THE GIBLERS
 Not much is known about the early family but it's believed the first arrival was CHRISTIAN GIEBELER  aboard The Nancy arriving at Philadelphia on Aug. 13th. 1750 with his wife ANNA LATSCH who he  married in 1748 in Kirchen Germany.
 According to his marriage record his parents were JOHANNES GIEBELER & ANNA OPEL who are my 7X Great  Grandparents.
 CHRISTIAN & ANNA  are my 6X Great grandparents.
 Although there's little detail I believe they had 7 children the eldest being WILLIAM GIBLER b.1750  Shenandoah Co. Va. who married a Catherine & had 11 children the eldest being LEWIS b.1770  Shenandoah Co. Va.
 WILLIAM & CATHERINE are my 5X Great Grandparents.
 LEWIS GIBLER married MAGDELINE SMUTZ in 1788 Shenandoah & had 9 children including the LEWIS who  married MARGARET VAN MATRE.
 Their 2 eldest sons John & Philip fought in the Anglo-American war 1812 in Capt. Barrere's Cavalry  co.
 LEWIS & MAGDELINE are my 4X Great Grandparents.
 It was rumoured amongst the Giblers that Nellie Longfellow who married Maxwell Gibler was a  descendant of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow the famous poet, unfortunately he was only a 4th. cousin  3X removed.

LOUIS DU BOIS
 Among the Walloons that came to New Netherland, in the last days of the Dutch occupation, was LOUIS  DU BOIS, founder of the Huguenot settlement of New Paltz, in Ulster county, New York. LOUIS was the son of CHRETIEN DU BOIS, an inhabitant of Wicres, a hamlet in the district of La  Barree, near Lille, in Flanders, where he was born in the year 1627.  CHRETIEN fled with his family to Mannheim Germany to escape the persecution being suffered by the  Huguenots at the hands of the Catholic Church. On Oct. 10 th. 1655, LOUIS married CATHERINE,  daughter of MATHESE BLANCHAN, who, like himself, was from French Flanders. Two sons, Abraham and  Isaac, were born of this marriage in Mannheim.
 LOUIS & CATHERINE arrived in New Amsterdam in 1661 on board the St. Jean Baptiste.  They first settled in New Amsterdam but shortly after moved from there to Esopus where the previous  year CATHERINE'S brother MATTHEW BLANCHEN had established a fortified settlement called Wiltwyck. Later with other members of the family they established the "New Village" of Hurley. On June 7th. 1663 a concerted attack was made by parties of Indians upon both the settlements. The  destruction of the "New Village" was complete. Every dwelling was burned. The greater number of the  adult inhabitants had gone forth that day as usual to their field work upon the outlying farms,  leaving some of the women, with the little children, at home. Three of the men, who had doubtless  returned to protect them, were killed; and eight women, with twenty-six children, were taken  prisoners. Among these were the families of our Walloons; the wife and three children of LOUIS DU  BOIS & the two children of MATTHEW BLANCHAN. The rest of the people, those at work in the  fields, and those who could escape from the village, fled to the neighbouring woods, and in the  course of the afternoon made their way to Wiltwyck, or to the redoubt at the mouth of Esopus creek. The tidings of this disaster spread consternation throughout the Dutch settlements. Director  Stuyvesant, was the more disposed to act promptly, because of the loss incurred by his trusty  councillor in the capture of his daughter.
 With some difficulty, a force was raised for the defence of Wiltwyck, and for the rescue of the  prisoners in the hands of the Esopus Indians. Nearly a month elapsed however before two sloops  carrying supplies to the destitute inhabitants and having on board a company of Dutch and English  soldiers and of friendly Indian braves entered Esopus creek. They were joined at Wiltwyck by a band  of five Mohawks sent down from Fort Orange for the purpose of endeavoring to secure the release of  the captives through mediation. In the meantime one of the women captives escaped from the savages  and was ready to conduct the rescuing party to the Indian fort, thirty miles to the south-west of  Wiltwyck, where the prisoners had been conveyed. 
 The expedition set forth under the command of Captain Krygier on the twenty-sixth of July and on  the next day reached the fort but found it deserted. The Indians had retreated with their captives  to a more distant fastness in the Shawungunk mountains. Krygier pursued them but without success  and after setting fire to the fort and destroying large quantities of corn which they found stored  away in pits or growing in the fields the party returned to Wiltwyck.  Another month passed before a second attempt could be made. Information came through friendly  Indians that the Esopus Indians were building another fort. So as soon as the weather permitted and  a supply of horses could be obtained Krygier set forth again. This time the enemy was taken by  surprise. A fierce combat ensued & many of the Indians were taken, 23 of the captives were rescued  and brought back to the settlement. Their absence had lasted three months.  Tradition states that LOUIS DU BOIS was one of the foremost members of the rescuing party. An  instance of his vigour and presence of mind, given by Captain Krygier in his journal after the  return of the expedition, may lead us to credit this statement. "LOUIS, the Walloon, went today to  fetch his oxen, which had gone back of Juriaen Westphaelen's land. As he was about to drive home  the oxen, three Indians, who lay in the bush and intended to seize him, leaped forth. When one of  these shot at him with an arrow, but only slightly wounded him, LOUIS, having a piece of a palisade  in his hand, struck the Indian on the breast with it so that he staggered back and LOUIS escaped  through the kill and came thence and brought the news into the fort." These troubles over, the settlement enjoyed security from attack. The Esopus tribe in the course of  their fight with the white man were almost exterminated. The Walloons were now free to extend their  plantations further into the rich lands that were now without an owner. Some years later LOUIS DU  BOIS with several associates removed from Wiltwyck to a spot which they had  discovered during their pursuit of the Indians. Here in the beautiful Wallkill valley they built  their homes near the base of the Shawungunk mountains. The settlers had not forgotten the Rhine  and the days of their exile in Mannheim and they named their village "le nouveau Palatinat," or  New Paltz.
 By 1664 New Amsterdam had become an English possession & renamed New York. LOUIS & CATHERINE ARE MY 9X Great Grandparents.

