Histories

Kuykendalls in Early Van Zandt and Smith Counties

The Kuykendall family is of Dutch origin. The family came to New Amsterdam in the 1640s. Jacob Luurszen (1616-1655) founded the family. The family came from an area called Wangoinegen, near the Rhine River. Due to customs of the time, the Kuykendall name was not used as a family name in Holland, and only after the family had been in Colonial New Amsterdam for fifty years was it used by the family. In Holland and in Europe generally, the common practice for those outside the aristocracy and/or not persons of high station was to use their father's given name, with the suffix "sen" attached which meant "son of."

The first documented Kuykendall from Holland to Fort Orange, New York, was Jacob Luursen. This indicates that he was the son of Luur. "Consequently, the name of Jacob&'s son was written as Luur Jacobsen in Dutch Reform Church records in 1650. He may have been born in Land Van Kuyk, "a county about 12 miles south of Wageningen." The area was called Kijk-in-t-dal,. "Kijk" is an old Dutch word for "view" and it is pronounced as if it were spelled "Kuyk" or "Kike." The Wageningen area, "Kijkinstdal" was most likely the origin of the Kuykendall family name in America. Luur Jacobsen&'s children started using the surname "Van Kuykendall" (meaning from Kuykendall) as their name, probably due to the influence of English customs after New Netherland became New York under British control in 1664.

The family first settled in New Amsterdam, and branches of the family moved into other areas west of New Amsterdam, and to the east and southern colonies, including North Carolina. As the frontier opened they settled in Tennessee, Texas and other states.

Peter Kuykendall (1806-1879), was a direct descendant of Jacob Luurszen. Peter also was one of the early settlers in Van Zandt County. He came to Texas in 1848 and was the father of Mary Jane Kuykendall Lukenbill (1834-1890) who herself was an early settler in Smith County, Texas . Peter's first wife was Prudence Terry (1810-1869). He married his second wife, Sophria Scaggs (1820-___) in 1870 in Rockwall County.

Peter was Christian Church preacher and preached in the early days in Tennessee. He is said to have been a Baptist earlier in his life. He established the Christian Church in the Cookeville, Tennessee area during the great revival of the 1830's. In the 1840s he and his brother helped organize an institution of higher learning at Spencer, Tennessee known as Burnette College.

Following a misunderstanding among school organizers, Peter and Prudence left Tennessee, moving to Van Zandt, County, Texas in 1846. They first settled about five miles south-west from Grand Saline.

In Van Zandt County Peter continued his work as a Christian Church minister and educator. He and his family were involved in establishing educational academies in Van Zandt and perhaps in the Garden Valley area of Smith County. Family tradition has it that Peter and his extending family, including the Lukenbills and the Terry's, were most likely involved in establishing a Christian Church in northwest Smith County that evidently became the Christian Church located in Lindale, Texas (now disbanded).

There appears to be a link between Garden Valley and Grand Saline as they were both on a stagecoach line between Shreveport, Louisiana and Dallas. This connection seems to have facilitated communication and relationships between the two towns as the Lukenbill and the Kuykendall families were both members of the Christian Church and the Kuykendalls were related to the Lukenbills through Michael Lukenbill's marriage to Mary Jane Kuykendall, (daughter of Peter and Prudence Kuykendall), in Smith County in 1852.

Peter was the first elected Treasurer of Van Zandt County, Texas. The first election in the country took place the first Monday in August, 1848, when eighty-seven votes were polled in the county.

James J. Kuykendall (1827-1873), son of Peter Kuykendall, was the first teacher in Van Zandt County. He married Martha Jane (Mattie) Hatton in Van Zandt, County in 1858. Later James and his family seem to have moved to the Garden Valley area. He died there on the 28th of Sept, 1873. Several of his children were born there. After his death, his wife married Arthur P. Bagby (1824-1886) in Smith County in 1879. She died in Fort Worth in 1928 while living with f some of her children.

Elijah Robinson Kuykendall (1836-1920), another son of Peter, served in Confederate Army. In a letter written in the early 1900s to family historian George Benson Kuykendall, Elijah said that his Grandmother, Jeane (Jennie) Hall (1779-1852), was with the family in Texas and died there in 1852 at the age of 96. He also wrote that his grandmother grew up in North Carolina and told him stories of conflicts with Native Americans in the area, and that her own father, William Hall, was killed by Native Americans in North Carolina. His grandfather was Capt. Jesse Young Kuykendall (1776-1834) who died in Jackson County, Tennessee. After his service in the Confederate Army, Elijah became a Christian Church minister. He died in Van Zandt County, 27 November, 1920.

Today Kuykendall families, descendants of the Dutch settlers of the 1640s, are spread not only in Texas but throughout the United States. The historical novel, American Nomads: An Historical Novel by Emily Stowell (Inis Press, 1996), follows the Kuykendall family from Old Amsterdam in Holland (The Netherlands) to New Amsterdam in 1645, then across the continent for three centuries.

Notes

1. 1850, 1860 federal census Smith County, Texas.
2. "Jackson County, Tennessee" on Wikipedia. Accessed 21 Aug 2011
3. Kuykendall, Don. "Kuykendall/Neuffer Family Genealogy. At https://kuykendall.info. Accessed 20 August, 2011.
4. Kuykendall, George Benson. History of the Kuykendall Family since its Settlement in Dutch New York in 1646, with Genealogy as Found in Early Dutch Church Records, State and Government Documents, together with Sketches of Colonial Times, Old log Cabin Days, Indian Wars, Pioneer Hardships, Social Customs, Dress and Mode of Living of the Early forefathers .. Portland, Or:., Kilham Stationery & Printing Co., 1919.
5. McClain, Walter S. History of Putnam County, Tennessee. Cookville, Tenn.; Q. Dyer & Co., 1925.
6. "Putnam County, Tennessee" on Wikipedia/a>. Accessed 21 Aug 2011