Kuykendalls - by Donald Kuykendall

The origin of the Kuykendall name is Dutch. Genealogists such as Dr.
George Benson Kuykendall, author of ``History of the Kuykendall Family''
(1919), have traced the name to an area near Wageningen overlooking the
Rhine river. 
Drawing from sources such as the Archives of the State of New York, the
Holland Society, and records from 17th century Holland, Dr. Kuykendall
explains that the name Kuykendall was not used as a surname in the
modern sense until our Dutch ancestors had been in this country over fifty
years. During the 17th century in Holland, only people of great prominence
or social position used the family name as we do today; instead, they
preferred the father's given name with the suffix ``sen'' attached. For
example, our ancestor who immigrated from Holland to Fort Orange, New
York, was called Jacob Luursen because his father was named Luur.
Consequently, the name of Jacob's son was written as Luur Jacobsen in
Dutch Reform Church records in 1650. 
When he arrived in the New World in 1640, Jacob signed his full name as
Jacob Luursen Van Wageningen, the word ``van'' meaning ``from,'' thus
establishing that he was from Wageningen, Holland, although some
genealogists believe he was actually born in Land Van Kuyk, a county
about 12 miles south of Wageningen. 
Our first American-born ancestor, Luur Jacobsen, was also the first to use
the surname ``Van Kuykendall.'' My sources say that he added the name
when he reached the age of 21, according to Dutch custom. However, he
did not use ``Van Kuykendall'' except for some official documents such as
baptism records of his children. From this point on, however, Luur Jacobsen's children used the surname ``Van Kuykendall'' as a last name,
probably due to the influence of English customs after New Netherland became New York under British control in 1664. Luur's son Matthew is
listed as ``Mattheus Van Kuykendaal'' in marriage records dated April 3,
1715. Also, another son named Cornelius appears to have dropped the
Dutch ``Van'' at some point as he moved into Minisink County in what is
now New Jersey, as all of his children were baptised with just the surname
``Kuykendall.'' 
It is widely believed that most Kuykendalls of the present are descendants
of Matthew Van Kuykendall and Cornelius Kuykendall, so our use of the
name stems from them and their children who moved out of the Hudson and
Delaware river valley south into various parts of Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, and finally Alabama. 
		Jacob Luurson Jacob, our first ancestor in America, was born in or near Waginengen,
Holland, the son of Luur (last name unknown). He married Stynje Douwes in Amsterdam on August 28, 1638; Stynje was from Enkhuisen, Holland,
born in January 1617, the daughter of Douwe Wiggersz and Agniete Coensen. A 1662 fire in the town hall of Wageningen prevents us from finding 
any older records on Jacob Luursen or his family. 
In 1640, Jacob, Stynje, and their baby daughter Styntie arrived in Fort
Orange, New Netherlands (now Albany, New York) on the ship Princess
owned by the Dutch West India Company. Since 1629 this company had set
up patroonships whereby wealthy Dutch could obtain huge tracts of land if
they successfully colonized the area. One such patroon was Kiliaen Van
Rensselaer whose holdings included most of present-day Albany,
Columbia, and Rensselaer counties. Rensselaer had his business office in
Amsterdam but his home was in the Gelderland province from which the Luersens came, so it is likely that Rensselaer personally recruited the
brothers and gave them land leases to ensure that they would become
permanent settlers. Rensselaer's patroonship is mentioned as the only one
that lasted into the 1700's.
Jacob and his brother Urbanus (with wife Jannetie Claes Boanes) came to
America to work for Rensselaer, possibly as mechanics. However, some of
my records include details of shipping by the Dutch West India
Company in which Jacob Luersen is specifically mentioned as an officer.
New York Historical Manuscripts contains a September 6, 1641 declaration
of officers of the ship The Angel Gabriel who urged the captain to head for
New Netherlands because of the disabled condition of their ship, signed by
Jacob Luersen as Chief Boastswain Jacob, like other Dutch settlers, was granted a lot in Beverwyck near Fort
Orange on October 25, 1653. Records show that he built a house and had
a garden there until his death on April 29, 1655. He was survived by his
wife Stynje, daughters Styntie, Jacobyntie, and Agneit, and only son Luur. Luur Jacobson
Born in Fort Orange, New Netherlands, on May 29, 1650, Luur grew up as
the colony was being firmly established on the banks of the Hudson River.
