Meier & Matson Family History

Meier Family History
James Van Atta
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The following material on the Van Atta family (by many and various spellings) follows the ancestral line of the author
from Jacob Jansen Van Etten but incorporates many descendants through the broad scope of each succeeding generation. The material has been
gathered over about 25 years of research and from several hundred sources. Many of those are very reliable and well documented while at the
other end of the scale some are of uncertain accuracy. An effort has been made to be as complete as possible. Where there are conflicts, the
generally reliable sources have been used in most cases and more than one date in some circumstances. Question marks are used to indicate
some uncertain data. The use of any specific spelling of the name in this material is not necessarily indicative of correctness. Many family
members used more than one spelling for the same person, and different sources often varied in the same individual’s surname spelling. Some
family members within the same generation used different spellings within the same family. Robert B. Van Atta
* * *
The Van Atta name is a derivation of the original Van Etten (from or of Etten). There are many different versions of the
name, and in old records such as census listings, church rolls, tax lists, and such, the same person’s name frequently
differs. A few of the versions are Vanatta, Vanata, Vannatta, Van Etta, Van Natta, Vanaten, Vanetter, Van Natten,
Vanetan, Van Nette, and many more.
The family originally came from the small agricultural town of Etten, eight miles southwest of the prominent city of
Breda in Noord Brahant (North Brabant) province in Holland. That province is the most southern of 11 Dutch provinces,
and Fleming in characteristics, presumably because Belgium was part of Netherlands until 1830, although the Dutch
language is spoken there. Etten, about 30 miles northeast of Antwerp, Belgium, had a population in 1970 of 19,698. In
its earlier years, Etten was the scene of much conflict between the Spanish and the Dutch, and the town was destroyed
many times. It is on the railroad between Rosendale and Breda. In the 1920’s, its roads were of rough cobblestone, built
in Napoleon’s time, and run for miles in straight lines shaded by linden trees.
Johannes Marinessen Adriense and his parents, Marinus Adriense and Maria Hendricksen, are the earliest known
ancestors of the family. Johannes was baptized March 23, 1597, at Etten. He married Wilhelimina Hoannes, and they
were the parents of the man who was the Van Etten/Van Atta pioneer.
Jacob Jansen Van Etten
Jacob Jansen was born in 1632 and baptized October 22, 1634, at Etten, North Brabant, Holland. The son of Johannes
Marinessen and Wilhelimina Hoannes Adriense, he became the progenitor of the Van Etten/Van Atta family after he
came to America.
In the mid-1600’s, Dutch colonization in America was at a high level of interest, a circumstance that was to lead to
Jacob’s arrival in the colony at New Netherlands (New York). That story began with a man named Adriaen van der
Donck, from Breda in North Brabant province. He first came to New Netherlands in 1641, and was initially involved
with the development of a settlement colony at Yonkers. In early 1652, van der Donck was back in Holland. Prospective
settlers for those Dutch colonies, or servants for those already established in New Netherlands, were hired or recruited in
the mother country, generally in the area from which the colonial leader came -- in this case van der Donck from North
Brabant.
Van der Donck at that time was seeking farmers for his Yonkers colony in the neighborhood of Breda, his birthplace.
Among several he recruited were Aert Pieters Tack and Jacob Jansz/Jansen from nearby Etten, according to papers dated
May 15, 1652. The two were contracted for six years. Such contracts ranged from two to six years. Passage money in
these cases was usually paid by the employer. In New Netherlands, bed and board were furnished in addition to wages,
which for farmhands ranged from 100 to 150 guilders a year, depending on age and experience.
Yonkers was just north of New Amsterdam (New York City). Jacob Jansen apparently made the crossing to America in
the year 1652, but it is not clear whether he was at Yonkers or whether he was diverted to Esopus, first settled by the
Dutch that year. Esopus, named for the Indian tribe in that area, was on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 75
miles north of Yonkers. Jacob worked as a farmhand for Aert Pieters/Petersen Tack at Esopus about 1658, and was
referred to as “head farmer of Tack”. Relations with the Indians were not good at that time, and the New Netherlands
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