1. | 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]
Children:
- John (Jan) Van Meter, III was born on 14 Oct 1684; died in 1745 in Winchester.
- Rebekka Van Meter was born on 26 Apr 1686; was christened on 26 Apr 1686 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY; died in 1755.
- Lysbeth Van Meter was born on 3 Mar 1689; was christened on 3 Mar 1689 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY.
- Isaac Van Meter was born about 1692.
- 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.
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