Franklin van valkenburgh biography

US Navy Medal of Honor recipient (–)

Franklin Van Valkenburgh (April 5, – December 7, ) was an American naval officer who served as the last captain of the USS&#;Arizona&#;(BB).

Franklin van valkenburgh family tree

He was killed when the Arizona exploded and sank during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Early life

Born in Minneapolis, Van Valkenburgh moved to Milwaukee when he was a toddler. His father was a prominent lawyer also named Franklin Van Valkenburgh, who served as Milwaukee assistant city attorney and a U.S.

attorney for Wisconsin. His great-grandmother's brother was Daniel Wells Jr., who represented Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District in the s. His mother was Jane Irvin Swoope, daughter of H.B. Swoope, a U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the grandson of Captain Peter Swoope, Sr.

an 18th Century pioneer of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.^[1] Her brother was William Swoope, a member of the United States House of Representatives from to He grew up o