GYSBERT VAN STEENWYK, SR. FAMILY. PAPERS, 1828-1972. 6.0 cubic feet (12 archives boxes, two loose volumes and 1 large flat oversize box).

Abstract

Papers of an early La Crosse banker and mayor, and of his family. Gysbert van Steenwyk, Sr., of Dutch ancestry, founded the Batavian Bank in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and was active in state and local politics. Among the business interests of his son Gysbert van Steenwyk, Jr., were the La Crosse Trust Co., Machine Products Co., La Crosse Rubber Mills, and La Crosse Floral Co. Apart from their business activities, the van Steenwyks were involved with the La Crosse Theater Co., and the Home for the Friendless. The collection includes business correspondence and business and financial records, as well as a great deal of personal correspondence.

Photographs from this collection were numerous and have been donated to the Special Collections Department at Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Photographs include many portraits and several photographs of Gysbert van Steenwyk, Jr.’s days at Yale University. Representative examples were selected by the archivist, duplicated, and added to this collection.

Acc. No. X-7
Donated by Grace van Steenwyk estate, La Crosse, WI.
Processed by Amy Groskopf, October 1984;
Refoldered and reboxed by Jaime Dechant; register rewritten by Anita Taylor Doering, October 1998

Biography

Gysbert van Steenwyk, Sr., was born in Utrecht, Holland, on January 30, 1814. At the age of sixteen years, he served as a volunteer in the army of the Netherlands for two years. From 1838 to 1849, he was a commissioned officer in the Netherlands National Guard. A well educated man, van Steenwyk attended the University of Utrecht, taking degrees in philosophy and philology. He also studied law but did not practice it. In the winter of 1848, he decided to come to the United States with a friend, and they sailed to this country in May 1849. After touring the Midwest in September, they visited Milwaukee and other Wisconsin towns, finally deciding to settle in Milwaukee where van Steenwyk received his first appointment as Notary Public from Governor Nelson Dewey. Soon after, he received a commission from the Hague as Consul of the Netherlands for Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. During 1852-1853, van Steenwyk served as Wisconsin Commissioner of Immigration and lived in New York. Returning to Wisconsin in 1853, van Steenwyk moved to Newport, on the Wisconsin River, where the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad was expected to cross. The proposed route altered, however, and most of Newport’s resident moved to Kilbourn City (later called the Wisconsin Dells) in 1858, along the new route.

Gysbert van Steenwyk, Sr. was commissioned Brigadier-General of Wisconsin State troops in 1857, and in 1859 was elected to the State Assembly from Columbia County. The following year he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention and was elected Bank Comptroller. Upon the expiration of his term in 1862, van Steenwyk, Sr. moved to La Crosse and opened the Batavian Bank (later renamed First Bank, now called U.S. Bank). He entered politics again in 1873, serving one term as mayor of the city of La Crosse. He was elected to the State Senate in 1879.

Van Steenwyk, Sr. was one of the executors of the former Governor Cadwallader C. Washburn’s will, and vice president of the board of trustees of the La Crosse Public Library. Apart from the Batavian Bank, his business interests included the Victor Flouring Mill, La Crosse Linseed Oil Mill, La Crosse Street Railway Co, Edison and Brush Electric Light and Power Cos., La Crosse Tannery, and East Bank Improvement Co.

Gysbert van Steenwyk married Mariette Nichols in May 1875 in Berne, Switzerland. Mariette Nichols was born Sept. 8, 1848, in Danbury, Connecticut, to David Philip and Matilda (Averill) Nichols. She was active on the Board of the Home for the Friendless (also called the Home for Friendless Women & Children, later called La Crosse Home for Children; now called Family & Children’s Center). The van Steenwyks were the parents of three children: Gysbert Jr., Ella May, and Walter Charles who died at the age of eight years. Gysbert van Steenwyk, Sr. died Sunday, April 13, 1902. His wife, Mariette, died in La Crosse October 14, 1930.

Their son, Gysbert van Steenwyk, Jr., was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, about 1876. He graduated from Yale University in 1897 and attended the University of Wisconsin Law School. He began working at the Batavian Bank during the summers of 1893 to 1897. He was named to the Bank’s board of directors in 1904, serving until his retirement in January 1961. Van Steenwyk also served as chairman of the board for the La Crosse Trust Co., which he founded, was director emeritus of the National Guardian Life Insurance Co. of Madison, and chairman of the board for the Spence-McCord Drug Co. He was elected to the La Crosse Public Library board in 1914 and served on the boards of the La Crosse Rubber Mills, Machine Products Co., and La Crosse Floral Co. Van Steenwyk, Jr. married Grace Pettingill Hogan in 1927. He died on June 14, 1967.

His wife, Grace, was born Nov. 23, 1879, to Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Pettingill of La Crosse. She first married James C. Hogan of La Crosse May 31, 1905. Hogan died in Europe May 9, 1925. Grace died June 10, 1968.

Ella May van Steenwyk, daughter of Gysbert Sr. and Mariette van Steenwyk, was married to Edwin H. Cassels of Glencoe, Illinois.

