian DuBois, an inhabitant of Wicres, a hamlet in the district of
    LaBarree near Lille in Flanders, where he was born, 27 Oct. 1627."
    Two sons of Chretian DuBois came to America, Louis and Jacques. Louis
    was called "par excellence, the Walloon." The date of their landing
    is not definitely known. The will of Louis DuBois is dated 16 May
    1679 and proved June 23, 1696. His widow survived him many years and
    married, second Jean Cottin of New York."
    "AMERICAN VAN METRE FAMILY" Smyth, (Allen County Public Library, Fort
    Wayne, IN) "Louis du Bois de Fiennes, born Oct. 10, 1626, in
    LaBasse, near Lille, in the province of Artois, France, married, Oct.
    10, 1655, at Mannheim, in the Lower Palatinate of Germany, to
    Catherine Blanchan, daughter of Mathese and Madelaine (Jorisse)
    Blanchan, who were co-refugees with the du Bois from French Flanders
    to Wieres, Artois, France. Louis died 1695. Monsieur Le Turque, of
    the Genealogical Institute of Paris, has developed a line of ancestors
    running back to the days of the Scyrri which includes descent from
    Charlemagne, Emperor of the West; Alfred the Great; Hugh Capet, King
    of France, and Henry I, Emperor of Germany. The most important of
    these lines have been compared and verified; and where the line is
    broken the cause is attributed to the summary action of Louis XIV's
    minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and Marshall Turenne, who decreed that the
    names of many of the noble families of France, who espoused and held
    the faith of Protestantism, should be erased from the rolls of
    nobility and their property confiscated.....thousands of French
    families fled to England, Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. It was
    during the latter part of this reign of terror that the father of
    Louis du Bois found shelter in the Palatinate of the Rhine.
    According to this tracing of the family the line begins wtih Guelph,
    Prince of the Scyrri, A.D. 476. Azo, Marquis of Liguria, A.D. 1030, a
    descendant of the Prince in the fourteenth generation, married Marie,
    a descendant of the powerful house of Este, in Italy. The Estes were
    of the Aetii of Rome who settled in Lombardy about 500 B.C. Guelph,
    grandson of Azo and Marie, Count of Bavaria and Saxe, A.D. 1107,
    married Judith, a descendant of Charlemagne. A great grandson of
    Guelph and Judith, Henry V, Duke of Bavaria and Saxe, A.D. 1195,
    married Mathilde, a descendant of William the Conqueror, thru Henry I,
    and Henry II, of England. Henry VI, son of the Duke of Bavaria and
    Saxe and Mathilde, married A.D. 1200, Agnes, Countess of Palatine, a
    descendant of Alfred the Great. A descendant of Henry VI, and Agnes,
    Madame Claude de Lanney, married Charles du Bois, Seigneur des
    Querder, who was a descendant of MacQuaire du Bois, Count de Roussey,
    A.D. 1110 The oldest children of Louis du Bois were born in
    Mannheim; and in 1660 the family came to America. Upon their arrival
    here they proceeded to New Village (New Pals) in Ulster Co. NY, wher
    Louis rapidly rose to prominence in the local civil and religious
    affairs....Louis was also a member of the first Court of Sessions held
    at Kingston, the seat of Ulster County He led in demanding of the
    English government...that there should be no taxation without the
    consent of the people, and for this daring attitude he lost his
    commission, thus anticipating the crisis of 1775 In 1663, Louis du
    Bois headed an expedition against the Minnisink Indians, and was of
    the colonial forces against them in 1670. The first-named punitive
    expedition of June 7, 1663, was known in New York history as the
    Eusopus War. It was organized at the time the settlement was attacked
    by the Minnisinks, who burned Hurley, killed and injured some of the
    settlers, and carried away prisoners, the wife of Louis du Bois, his
    three children, and at least two of Jan Joosten's. These were taken
    to the fastnesses of the Catskill Mountains and there remained in
    captivity for months, but were rescued on the eve of torture by du
    Bois and Capt. Martin Kreiger's company of Manhattan soldiers; the
    trainband finally rounded up the Indians and defeated them on Sep. 3,
    1663. In connection with this tragic experience the following
    statement is quoted: "About ten weeks after the capture of the women
    and children, the Indians decided to celebrate their own escape from
    pursuit by burning some of their victims and the ones selected were
    Catherine du Bois, and her baby Sara, who afterward married her
