THE ANCESTORS OF TWO SISTERS Records of the Ancestors of HELEN ROBINA CORTELYOU and CAROL VAN ZANDT CORTELYOU Press of BROWN PRINTING SERVICE LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 1954 PREFACE Many books have appeared through the years, showing descent from people of one surname in each case. Usually the number of de­ scendants increases rapidly with each generation and the percentage of the blood of any one strain tends to become microscopically small. As "Teddy" Roosevelt once stated with characteristic vigor, "It's like stirring a drop ·of champagne into a hogshead of water!" However that may he, the compiler conceived the idea of doing what has not been done he£ ore, at least as far as public print is concern­ ed. Rather than follow one line downward, how much more interesting to follow all lines backward when and as far as this can he done without too much difficulty and expense. Please note that the number of ancesters, or ancestral stations, will double with each move backward. But sometimes an ancestor will appear more than once in the same generation. 111 every case, the mother will always appear with double the number of the son or daugh­ ter, and the number of the father will be the mother's number less one. So, for instance, Charles Haines Manley, IV-5, has the parents, Charles l\ilanley, V-9, and Martha Felicia Haines, V-10. To work down toward the present, divide the mother's number by 2; the son's or daughter's number is IV-5. Or add 1 to the father's number then divide by 2. Please note that this hook was gotten together chiefly for the two granddaughters. It is not primarily for the general public. However, the compiler does think that the general public can have a lot of pleasure in working out lines as has been done here. With time and patience a large amount of interesting material can be gotten together. 5105 Underwood Avenue John V. Cortelyou Omaha 3, N ehraska Spring, 1954 THE TWO SISTERS 5 Chapter I THE TWO SISTERS More than twenty years ago a beginning had been made in assem­ bling data concerning the ancestors of the older of the two sisters.· Helen Robina Cortelyou was born on the west coast of Florida, at Tampa, on March 15, 1930. Somewhat later, the family moved to Wilkes Barre, Penn., then to_ Miami, where Helen's sister, Carol Van Zandt Cortelyou, was horn. Later a move was made to Washington, D. C., the father of the two girls having joined the navy. Later they moved to Omaha, then to Washington, where the father of the sisters served in the U. S. Navy again. With the ending of the war, the Cortelyous moved to Omaha once more. In due time the older sister entered Kansas State College, at Man­ hattan, Kansas. She was graduated in 1952, receiving the B. S. degree with high honors. She was elected to Phi Kappa Phi and to Mortar Board, honor societies. Earlier she had joined Kappa Kappa Gamma, a social sorority of which her mother and her three Cortelyou aunts are also members. The younger sister was born on the east cost of Florida, at Miami, on May 24, 1939. In due time the family moved to Omaha, where Carol is now attending Central High School, the "Omaha High School" from which her grandfather Cortelyou was graduated in 1893. Chapter I is very small, it must be admitted. But the book is still in its infancy, so of course Chapter I is short. THE PARENTS 7 Chapter II THE PARENTS 11-1. RUSHTON GARDNER CORTELYOU (son of John Van Zandt Cortelyou, 111-1) was born May 18, 1906, at Manhattan, Kansas, and married on June 2, 1939, at Manchester, New Hampshire, Margaret Helen Manley. Rushton Cortelyou was graduated from Manhattan (Kansas) High School in 1923, and from Kansas State College, at Manhattan, in 1927, with high honors and with the degree, B. S. in Civil Engineering. At K. S. C. he was elected to Phi Kappa Phi ( scholarship fraternity), So­ ciety of Civil Engineers, Mortar and Ball, and to Phi Delta Theta ( a social fraternity) • · He entered the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administra­ tion in the fall of 1927 and was graduated with the M. B. A. degree in the spring of 1929. He became assistant auditor at Maas Brothers department store, at Tampa, Florida, in 1929 and remained with them till December, 1935, when he became controller at Pomeroy's department store at Wilkes Barre, Pa. Later he became controller at Burdine's department store at Miami, Florida and remained with them till the fall of 1942. Rushton Cortelyou joined the U. S. Navy Reserve in the fall of 1942 with the rank of lieutenant. He was released to inactive duty on