Lizzie & the Van Winkle Family

While her sister and brothers witnessed murder and mayhem in the streets of Caldwell Kansas, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Walch sat on the porch of her mother's house in Hastings-on-Hudson in the summer of 1880 sewing her only child Arthur a new pair of pants. This was not a difficult task because Arthur was only two years old and was not yet style conscious. At that time, Elizabeth and her husband Owen Van Winkle were living in her mother's home. Owen was working as a carpenter then. He was the son of John and Carolyn (Mosher) Van Winkle of Yonkers and, like his dad, once worked as a ship’s carpenter there. Owen was also a member of the Vesper Rowing Association of Yonkers and part of the championship crew of 1871-72.

Incidentally, many of the Walch children said they were from or born in Yonkers, but that appears to be simply a general reference. That was not unlike suburbanites today referring to the core metro city as ‘home’ when speaking to outsiders. Yonkers was the market town for Hastings-on-Hudson, which was only 3.5 miles away - easy walking distance in those days.

While we have our map out, note that the town of Irving is only 4 miles north. The town was named after Washington Irving, who wrote of the legends of Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. And, just 5 miles beyond Irving is the town of Sleepy Hollow itself. In those days, the culture of Hastings and the rest of Westchester County was still influenced by the early Dutch settlers. Some of their better-known descendents, like the Roosevelts and the Vanderbilts built largest estates not far from Hastings-on-Hudson.

Unfortunately, we know little of Owen and Lizzie Van Winkle's life. They had two more children: Howard in 1882, and the daughter, Elizabeth Charnock, in 1892. After 1892 Owen and Lizzie have not been found in public record and it is presumed that they died. Arthur is also thought to have died in early childhood as his brother Howard never made mention of him to his children.
It is believed that Grandma Elizabeth (Charnock) Walch took over the care of her orphaned grandchildren. In any event, by 1910 Elizabeth (Charnock) Walch, 89, was being cared for by grandson Dr. Howard Van Winkle in Glenolden, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth likely died in Pennsylvania before Howard's move to Iowa.

In 2004 I was able to track down two of Howard's daughters: Marjorie (Van Winkle) Lindsay of Bailey’s Harbor, Wisconsin and her older half-sister Florence (Van Winkle) Ramsay of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Florence said that she had many old photos but did not know the names of the people. She never had the opportunity to review them with her mother who died when Florence was a young child. Hopefully the photos were not destroyed in the recent flood of Cedar Rapids. Before we ended our first phone conversation, Florence asked, “I have an unusual middle name. Do you know where it comes from?” “What is it?” I asked. She answered, "Charnock."

Because I have no pictures of Lizzie or the Van Winkles, I am including a photo of Elizabeth Charnock, Mrs. Stephen Walch. The photo is courtesy of Phyllis (Walch) Stork of San Francisco who is her great-granddaughter. My sister, Jean (DeFord) Conlin of Ann Arbor, has an original copy of this picture as well.