His early years were spent in Esopus County (now Kingston, New York)
and Rochester, especially after the death of his father Jacob in 1655 and Luur's mother Stynje was married to Claes Teunissen in 1657/8.
In 1680, Luur married Grietje Artze Tack (1663-1720), daughter of Annette Ariens and Aert Pietersen Tack of Kingston. The couple had eleven
children, eight of whom were baptised in the Dutch Reform Church in
Kingston Luur and Grietje died after 1720 in Minisink. 
		CORNELIUS Kuykendall
The fourth child of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendall, Cornelius was born in
Kingston on May 30, 1686, and married Maritje Westvael in 1705 in Minisink. Maritje was the daughter of Johannes Westphal and Maritji Kool;
Johannes' parents, Jurian Westphal and Maritje Hansen, had emigrated in
the 1600's from Westphalia, Prussia (present day Germany). 
Cornelius dropped the ``Van'' in the family surname, probably influenced by
his English-speaking neighbors in the Minisink and Deerpark, New Jersey,
areas where his first four children were born. One record states that after
1747 Cornelius with his youngest sons Johannes (John), Abraham, and Petrus (Peter) moved south into Pennsylvania, Virginia, and finally North
Carolina. Cornelius' sons were accompanied by the sons and grandsons of 
Matthew Van Kuykendall, a brother of Cornelius, so that the majority of the Kuykendalls were in North Carolina by about 1750.
		JOHN Kuykendall
Johannes Kuykendall, born Jun-5-1717 in Minisink, NY, m. Elizabeth Decher on Apr-19-1745. There's a good chance his son was Jacob, who died at Battle of 
Kings Mountain. Jacob's son Richmond; b. 1768 in York Co SC, had the son- 
James; b. Dec-25-1795 in Barren Co KY, m. CELIA THOMPSON on Sep-4-
1820 in Garrard Co KY. James d. Jul-24-1860 in Platte Co MO.

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		Abraham Kuykendall
The most fascinating account is that of Abraham, whose life spans the
colonial, revolutionary, and frontier eras of the United States. Even more
intriguing are the mystery of a pot of buried gold and tales of Abraham's
ghost still said to haunt a creek called Pheasant Branch near Flat Rock,
North Carolina. Born in Deerpark and baptised on October 18, 1719,
Abraham moved to the Minisink area with his parents, then south into
Pennsylvania, then down into western North Carolina through the famous
Cumberland Gap. He married his first wife, Elizabeth, about 1743 and
fathered eleven children between 1755 and 1792. 
Abraham's story begins with the Revolutionary War, during which he mostly
served in civil rather than military roles. Listed as a member of the North
Carolina Militia in 1770, he was also a member of the Safety Committee for
Tryon County, North Carolina, from July, 26, 1775. Historical records of
Tryon County list Abraham as Captain Kuykendall on and after July 1776.
Very little of the war was fought in North Carolina and records suggest
Abraham served in procuring supplies in North Carolina and sending them
to Washington's army farther north. Shortly after the war began, he was
also appointed Commissioner of Tryon County, responsible for building a
court house, prison, and stocks, and for establishing a boundary line
between Tryon and Mecklenburg Counties. He also became Justice of the
Peace of Tryon County in December of 1778, and continued in these roles
when Rutherford County was formed during or after the Revolutionary War.
These appointments show Abraham to be a man held in high regard by his
fellow citizens. 