    companion in captivity, John Van Metre. A cubical pile of logs was
    arranged and the mother and child placed thereon; when the Indians
    were about to apply the torch, Catherine began to sing the 137th Psalm
    as a death chant. The Indians withheld the fire and gave her respite
    while they listened; when she had finished they demanded more, and
    before she had finished the last one her husband and the Dutch
    soldiers from New Amsterdam arrived and surrounded the savages, killed
    and captured some, and otherwise inflicted terrible punishment upon
    the, and released the prisoners" (from Martin Kreiger's Journal,
    Mackenzie's Col Fam. U.S. VII, p. 472) Louis du Bois was one of the
    founders, and first elder of the Reformed Dutch Church at New
    Paltz...After his death, in 1695, his widow married Jean Cotton."
    "HISTORY OF SHEPHERD AND RELATED FAMILIES" by Frank Shepherd (1858-?)
    pub 1943 (Indiana State Library), p. 3,4,6 "When Louis du Bois grew
    to a man's estate and could not bring himself to accept the religious
    faith of the Jesuits--when he saw with horror the bloody axe of the
    guillotine and knew that would be his fate if he refused to bow the
    knee to their demands and surrender the right to obey his conscience,
    to save his life he fled to the lower Palatinate of Germany where many
    other Huguenots had found refuge. Here, on Oct. 10, 1655, he married
    Catherine Blanchan the daughter of Mathese Blanchen a co-refugee with
    him from Flanders. For five years they lived at Manheim Germany
    until their first two children were born. But Germany even in those
    early days over populated and crowded and many were looking towards
    the new world across the sea for new homes. To escape we find Louis
    du Bois and his family emigrating to America in 1660 on the good ship
    Saint Marie to land in New Amsterdam, (now New York City) and went up
    the Hudson River to settle at 'Nieum Village' now known as Hurley near
    Kingston in Ulster County At this time there were but a few settlers
    there and the Minnesink Indians, who claimed all that country, were
    suspicious and troublesome. Life in outlying settlements was very
    insecure. Indian raids and massacres were frequent happenings while
    the new settlers lived in constant dread of surprises and capture not
    knowing the tragic moment of an Indian uprising with all its horrible
    possibilties--death was ever in their thoughts." (after the capture
    of his wife and child and subsequent return) Seven years later the
    Indians went on the warpath again and Louis du Bois served in the
    Colonial force against them. Soon after Louis du Bois came to Ulster
    County he rose to promince in the civil and religious life of the
    settlement. He was one of the 12 original patentees of New Peltz, a
    village next to Hurley. He later became one of the magistrates of a
    jurisdiction comprising both New Paltz and Herley. He is credited
    with being the founder of and first elder in the French Reformed
    Church at New Paltz. Louis du Bois lived to a ripe old age of 70. At
    his death in 1696 (his will probated on Mar. 27) he left a widow and
    ten children."

    Louis married Catherine Blanchin on 10 Oct 1655. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  4. 11.  Catherine Blanchin (daughter of Matthys Blanchin and Madelin Gore).
    Children:
    1. David Dubois
    2. Solomon Dubois
    3. Matthew Dubois
    4. Abraham Dubois was born about 1657 in Manheim, Palatinate, Germany.
    5. Isaac Dubois was born about 1659 in Manheim, Palatinate, Germany; died on 28 Jun 1690.
    6. Jacob Dubois was born in 1661 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; was christened on 4 Oct 1661 in Ulster County, NY; died in Jun 1745 in Ulster County, NY.
    7. 5. Sarah Dubois was born in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; was christened on 14 Sep 1664 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; died in Salem County?, NJ.
    8. Rebecca Du Bois was born in 1671; was christened on 18 Jun 1671 in Hurley, Ulster County, NY; died before 1681 in Young; was buried in 1681.
    9. Rachel Dubois was born in 1675; was christened on 18 Apr 1675 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; died in Died Young.
    10. Louis Dubois was born in 1677; was christened about 1677 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; died in 1749 in Ulster County, NY.


Today's Genealogical Quote

If we know where we came from; we way better know where to go. If we know who we came from; we may better understand who we are