Scope and Content

The van Steenwyk family papers follow the business interests and personal lives of an early La Crosse banker and mayor, and his family. The papers are categorized into five groups, each corresponding to an individual family member: GYSBERT VAN STEENWYK, SR.; his wife MARIETTE (NICHOLS) VAN STEENWYK; their son GYSBERT VAN STEENWYK, JR.; and his wife GRACE (PETTINGILL) HOGAN VAN STEENWYK; and ELLA MAY (VAN STEENWYK) CASSELS, daughter of Gysbert, Sr. and Mariette van Steenwyk. A few miscellaneous items are also at the end.

The GYSBERT VAN STEENWYK, SR. Materials have five main sections: correspondence, financial records, C.C. Washburn estate, organizations, and legal documents. The correspondence includes business as well as personal correspondence. The business correspondence dates from 1863-1902 and includes letters to and from van Steenwyk. Among the people with whom van Steenwyk corresponded are U.S. Congressman Jeremiah M. Rusk and Wisconsin governors Edward Salomon and Cadwallader C. Washburn. Much of the correspondence from the three men mentioned about deals with the construction of a railroad bridge at La Crosse.

The financial records of Gysbert van Steenwyk, Sr. date from 1850-1903, the year of the final distribution of his estate. With the exception of a list of Batavian Bank depositors and La Crosse Lumber Co. tax book, the records document his personal finances, including land purchases and stocks, bonds, and rental property records.

A third group of records relate to van Steenwyk’s role as one of the executors of the Cadwallader Colden Washburn estate. C.C. Washburn was a Civil War general, governor of Wisconsin, lumber baron, and industrialist. The materials consist of correspondence, including some letters from Washburn’s daughter, Jeanette (Washburn) Kelsey; financial records, including a general inventory of the estate and a summary of its assets; and legal documents produced in the course of settling the estate, especially relating to provisions made for Washburn’s invalid wife, Jeanette.

Financial records of organizations in which van Steenwyk, Sr. was active make up another series. They consist of a treasurer’s book from the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and a cash book and ledger from the La Crosse Theater Co. A collection of legal documents, including van Steenwyk’s commissions as Dutch Consul for Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, and warranty deeds make up a fifth series.

Finally, there are a number of miscellaneous items such as an 1841 lesson book written in Dutch, a speech given by van Steenwyk at the end of his term as mayor (1873), minutes of transit railroad meetings, and an undated travel diary.

The MARIETTE (NICHOLS) VAN STEENWYK papers are grouped into four subseries: genealogy, correspondence, financial records, and records of the Home for the Friendless. The genealogy materials trace Mariette van Steenwyk’s ancestors back to the Revolutionary War. The primary families involved are Averill, Nichols, and Whittlesey. There are also materials that relate specifically to Matilda Averill Nichols, Mariette van Steenwyk’s mother, and to Chester Averill. The correspondence is almost entirely personal in nature. It consists of letters between Mariette’s parents, Mathilda and David P. Nichols, and from other relatives, especially her brother Starr Nichols. There are two letters dated 1873 from the U.S. Ambassador to Russia that tell of his experience in being presented to the Russian Court. The correspondence dates from 1825-1927 and is in chronological order.

Mariette van Steenwyk’s financial records date from 1902, after the death of her husband. They include a record of investments made from 1903-1905, records of another estate of which Mariette was a beneficiary (1906), and income tax records and returns from 1905-1926, with gaps. Materials from the Home for the Friendless are a treasurer’s book from 1900-1907, and bills, receipts, and cancelled checks dated 1907-1909. Two miscellaneous items, a mission organization dues book (1896-1898) and an undated address book complete the materials pertaining to Mariette van Steenwyk.

The papers of GYSBERT VAN STEENWYK, JR. relate almost entirely to his many business interests. They have been divided into five subseries: correspondence; education; business interests; and financial records; and miscellaneous. Correspondence has been divided into business correspondence, dating from 1909-1958, and personal correspondence, from 1895-1925. Personal correspondence consists mainly of letters from his mother Mariette van Steenwyk and from his college friends. The education subseries consists exclusively of class notes taken during 1893-1897 when he was attending Yale University. The subseries titled business interests contains financial records of the La Crosse Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Co. (1899-1925), balance sheets of the La Crosse Rubber Mills (1905-1929), and miscellaneous reports from other local and national companies from the era. Van Steenwyk’s financial records include bank account records and a ledger from 1902-1905, income tax records (1915-1929), property tax records (1905-1930), and a record of his employees’ wages and social security tax withheld from 1951-1962.

The majority of GRACE (PETTINGILL) HOGAN VAN STEENWYK’s papers consist of a correspondence file that dates from 1922-1972. The letters are almost entirely personal. The bulk of the correspondence dates from 1922-1925, and consists of letters from her first husband, James C. Hogan. Included with them are letters and segments of letters by Grace in response which may have been drafts of her letters.

Other materials relating to Grace van Steenwyk include two account books dating from June-November 1916, and from 1949-1951; an undated address book, and two brief diaries, one dated 1918 and the other kept from Jan. 1-Feb. 10, 1923. Also available are Pettingill Family records (1802-1947) that were photocopied from the family Bible.

The papers available that pertain to ELLA MAY VAN STEENWYK are very limited and include brief correspondence from 1895; two cashbooks (1902-1903; 1903-1904); and a ledger from 1902-1903.