December 31, 1945, being at that time a lieutenant commander. On August 26, 1946, he became affiliated with the Fairmont Foods Company as economist, stationed at the main office in Omaha, Nebraska, and became assistant treasurer in 1947. On March 1, 1950, he became treasurer of Fairmont Foods Company. He and his family reside at 5109 Underwood Avenue, Omaha 3, Nebraska. II-2. MARGARET HELEN MANLEY ( daughter of Charles Henry Manley, 111-3) was horn June 12, 1906 at Junction City, Kansas, and married on June 2, 1929, at Manchester, N. H., Rushton Gardner Cortelyou. She was graduated from Junction City High School in 1924 and attended Kansas State College at Manhattan during the years 1924-'25 and 1925-'26. She joined the K. S. C. chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and later became a member of P. E. 0. Children of Rushton Gardner and Margaret Helen (Manley) Cortelyou: Helen Robina, horn March 15, 1930, at Tampa, Fla.; and Carol Van Zandt, horn May 24, 1939, at Miami, Florida. THE GRANDPARENTS 9 Chapter III THE GRANDPARENTS 111-1. JOHN VAN ZANDT CORTELYOU (son of John Gardner Cortelyou, IV-1) was horn Sept. 19, 1874, at Harlingen, Somerset Co., N. J ., and was hapt. Jan. 30, 1875, by the pastor of the Harlingen Re­ formed Dutch Church. He married on August 24, 1904, at Fairmont, Nebraska, Grace Isabel Rushton. In the spring of 1884, in his tenth year, "Van Zandt" Cortelyou journeyed with his mother, his brothers and his sister from his birth­ place in New Jersey to their new home in Ewing, Holt County, Nebraska. His father had preceded them to that small frontier town. In the fall of 1890, the family moved to Omaha. John V. Cortelyou was graduated from Omaha High School (later known as Central High) in June, 1893. He entered the University of N ehraska in the fall of 1893 and was graduated in 1897 with the A. B. degree and with honors ( Phi Beta Kappa) . The next two years he taught in the Humboldt, Nebraska, high school. During the year 1898-'99 he was also superintendent of schools at Humboldt. In the summer of 1899, he bought the stock of the campus book­ store in Lincoln and starting with September he managed that store and also carried graduate work at the University. At the end of that college­ year, the University regents closed the book-store and that act left the manager of the store without an income hut with full time to carry on his studies. He was awarded the A. M. degree in June, 1901. On June 22, he took passage on a Hamburg-American steamer from Brooklyn to Hamburg, Germany, and then spent a month walking up the Rhine from Bonne with two young men from Philadelphia, who had been fellow-passengers on the Bulgaria. In the fall of 1901, he enrolled at the University of Heidelberg. He carried English philology as his major subject and Romance philology and Germanic philology as his minors. After three years of study there, he was awarded the Ph.D. degree with high honors (magna cum laude). His extended thesis, a hook of 126 pages, entitled "Die altenglischen N amen der Insekten, Spinnen- und Krustentiere," was published in Heid­ elberg, Germany, in 1906. The title would read in English: "The Anglo­ Saxon Names of the Insects, Spiders and Crustacea." Before leaving Heidelberg, John V. Cortelyou was elected head of the newly-formed Department of German at Kansas State College at Manhattan, Kansas. In 1916 the department was enlarged to embrace also French and Spanish, and was then called the Department of Modern Languages. 10 THE GRANDPARENTS With the coming of Henry J. Waters as the new president of Kansas . State College in 1909, Mr. Cortelyou was appointed editor of the college catalogue. He got out the 1909 catalogue and all later catalogues till he left the College in the spring of 1934. In 1922, he was elected secretary of the "K. S. A. C. Stadium Corporation," and the job of collecting funds and paying bills was his until he left in 1934, at which time there were no outstanding bills in connection with the building of the stadium. These two extra lines of work, catalogue and stadium, were in addition to a full teaching load. In the spring of 1934, J. V. Cortelyou's thirtieth year of service with the college was drawing to a close, and he had an important deci­ sion to make. He liked his work at the college, even though more and more extra work seemed to be heaped on his shoulders as the years passed. But he had long ago planned to prepare and publish a genealogy of the Cortelyou family and if that was to be done, the summer of 1934 seemed the time to get started in earnest.