Notes for PRUDENCE MATTESON VAN VELZER:

Daughter of Hendrick and Unknown Wife Matteson.
Born: About 1812 in New York State.
Died: After 1835 in Unknown.
Census: 1860 - Hudson, Walworth County, Wisconsin.
1870 Hudson, Walworth County, Wisconsin.
Married: Philander Knapp Van Velzer Before 1835 in Chautauqua County, New York.

The History of Walworth County, Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith (1912)
PHILANDER KNAPP VAN VELZER
The life record of such a noble character as the late Philander Knapp VanVelzer, one of the first settlers of Walworth county and for many years one of the best known and highly honored citizens of this locality, is well worth perpetuating on the pages of history.

Mr. VanVelzer was born in the state of New York. He was a son of William Henry VanVelzer, also born in. New York, a descendant of one of two brothers who came from Holland and took up their residence on Long Island in the Colonial period. William H. VanVelzer was a merchant and hotel keeper and he built two large hotels in Lockport, New York. In 1835 he moved from Chautauqua county, New York, to Illinois, locating near Chicken Grove where he bought a large farm, and where his wife died. There were three children in his family, two of whom were Philander Knapp and Cornelius E.

Philander K. VanVelzer was married in the state of New York to Prudence Matteson, daughter of Hendrick Matteson, a native of New York and a life-long farmer there. The subject and wife lived in Chautauqua county, New York, until their two oldest children were born. On May I. 1835, they, together with Mr. VanVelzer's father, Robert Wells Warren and family, Greenleaf S. Warren and others, started west, with ox teams, driving cows and other live stock before them. They reached Chicago the last of May, and they went on to DeKalb county, Illinois, where they located, near Chicken Grove, William VanVelzer buying a large farm there. In April, 1836, he was urged by a Mr. Payne to join him in establishing a settlement at the foot of Lake Geneva, Walworth county, and the former made claim to land in section 35, which is now a part of the city of Lake Geneva, but during the turbulance of the first settlement he was driven from it, and he returned to DeKalb county, where he died when eighty-seven years of age.

William VanVelzer's sons, Philander K. and Cornelius R., both came with the first settlers and in the spring of 1836 the former built a log cabin in the woods north of what was afterwards Seminary Park in Lake Geneva. He made claim to part of the water power at the foot of the lake, but was dispossessed. In 1837 he established a brickyard in block 14, in the village of Lake Geneva. He took up one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre and he built a frame house on it about 1839, a half mile east of his first cabin. He improved this land and later sold fifty-eight acres of it. He then built a third residence half a mile east of his second residence and there reared his family. He came to Wisconsin long before it was admitted to the Union and saw it in its wildest state, when the chief inhabitants were Indians and wild beasts, bears, panthers, wolves, lynxes, deer and game of all kinds. At that time the grass grew about seven feet tall, affording hiding places for game. In the fall Indians would fire the grass over miles and miles of territory and settlers were compelled to burn a tract around their homes in order to protect them from the flames. The red men were more or less troublesome. The day before they were to be removed to their allotted reservation west of the Mississippi river, they got drunk and invaded the VanVelzer home, compelling Mrs. VanVelzer to give them a supply of newly baked bread, and demanded some salt pork, but that was too valuable to be given up and she refused, then they saw a barrel of vinegar and mistaking it for "fire-water" danced wildly around it: just then Mr. VanVelzer came home and scattered the intruders.

Ten children were born to Philander K. VanVelzer and wife, of whom William was the eldest. He was born in Chautauqua county, New York, and lived in Bloomfield township, this, county, until a year or two ago, when he moved to Waukesha, having been the oldest living settler in the county at that time. He is now seventy-six years old. Harriet VanVelzer, also born in New York, married Earl Crofoot and lives at Delavan; Caroline, the first of the family born in Walworth county, was the second white child born in this county; she married Thomas Clifton, who was a blacksmith at Lake Geneva and Darien; both are now deceased. George VanVelzer farmed all his life until about ten years ago when he retired and now lives at Williams Bay; Mary Jane, who married John Beamsley, lives at Delavan; Orcelia died when six years old; Ancil lives in Clinton, Wisconsin, and is a blacksmith; Washington is a cigar manufacturer and tobacco dealer and lives at Delavan; Sarah J., widow of William H. Lockwood, lives a short distance east of Lake Geneva; Ferdinand is in the ice business at Delavan.

1860 Hudson, Walworth County, Wisconsin Census:
Name: Prudence Van Velzer
Residence: , Walworth, Wisconsin
Ward: The Town Of Hudson
Age: 48 years
Estimated Birth Year: 1812
Birthplace: New York
Gender: Female
Page: 32
Family Number: 225
Film Number: 805434
DGS Number: 4300460
Image Number: 00328
NARA Number: M653

1870 Hudson, Walworth County, Wisconsin Census
Name: Prudence Vanvelzer
Estimated Birth Year: 1812
Gender: Female
Age in 1870: 58y
Color (white, black, mulatto, chinese, Indian): White
Birthplace: New York
Home in 1870: Wisconsin, United States
Household Gender Age
George Vanvelzer M 30y
Bellvina Vanvelzer F 25y
Olive J Vanvelzer F 3y
Prudence Vanvelzer F 58y
Sarah J Vanvelzer F 20y
Ferdinand Vanvelzer M 17y
Ancil Vanvelzer M 23y