THE VAN METERENS.
 JAN JOOSTEN VAN METEREN arrived at New Amsterdam with his family on the ship “D'Vos” (The Fox) on  April 12, 1662. He settled in an area on the west side of the Hudson River about 60 miles upstream  where a group of Dutch and Huguenot immigrants were establishing a collection of little  communities; New Paltz, Wiltwyck, Esopus, Hurley and Marbletown near the present Kingston,  Ulster County, New York at the foothills of the Catskill mountains. JAN JOOSTEN brought with him  his wife MACYKE HENDRICKES and five children, three of them by Maycke’s first husband Willem Krorn  (Gysbert, Lysbet and Geertje ages 15, 12 and 9) and two of his own, JOOST JANSEN age 6 and  Catherine age 2 1/2. 
 On June 7, 1663 only a year after arriving in America little JOOST JANSEN was one of the 26  children captured by the Minnisink ( Esopus )  Indians at Wiltwyck  along with his mother and LOUIS  DU BOIS’ wife CATHERINE BLANCHAN and baby daughter SARAH from Esopus. JOOST and SARAH were later to  be married. 
 Later as an adult he frequently left home to spend many weeks at a time with various tribes. In  this way he was among the first whites to explore the wilderness areas to the west of the coastal  settlements. He was particularly impressed by the beauty of the Valley of Virginia and urged his  sons to settle there which they eventually did. Thus began the pioneering spirit of the Van Meters  who for the next 200 years were among the first settlers and participants in the key events which  shaped the nation.
 JAN & MACYKE  are my 9X Great Grandparents.

JOOST JANSEN VAN METEREN, who sometimes called himself John Van Meter, married SARAH DU BOIS at New  Paltz on December 12, 1682. About 15 years later he moved his growing family to Somerset County,  New Jersey on his father’s land which he later inherited. JOOST and SARAH seem to have had five  sons, but only three of them are well known. John, my ancestor was the eldest baptized in  Kingston, N.Y. on Oct. 14th. 1683.
 JOOST & SARAH are my 8X Great Grandparents.

JAN VAN METEREN (also known as John) was baptized on 14 October 1683 at Kingston, Ulster County,  New York, the son of JOOST JANSEN VAN METEREN and SARAH DU BOIS. He married Sara Bodine in 1705 at  Somerset County New Jersey.
 They had 3 children, Sara died in 1709 at Somerset County New Jersey.  JAN & his 3 children along with his second wife & cousin MARGARET MOLLENAUER settled in the  Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where JAN became a wealthy land owner and horse breeder.  An article says John Van Meter and his brother Isaac, were granted 110,000 acres of land in the  Shenandoah Valley by the Royal Governor William Gooch, which they later sold to their cousin Jost  Hite after selecting choice sites for themselves while it was still a wilderness."  JAN died on 13 August 1745 at Apequon, Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia.  He became known as "JOHN VAN METER the Indian Trader" & he & MARGARET are my 7X Great Grandparents.

