Despite praise for his first offering, Peter denounced the writing profession and fell into obscurity. His only work, An Imperial Affliction, was lauded by literary critics but flopped in the mainstream market. Little was known of Peter's private life until he resurfaced as a writer, releasing a novel in 1985. Jonathan's son Peter, meanwhile, cut ties with the family. During his time in office, scandal broke out when his daughter, Leslie, made national headlines as the youngest member of the Manson family who were involved in the notorious 1969 slayings of a wealthy grocery store owner. