Origin of Van Gilder Surname

One thing I’m usually asked when I’m contacted by a Van Gilder descendant is how did John Van Gilder get his surname.  Unfortunately it hasn’t been documented, but I have a theory.

Robert S. Grumet wrote in his book The Munsee Indians, A History: 

“…Indians in particular tended to identify themselves as people from a particular place or a certain river. This practice is reflected in the way they used ‘Delaware,’ a loan word adopted from the English. ‘Delaware’ comes from the name of Thomas West, Baron de la Warr, second governor of the Virginia colony.  Early Virginian explorers gave his name to the river that Unami-speaking Delawares called Lenapewihittuck and that Munsees called Kithanne, ‘Large River.’ Colonists and Indians both began calling the river Delaware by the early 1700s. At about the same time, most Unami- and some Munsee-speaking people living along the river’s shores began using the word when referring to themselves. Most of their descendants continue to identify themselves as Delawares….”

Shirley W. Dunn wrote in The Mohicans and Their Land “Schermerhorn , or Manueenta, also a significant Mohican sachem and leader, was one of a group of Catskill Mohicans who used Dutch names.” An abstract in the appendix lists the people she must have been referring to in a Greene County deed dated 8 July 1678 “Tamongwes alias Volkert, Papawachketik alias Evert, Mamaetcheek alias Joris, Kachketowas alias Cobus, and Unekeek called Jan de Backer….Manueenta alias Schermerhorn….”  Another member of the band was Catharickseet, alias Cornelius.

John’s father was Wappinger, who were Munsee, and his mother was Mohican.   Below is an  excerpt of the report that New York Attorney General John Tabor Kempe made to New York Governor Mockton dated 2 April 1762.

 ...Awansous a Wappingoe Indian Grandfather to the Complainant (Daniel Nimham, the last Wappinger chief) on the mother’s side, was possessed of a certain Tract of Land lying on the East side of Hudson’s River, beginning at the mouth of the Fish kills called in the Indian language Nataowawmungh thence running down Hudsons River southerly to Anthony’s Nose called in the same language Wacoghquanuk, and Eastward into the woods as far as the Oblong croping the Peeks kill.... Awansous died leaving behind him two Sons Tawanaut otherwise called John Van Gilder and Sancoolakheekhing, to whom the Body of the Nation solemnly confirmed their Fathers Land according to the Custom of their Nation at a publick Toast & sacrifice [sealing their Grant]. Sancoolakheekhing Died without any Children and on his Death the Nation confirmed the whole of the Lands to John Van Gilder who was Uncle to the Complainant, being his Mothers Brother & he [John Van Gilder] in the year of the Defeat at Ticonderoga (July 1758) hath since given the whole of these Lands to the complainant....

John was also a member of the Catskill band that was on the move since selling their land, and probably was born in northwestern Connecticut. He was living in western Massachusetts by 1707. He identified with the ancestral location so strongly that a non-related, English man was able to provide the name of the band to the New York attorney general in October 1768, and was not contradicted by John’s son Joseph. 

John was originally recorded in a Dutch church record in Kingston as Jan Van Gelder in June 1719.  There’s only one record of a Van Gelder living above New York City before the American Revolution, Elizabeth Van Gelder, an elderly woman.  She probably was a widow living in the home of an adult daughter. Therefore we know this is the Mohican-Wappinger man otherwise known as "Tawanant" or "Toanunck." 

Other men of the Catskill band had starting using Dutch names. A perceptive man, John may have realized that it was better to have both a first name and a last name, especially since one of the Mohicans was already using Jan.   The Munsees identified with a particular place.  We know John identified with the Catskill area.  Shirley told me that Kaaterskill/Catskill was mostly likely named after a Mohican man named Kaankat who was nicknamed “Cat.”  She noted “he signed for the land sold to Rensselaerwyck at Catskill.”  “Kill” is definitely Dutch. Either the place names weren’t being used yet in 1719 or John thought using either version wasn’t appropriate.  The Catskill band sold its land to people from Gelderland which may have been the Duchy of Guelders at the time in the Netherlands.  I believe John took the surname Van Gelder to memoralize his ancestral land where the people from that foreign land lived after his band sold its land to them.  

Simeon Van Gilder

While using Fold3 during its recent free promotional period, I found another Van Gilder, Simeon.  He was listed on an account of forage received for the use of the First Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army. It was dated November 1780.  I think it was for the state of New Jersey since soldiers were assigned towns in the counties of Morris, Essex, including the town of Newark.  Simeon Van Gilder was assigned the town of Totoway in Essex County.  He  brought back 2 tens(?) and 5 hundreds of hay, 18  bushels of oats, 14 bushels of corn, and 15 horses.  

 It's the only trace of Simeon I've been able to find so far. He did not appear at all on Rootsweb World Connect, FamilySearch or Mocavo.   According to the site
RevWarTalk:  

[The First Massachusetts Regiment] was first authorized on 23 April 1775 in the Massachusetts State Troops as Paterson's Regiment under Colonel John Paterson and was organized at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It consisted of eleven companies of volunteers from Berkshire, Hampshire, Suffolk, Middlesex, Worcester, and York counties in Massachusetts and the county of Litchfield in the colony of Connecticut. The regiment was adopted into the main Continental Army on 14 June 1775 and was assigned to William Heath's brigade on 22 July 1775. On 1 January 1776 the regiment (less two companies) was consolidated with Sayer's and Sullivan's companies of Scammon's Regiment; re-organized to eight companies and redesignated as the 15th Continental Regiment of Heath's Brigade.

On 1 August 1779 the regiment was assigned to the Highland Department, which would fit with this assignment.  The department was based at West Point, New York.  

Because Paterson recruited men from Berkshire County, it is possible that Simeon Van Gilder was a descendant of John Van Gilder.  I don't know if it could ever be proved one way or another.

Van Gilder Y-DNA Project

There is interest in establishing a Family Tree Y-DNA project for men with the Van Gelder, Van Gilder, Van Guilder and Van Galder surnames.  The inspiration for the project is the Y-DNA results for Jacob Van Gilder from West Virginia and Maryland.  It was thought this Van Gilder had come from the Netherlands, but the results were almost completely Native American. 

Known Families:

• John Van Gilder, born ca 1698, belonged to the Catskill band of Mohicans, New York State. Descendants moved to the Ludlow, VT, area and Washington County, New York.
• Abraham Van Gilder, born 1736, of Cape May, NJ, died in 1809
• Jacob Van Galder born 1797, died 18 June 1855 and buried in Rock County, Wisconsin.
• John S. Van Gilder, born Nov 1850, lived in Warren Co., PA, died in 1929.

Any man with any variation of this last name is welcome in the study.  For more information please contact Andrew Blattner at ddblattner at capecounty.us.

UPDATE 

Click here to go to the Family Tree DNA Van Gilder project page.

In conducting research, I discovered that at least two men in Washington County, New York, dropped the "Van" from their surname of Gilder and Guilder.  Therefore the participation of men with the last names of Galder, Gelder, Gilder, and Guilder is also welcome.

John Van Gilder's Character

In the course of investigating a crown court case between the two prominent and powerful landlords Van Rensselaer and Livingston, the following testimony on the character of the Mohican-Wappinger man John Van Gilder was obtained from Timothy Woodbridge in 1768.  Woodbridge was a teacher at the Stockbridge Mission in western Massachusetts. 

That he [Timothy Woodbridge] known and been acquainted with Joseph Van Gelder’s family his Father an Indian his Mother a White Woman and well behaved.  It is probable Joseph Van Gelder was baptized.  His father attended the publick Worship and was Christened as he told the witness  That he understood Joseph Van Gelder had been also christened  the Family lived in a Manner of the English and Dutch and were esteemed to be christians like the rest of the Neigbours  it is 27 or 28 Years since he instructed Joseph Van Gelder in Reading and the Catechism, he has seen the Family admitted as witnesses  Joseph Van Gelder was eight or nine Years old when he was at School with [me] he was there two Summers  Supposes all the Children of old Van Gelder and his wife when were baptized  that his father was put on the same footing with respect to the Laws as the Whites were  other Indians were not so considered.

Richard Moore further claimed:

he has known Joseph Van Gelder [John's son who was also interviewed for this case] he is Christian and baptized by a high Dutch Minister  Joseph Van Gelder’s Father’s Children was baptized and he himself  That he was Married by a Minister.  Joseph Van Gelder lives at Egremont on this side Howsitenack River to the Eastward of Tackannick Mountains  he his [sic] known him from a Child  he always bears a good Character  he would Venture to take his Oath at any time for the truth  The General Reputation is that he is a Christian.  He believes His father belonged to the Catt’s Kills 

This documentation can be found in the New-York Historical Society, Miscellaneous Manuscripts V, filed under John Van Rensselaer.

The Origin of the Van Guilders

Recently the Associated Press published an article by Travis Loller saying that DNA study seeks the origin of Appalachia's Melungeons. In a excerpt Mr. Loller wrote:

In recent years, it has become a catchall term for people of mixed-race ancestry and has been applied to about 200 communities in the eastern U.S. — from New York to Louisiana.