ABRAHAM VAN METER, the son of JOHN VAN METER and MARGARET MOLLENAUER, was born in 1721 in Salem  County, New Jersey.
 His first marriage was to RUTH HEDGES, the daughter of Joseph and Catherine (Stalkap) Hedges of  Prince George County, Maryland, in 1742. They had six children including JOSEPH, my ancestor who  married MARGARET MORGAN.
 In the year 1761 ABRAHAM’S wife RUTH passed away and he later married Mrs. Martha Wheeler. To this  union there were born four children including John. “ It was doubtless the John of this family who,  one day when he was at the neighbour's breaking flax heard the report of guns. Looking toward his  house he saw that it had been attacked by Indians. They burned his house and murdered his wife,  daughter, and two small sons. The three older boys, Abraham, Isaac and John, were working in the  field and were carried away. Two of them afterwards escaped but John the youngest grew up with  his captors and married an Indian girl. he sometimes visited his relatives but could not be  persuaded to abandon the free life of the forest. Hannah the daughter who was murdered was at a  spring washing. She had on a sunbonnet that concealed her face. One of the savages sank a tomahawk  into her head but when they saw she was young and beautiful they lamented the act saying that "she  would have been a pretty squaw"….or so the story has been told. The story of this massacre was told by the notorious Simon Girty who took part in it and is taken  from a book of notes on the settlement of Western Virginia and Pennsylvania. This tragedy happened  in the vicinity of Fort Van Meter to which the family usually fled in times of danger. ABRAHAM settled down as a breeder, grazier and trader of horses and cattle and carried on extensive  business relations with the settlers along the Ohio River frontiers. He established trading posts on the border and at the crossings of streams in the wilderness. In  addition to the trading he and his sons acted as guides and counsellors to the pioneers. In the  days preceding the Revolution they had become known as active & reliable frontiersmen. ABRAHAM found it necessary for the protection of the neighbourhood to erect a stockade on Short  Creek near its junction with the Ohio River. This post became known in border history as Van  Metre's Fort and it became the rendezvous for the settlers during attacks by the Indians on the  settlement. This fort subsequently fell into the possession of ABRAHAM’S son JOSEPH VAN METRE,  during his father's lifetime and then he in turn, willed it to his son MORGAN VAN METRE. This  fort was situated in Richland township, now Brooke County, West Virginia, and is believed to be the  first fort erected in this part of Virginia.
 West Liberty in which locality Van Matre's Fort was situated was known as Short Creek County. It  was established on lands originally improved by ABRAHAM. it rapidly developed in importance and was  incorporated by legislature enactment November 27, 1787.
 ABRAHAM VAN METER’S loyalty and service to the cause of the Colonies during the Revolution included  his participation in the defence of the border when it was controlled by the British, renegade  Tories, and their Indian allies. He was with Squire Boon's party at "Fainted Stone Station" in  Shelby County, Kentucky in 1779 and with Captain James Harrod's company "at the falls" of the  Ohio in 1780. When the Virginia Convention assembled in 1776, ABRAHAM was present and among those  who signed a petition to the Congress May 18th.
 ABRAHAM'S younger brother Jacob was famously known as " Valley Creek Jake " ABRAHAM died in the year 1783 and was buried on his farm near Martinsburg, West Virginia. He & RUTH are my 6X Great Grandparents.

JOSEPH VAN METER, the oldest son of ABRAHAM and RUTH HEDGES was born in 1743, in the state of  Maryland. He married MARGARET MORGAN, who was said to be his first cousin. It is possible that  JOSEPH was married twice because some sources show MARGARET MORGAN to be his wife and other sources  speak of Drusilla Morgan. The first child born to them was a son MORGAN in 1765. Six additional children were born to JOSEPH and his wife.
 JOSEPH was born on the frontier, and though he frequently changed his residence he died on the  frontier. He seems to have belonged to that class of men once quite numerous who kept constantly  on the border of civilization and followed close upon the footsteps of the Indians as they  retreated farther West at the advance of the white man.
 JOSEPH moved from the south bank of the Potomac River in West Virginia where his first son MORGAN  was born. He crossed the Allegheny Mountains, descended the Monongahela River and settled in the  forks of that river. At this point Joseph Jr. and perhaps other members of the family were born. In 1770 JOSEPH moved with his family to the Ohio River where the city of Wheeling now is located.  The men he invited to help him raise his cabin came from the settlement of Deerfield on the Miami.  He made a clearing adjoining his cabin which was the first one for many miles around. He sold  fifty acres of land to Peter Van Meter at a reasonable price to have him settle as a neighbour.  Soon others moved in and made a larger settlement. As more and more people started to move north  JOSEPH opened a tavern with entertainment for the travellers. His place was known far and near as  Van Meter's Stand.
 The first distillery was built by LEWIS GIBLER near his mill on White Oak. It was a log building  without windows, so situated that water from the spring could easily be conducted in wooden spouts  through all parts of the house. These spouts, made of straight poplar poles, had a channel for the  water cut into them on one side. He had but one still, which was of copper manufactured in  Pittsburgh. Rye and corn whiskey was made, and the schoolteacher, the preacher, the doctor, and the  lawyer each took his ration as a matter of course. Whiskey was taken in exchange for goods by  merchants at a stipulated price and like flour was taken in payment for real estate. The absence of  the beverage at a raising was a remarkable exception to the rule and the visitor to the pioneer  family was more than likely to taste the hospitality of his host from the mouth of a bottle. JOSEPH continued to reside on Short Creek until his death in 1799. The manner of his death is not  known. He had left home to fish and never returned. No trace of him was ever found. Some supposed  that he had been drowned others thought he had been taken prisoner by the Indians and burned at  the stake. Some forty years later his gun was found by some children playing on a sand bar along  the Ohio River.
 JOSEPH & MARGARET are my 5X Great Grandparents.
 LEWIS GIBLER is my 5X Great Grandfather.

