Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 26 February 2005

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819

ABRAHAM VAN TUYL, farmer; P. O. Franklin; an old and honored pioneer of Warren County; was born in Somerset Co., N. J., Oct. 8, 1805. He is a son of Michael and Sophia Van Tuyl, natives of Staten Island and New Jersey. In 1814, they emigrated to this county and settled on the farm our subject now occupies, and which was purchased in 1813; it was then a tract containing several hundred acres. It was here, in the primitive days of Warren County, and during the war with Great Britain, that young Van Tuyl passed a part of his early life; his educational advantages were limited to the common schools of the pioneer days. The winter of 1815, when but 10 years of age, he cleared 2 acres of land, and his present residence occupies a part of the ground. Mr. Van Tuyl followed saw-milling for about thirty years, and since has pursued farming. He was married, Feb. 2, 1832, to Ruth A. Craig, daughter of William and Ruth Craig, born in Monmouth Co., N. J., Oct. 20, 1811; of their three children, but one survives—Martha, born July 13, 1845, wife of Robert Byers, now of Olney, Richland Co., Ill.; Martha and William are their deceased children. Mr. and Mrs. Van Tuyl are ardent members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Van Tuyl is Republican in politics, but formerly was a Whig; he is one of the estimable and highly esteemed pioneers of Warren County.