Among them were the Montauks, the Mantinecocks, Van Guilders, the Clappers, the Shinnecocks and others in New York. Pennsylvania had the Pools; North Carolina the Lumbees, Waccamaws and Haliwas and South Carolina the Redbones, Buckheads, Yellowhammers, Creels and others. In Louisiana, which somewhat resembled a Latin American nation with its racial mixing, there were Creoles of the Cane River region and the Redbones of western Louisiana, among others.

As a result of researching the Van Guilders for over fifteen years, I know that the Van Gilders/Van Guilders from western Massachusetts, upstate New York and Vermont are not Melungeon.   The founder of the family was Jan Van Gelder, a Mohican-Wappinger man who married the German Palatine woman Anna Maria Koerner in Kingston, New York, in 1719.  They lived in what is now present day Berkshire County on the west bank of the Green River, southwest of Great Barrington.  Additionally, a Y-DNA test comparison between Jacob Van Gilder who died 14 July 1846 in Marion County, WV, and a documented descendant of John Van Gilder from upstate New York shows the Y-DNA to be identical and that Jacob was a descendant of the Mohican-Wappinger man John Van Gilder I.

A representation of John Van Gilder's signature embroidered in buttons
on reproduction 18th century matchcoat by blog author.

On August 2, 1762, New York Attorney General John Tabor Kempe (1759-1777) reported to Governor Monckton that

Awansous a Wappingoe Indian Grandfather to the Complainant on the mother’s side, was possessed of a certain Tract of Land lying on the East side of Hudson’s River, beginning at the mouth of the Fish kills called in the Indian language Nataowawmungh thence running down Hudsons River southerly to Anthony’s Nose called in the same language Wacoghquanuk, and Eastward into the woods as far as the Oblong croping the Peeks kill.

Further,

 Awansous died leaving behind him two Sons Tawanaut otherwise called John Van Gilder and Sancoolakheekhing, to whom the Body of the Nation solemnly confirmed their Fathers Land according to the Custom of their Nation at a publick Toast & sacrifice [sealing their Grant]. Sancoolakheekhing Died without any Children and on his Death the Nation confirmed the whole of the Lands to John Van Gilder who was Uncle to the Complainant, being his Mothers Brother & he [John Van Gilder] in the year of the Defeat at Ticonderoga hath since given the whole of these Lands to... Danl. Nimham

 However, John Van Gilder was regarded as a member of the Mohican Nation that lived north of the Wappingers.   In a letter written to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Johnson on December 16, 1756, the chief of the Mohicans stated that he belonged to the Mohican Nation.  The Mohicans are a matrilineal people and it seems logical that Van Gilder's mother came from the Catskill band of  Mohicans.  In October 1768 Richard Moore was interviewed in regard to a property dispute between the patroons Van Rensselaer and Livingston.  Moore testified:

He is Sixty one Years of age  he has known Joseph Van Gelder he is Christian and baptized by a high Dutch Minister  Joseph Van Gelder’s Father’s Children was baptized and he himself  That he was Married by a Minister.  Joseph Van Gelder lives at Egremont on this side Howsitenack River to the Eastward of Tackannick Mountains  he his [sic] known him from a Child  he always bears a good Character  he would Venture to take his Oath at any time for the truth  The General Reputation is that he is a Christian.  He believes His father belonged to the Catt’s Kills  [band of  Mohicans]

In regard to John's wife, in the marriage bann it was stated that Anna Maria, later known as Mary Karner, was born in Germany.  Her parents were Jan Nicholas and Anna Magdalena Koerner.  They and their family were among the thousands refugees of the wars in the German Palatinate and were among the families sent to New York State to become indentured servants to the patroon Robert Livingston.  Mary's brothers Andrew and Lodowick escaped that fate and lived in the Town of Egremont near her and her husband.  The Mohicans leased land to Andrew and John deeded some of his land to Lodowick.

John and Mary had several children.  The ones documented by land records and John's will are:

Nicholas Van Gelder, born 1720.  Married(2) Elizabeth and(3) Mary Welch

 Joseph Van Gelder, born July 14, 1722, baptized November 21, 1722 in Dutch Reformed Church, Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N.Y., baptismal sponsors Joseph and Anna Reichard.  Married Mary Holly Winchell, also known as Molly (daughter of David Winchell), May 23, 1748 ).

John Van Gelder Jr., also known as Johannes Van Gelder, Hannes Van Geldern, baptized May 23, 1725 in Linlithgow Reformed Church, Columbia Co., N.Y., baptismal sponsors Johannes Spoor and Maria Singer.  John married  (1) Catrite Karner, married October 27, 1747,  (2) Geetruyd.

Matthew Van Gelder Sr., baptized September 1, 1728 in Kingston, Ulster Co., N.Y., baptismal sponsors Matheus Slegt, Catalyntjen Kip.

