veyor of public lands in Minnesota, and in 1856 engaged in stock-raising. On 22 July, 1861, he was commissioned as colonel of the 2d Minnesota infantry. He served under Gen. George H. Thomas at Mill Springs, for his part in which action he was* promoted brigadier-general of volunteers on 21 March, 1862. He was disabled by a wound at Stone river, but resumed command of the division on his recovery, was engaged at Chickamauga, and was in command of the post and forces at Murfrees- boro, Tenn., from December, 1863, till 24 Aug., 1865. when he was mustered out, having been brevetted major-general on 13 March, 1865. He was adjutant- general of Minnesota in 18G6-'70, and in 1876-'82.
VAN CORTLANDT, Oloff (or Oliver) Ste-
vense, soldier, b. in Wijk, near Utrecht, Holland,
in 1600; d. in New York, 4 April, 1684. He
came to New Netherland as an officer in the ser-
vice of the West India company, arriving there in
the ship "Haring" (The Herring), with Director
Kieft, on 28 March, 1638. Of the origin of his
family nothing is definitely known. He had a good
education, and the offices he subsequently held, his
seal with the Van Cortlandt arms, still in the pos-
session of his descendants, as well as articles of
Dutch plate bearing the same arms, show that his
position was good, and that of a gentleman. He
remained only a short time in the military service,
having been appointed by Kieft in 1639 "commis-
sary of cargoes," or "customs officer," and in 1643
keeper of the public stores of the West India com-
pany, a responsible post under the provisions of
the charters of freedoms and exemptions, being the
superintendent of the collection of the company's
revenue in New Amsterdam, most of which was
paid in furs. In 1648 he resigned from this office,
was made a freeman of the city, and entered upon
the business of a merchant and brewer, in which
he was eminently successful, becoming one of the
richest men in New Amsterdam. In 1649 he was
chosen colonel of the burgher guard, or city train
bands, and also appointed one of the " Nine Men,"
a temporary representative board elected by the
citizens. He was previously one of the "Eight
Men," a similar body, in 1645. In 1654 he was
elected schepen, or alderman, and the next year,
1655, appointed burgomaster, or mayor, of New
Amsterdam. This office he filled nearly uninter-
ruptedly till the capture by the English in 1664,
at which he was one of the commissioners that
were appointed by Director Stuyvesant to negoti-
ate the terms of surrender, and was active in their
settlement, the document bearing his signature
with those of the other commissioners. He was
also engaged in several temporary public matters
as a councillor and commissioner during the ad-
ministration of Stuyvesant, notably in the Connec-
ticut boundary matter in 1663, and the settlement
of Capt. John Scott's claim to Long Island in 1664.
He acted in similar capacities under the first Eng-
lish governors, Nicolls, Lovelace, and Dongan, and
was chosen the trustee of Lovelace's estate to
settle it in 1673. He married, on 26 Feb., 1642,
Annetje, sister of Govert Loockermans, who came
out with Director Van Twiller in 1633, and was so
prominent afterward in New Netherland affairs.
"Govert Loockermans, after filling some of the
highest offices in the colony," says O'Callaghan,
" died, worth 520,000 guilders, or $208,000, an im-
mense sum when the period in which he lived is
considered." Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt died on
4 April, 1684, and his wife followed him about a
month afterward. They had seven children — five
daughters and two sons. The oldest of the latter
was Stephanus, and the youngest Jacobus, who,
respectively, were the progenitors of all of the name
now living. The former founded the oldest branch,
the Van Cortlandts of the manor of Cortlandt, the
latter the younger branch, the Van Cortlandts of
Cortlandt House, Yonkers. — His son, Stephanus,
statesman, b. in New York, 4 May, 1643; d. there,
25 Nov., 1700, was the first and only lord of the
manor, and one of the most eminent men of the
province of New York after it became an English
colony. Except the governorship, he filled at one
time or another every prominent office in that
province. When Lieut. -Gov. Nicholson went to
England, at the beginning of Jacob Leisler's insur-
rection and actual usurpation, to report in person
to King William, he committed the government,
in his absence, to Stephanus Van Cortlandt and
Frederick Philipse. Ihis fact caused Leisler to
seek their lives, and forced them to escape from
the city of New York to save themselves. Van
Cortlandt's career was, perhaps, the most brilliant
and varied, in the fifty-seven years it occupied, of
any inhabitant of New York in the 17th century.
He was a youth of twenty-one when, in 1664, the
English capture took place and New Amsterdam
became New York. Brought up under the eye of
his father, and educated bythc Dutch clergymen
of New Amsterdam, whose scholarship was vastly
higher than it has pleased modern writers to state,
and which would compare favorably with that of
the clergy of the 19th century, young Van Cort-
landt, long before the death of his father in 1684,
showed how well he had profited by the example
of the one and the learning of the others. He was
a merchant by occupation. His first appointment
was as a member of the court of assizes, the body
instituted under "the Duke's Laws" over which
Gov. Richard Nicolls presided, and which exercised
both judicial and legislative powers. In 1668 he
was appointed an ensign in the Kings county regi-
ment, subsequently a captain, and later its colonel.
From 1677, when, at the age of thirty-four, he was
appointed the first native American mayor of the
city of New York, he held that office almost con-
secutively till his death in 1700. When, by the
Duke of York's commission and instructions to
Gov. Dongan, a governor's council was established
in New York, Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Fred-
erick Philipse were named by the duke therein as
councillors, and with them Dongan was to appoint
such others as he deemed fit for the office. Ste-
phanus Van Cortlandt's name was continued in each
of the commissions of all the succeeding governors
down to and including Bellomont's in 1697, and he
continued in the office till his death in 1700. Early
in this latter year he was appointed chief justice,
but he only filled the office till his demise in No-
vember of the same year. He had many years be-
fore been appointed judge of the common pleas in
Kings county, and later, in 1693, a justice of the
supreme court of the province. In 1686 Dongan
made him commissioner of the revenue, and on 10
Nov., 1687, he was appointed by the king's auditor-
general in England, William Blathwayt, deputy
auditor in New York, his accounts being regularly
transmitted to England and approved. He was
appointed also deputy secretary of New York, and
personally administered the office, the secretary al-
ways residing in England, after the British custom.
He was prominent in all the treaties and confer-
ences with the Indians as a member of the council,
and was noted for his influence with them. His
letters and despatches to Gov. Edmund Andros,
and to the different boards and officers in England
that were charged with the care of the colonies and
the management of their affairs, remain to show his