He stayed in this area east of what is now Asheville until about 1800 when,
for unknown reasons, he moved further west to sparsely populated
Henderson County, closer to Asheville. By this time he was over eighty and
having lost his first wife Elizabeth, he had quickly remarried a young, attrative woman named Bathseba. As a veteran of the Revolutionary War,
he was given a grant of land of six hundred acres by the State of North
Carolina in an area that was primarily virgin timber. In time, he came to own
over one thousand acres, including all of the Flat Rock community. There
he established a tavern to accomodate travelers along the Old State Road
used by people driving herds of cattle, horses, and mules from Kentucky
and Tennessee to the markets in lower South Carolina and Georgia. It was
a busy road because it was one of the few that linked the mountain areas of
western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee to towns further east. 
Abraham built the tavern and holding pens for livestock; we are told the inn
was unusually large and its accommodations better than the average
pioneer inn offered in those days. Family tradition also makes much of his
beautiful young wife Bathseba who bore him four sons and helped entertain
travelers. He had a reputation for serving good food and drinks of strong,
raw whiskey made at his own still. The tavern was established sometime
between 1800 and 1804, and its reputation for good lodgings made
Abraham a rich man. 
He insisted travelers pay in gold or silver coins and only accepted gold
when selling parts of his huge tract of land. Soon the old soldier-pioneer
innkeeper had accumulated quite a fortune and began to fear for its safety.
There were no banks in this remote area or anywhere in the state of North
Carolina, so valuables were kept in strong boxes, large trunks made of thick
white oak, held together with strips of iron and locked with large padlocks.
These precautions did not satisfy the aging Abraham, especially since his
young wife had a habit of spending her husband's treasure on frivolous
goods brought in by pack peddlers. Family tradition maintains that Bathseba liked to dress in bright colors and wear lots of rings, bracelets, necklaces,
and earrings. The peddlers served as travelling department stores, bringing
all kinds of goods to frontier women in isolated areas, and they must have
realized what a good customer Abraham's young wife was, with all her
husband's wealth at her disposal. 
One dark night, old Abraham secretly transferred his gold and silver coins
from his strong box to a large iron wash pot, an item common to pioneer
households. He then awoke two of his slaves who were very strong and
young. He blindfolded them and ordered them to carry the pot down the
road and into the forest with only a pine knot torch lighting the way. He
guided them through the dense forest where he removed their blindfolds
and told them to dig a hole under a bent white oak tree near a clear
sparkling branch. When it was deep enough to satisfy him, Abraham had
the two slaves bury the pot, covering the spot with leaves and brush to hide
it. Again he blindfolded the young men and led them back to the inn. On
pain of death he warned them never to tell a soul a single word of what they
had done for him that night. 
Some time after, when Abraham was 104 years old, he set out alone to get
some of his treasure for a business deal. Taking a shovel, he left the inn,
never again to be seen alive. When he failed to return, a search begun and
he was found dead, lying face down in a mountain stream that flowed
through the forest. Those who found him concluded that he had stumbled or
tripped while trying to cross the branch, probably hitting his head. Either
badly dazed or unconscious, he had rolled into the stream and drowned. 
Only then did it become common knowledge that Abraham had buried his
wealth in a large iron pot. The two frightened slaves told the family what
they could of that strange night, but all they could tell was that the money
was beneath a large white oak near a mountain stream. Thus began frantic
searches along the banks of Pheasant Branch where Abraham was found,
and some still search today. 
Soon after the old man's death, stories began to be told at campfires and
hearths around Flat Rock. People travelling at night during the full moon
told of seeing the figure of a bent old man frantically digging first in one
place and then another. Those brave enough to go after the phamtom recalled how it disappeared before their very eyes. Stories persisted and
grew. One terrified traveler on horseback told of crossing Pheasant Branch
just as he heard the rattling of a wagon just ahead and then saw a solitary
figure of an old man in a one horse wagon, beside which sat a large black
wash pot. As the traveler drew along side, the wagon, horse, man and wash
pot suddenly vanished. 
Soon only the most foolhardy travelled after dark near the vicinity of
Pheasant Branch, and family traditions kept the story of the gold and the
ghost alive. Many have searched in vain for the treasure, including
descendants of the two slaves Abraham blindfolded and led through the
woods to bury the pot, but none of it has ever been found. BACK TO THOMPSON PAGE