Catharine Van Gelder, also known as Catalyntje Van Gelder, Cartrite, Garthiat, who married Hezekiah Winchell Sr., (son of Samuel Winchell Sr. and Hannah Parsons (my ancestors).

Jacob Van Gelder Sr., died before June 12, 1787.  He married Mercy (von Sahler, p. 292)

Andrew Van Gelder.

Henry Van Gelder, died before May 1758

Magdalena Van Gelder, also known as Martaliner.  She married Pelatiah Winchell, son of David Winchell Jr. and Mary and a cousin to Hezekiah Winchell.  Pelatiah was found to be living in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, N.Y. in 1775.

At least twenty men in the combined Van Gilder and Winchell families served on the Patriot side of the American Revolution.  Three are documented to have been with the Green Mountain Boys when Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga.  Twelve served in the Continental Army.  One stayed the winter at Valley Forge.  Two died in service.

The Van Gilders and Indian Winchells suffered the fate of many of the Mohican families after the war.  They steadily lost their land in Berkshire County.  My ancestor Eliakim Winchell was the only grandchild to retain his land.  However it was sold to pay debts after his death.  Many of his relatives moved to Vermont.  Some of their descendants moved to places in Washington County in New York State.  The fates of fourteen grandchildren of John and Mary Van Gilder remain undocumented and unknown.

Mohican Reserved Land

Occasionally I see a reference to the Mohican reservation in Berkshire County.  It perplexed me until I began my research.  The reservation was not as we know reservations today, poor land where Native Americans were forced by the United States government to live in poor housing with little food.  This reservation was only land reserved by the Mohican Nation for themselves.  There was a Mohican settlement nearby at one time in the vicinity of Big Springs, but not during the 1700s. 

On 20 October 1740 the Mohican Nation leased the northern half of the reserved land to Andrew Karner, Van Gelder's brother-in-law.  The  Mohicans deeded the southern half of the land to Van Gelder on 19 June 1744 and he deeded part  to his other brother-in-law Lodowick Karner 15 June 1745.    They all lived in the northern half of the land.  It is possible that this was part of a survival strategy by the nation, to make sure they had land they could move to if need be.  This practice was followed by their relatives in northwestern Connecticut.

In this map that I created, the extended family lived on the land between the purple dashed lines.  There was a  Mohican burial ground at the mouth of Guilder Hollow and it was probably used by my family.  It was dug up in the 1950s to be used as roadfill, even though there was a headstone and bones visible in the dirt.

Mohicans (Stockbridge) In The American Revolution

Some researchers think that all Mohican (Stockbridge) Indian men served in their own regiment in the American Revolution at the request of General Horatio Gates. That's not true. In researching the allied Van Gilder and Winchell families, I discovered that many family members served in the American Revolution in different units, including the famous Green Mountain Boys. The only way a researcher would know this is if they knew the families of the soldiers involved.

Determining what unit a man served in is not easy. The military terms used in this period are rather cryptic. I have a vivid memory of pestering a friend at work, asking him about Revolutionary War terms in an attempt to understand them. Keith was a great Rev War buff at the time. I did not feel so badly later on when I discovered that he was also descended from the same mixed English-German-Mohican-Wappinger family that I am and we're cousins twice over since he is related to me by cousins who married. Once you read this list, you may understand it was fate that made him a Rev War buff. I teased him royally by email after I figured this out, and it was difficult for me to fall asleep that night. I kept laughing.

Mohican (Stockbridge) Van Gilder Descendants
In The American Revolution

Continental Army:
Andrew Van Gilder
Benjamin Van Gilder
Daniel Van Gilder
David Van Gilder
Ebenezer Van Gilder
Isaac Van Gilder
Jacob Van Gilder
James Van Gilder
John Van Gilder
Joseph Van Gilder
Matthew Van Gilder Jr.
Nathaniel Van Gilder
Nicholas Van Gilder
Reuben Van Gilder
Stephen Van Gilder
David Winchell
Joel Winchell

Green Mountain Boys:
Henry Van Gilder
John Van Gilder Jr.
Jonathan Van Gilder

Albany County Militia:
Andrew Van Gilder
Henry Van Gilder
Jacob Van Gilder
John Van Gilder Jr.

Other Service:
Daniel Van Gilder
Joseph Van Gilder
(Battle of Saratoga)
Matthew Van Gilder Sr
(Battles of Saratoga, Burgoyne’s Surrender)
Eliakim Winchell Sr.
(Battles of Saratoga, Burgoyne’s Surrender)
Hezekiah Winchell Jr.
(Battles of Saratoga, Burgoyne’s Surrender, Mount Independence)