MORGAN VAN MATRE 1765-1813
 You will note that the spelling of the family name has now been changed to Van Matre. For this  change we have been unable to find any reason.
 It was in 1770 that JOSEPH VAN MATRE (Van Meter, Van Metre), father of MORGAN VAN MATRE moved his  family from Kentucky to the Ohio River near the present location of Wheeling, West Virginia.  MORGAN was five years old at that time. On January 17, 1785, he was married to MARY PEIRCE, and  they reared a large family of ten.
 MORGAN had a surveying business. When the people couldn't afford to pay the surveyor he took his  pay in land. It is said that he came upon an unoccupied Indian wigwam and he lived in it. It was  here he built a cabin and in 1798 opened it to the public as a tavern. He was the first white  settler in what is now Clinton County, Ohio. Later the village of Snow Hill was laid out near  there. In a short time the cabin became too small and so he built a larger one on the road leading  from Chillicothe to Cincinnati. Van Matre's was a conspicuous point in the road for guides in the  Pittsburgh almanacs & for the information and direction of travellers from that town to Cincinnati.  MORGAN entertained his overnight visitors with violin music and stories. It was not uncommon for  him to feed them dark bread and bear meat.
 It is said of MORGAN VAN MATRE that when the college township road was being located in 1803-1804  he met the surveyor and viewers a short distance west of Snow Hill and by generous donations from  his whiskey jug induced them to change the route of the road so it would pass near his cabin  northwest of Snow Hill.
 MORGAN & MARY ARE MY 4X Great Grandparents.
 MORGAN'S daughter MARGARET one of 10 children married LEWIS GIBLER & they are my 3X Great  grandparents.

WILLIAM LONGFELLOW 1650-1690
 WILLIAM was the son of WILLIAM LONGFELLOW Sr. & ELIZABETH THORNTON my 9X Great Grandparents. He was  born in Guiseley, Yorkshire, England & arrived in Newbury Mass. in 1676. On Nov. 10th. 1678 in  Newbury, Essex County, Mass. he married ANNE SEWELL.
 WILLIAM LONGFELLOW was ensign of the Newbury Company that went with Sir William Phips against  Quebec and was drowned with nine others off Anticosta in a violent storm on their return trip. The  following is an extract from the report by William Phips of the expedition against Quebec: "I set  sails from New England, March 1690, with seaven hundred men and seaven saile of ships, and we  reduced Arcaddy. With 2300 men and with 30 saile of ships I sailed August 10, 1690 for Quebeck.  Contrary winds delayed our arrival till October. I brought the ships within Musquett shot, we fired  and dismounted severall of their best cannon so that the city must have been taken in two or three  daies but small pox and the feavour broke out and the weather grew so extream cold that no further  progress could be made therein so I returned to New England". In the Spring of 1689 war broke out in Europe between France and the League of Augsburg a coalition  of countries led by England. France wanted to launch a full-scale attack on the British colonies in  America especially New York. In 1690 the French sent troops to New England where they attacked and  destroyed a number of villages killing their inhabitants or taking them prisoner. New Englanders  joined forces against New France. 
 On Aug. 10th. 1690 the British sent an expedition of 32 ships and some 300 men including about 50  American Indians from the colony of Plymouth to attack Quebec City. Only about 5 or 6 of the ships  were actually warships. Most of the others were merchant or fishing vessels.  WILLIAM LONGFELLOW was on one of the ships. The contingent of ships reached Quebec City on Oct.  16th. 1690. When the French were ordered to surrender the French sent a messenger with the now  famous reply: "I will answer your general through the muzzles of my cannon and muskets." The New  Englanders attacked Quebec on Oct. 18th. but were driven back. The ships turned around and headed  back to Boston harbour. 
 Several storms were encountered on the return voyage and a number of ships were wrecked. Four of  them, including the ship William Longfellow was on never returned. It went down on Oct.31st.  1690 at Cape Breton near Anticosti. All aboard drowned. WILLIAM died at sea in Anticosta, Cape  Breton, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Canada.
 WILLIAM and his wife ANNE had six children all born in Newbury including WILLIAM b.1679 my 7X  Great Grandfather &  Stephen, b.1685 who was the 2X Great Grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. ANNE remarried & had another 6 children.
 WILLIAM & ANNE ARE MY 8x Great Grandparents.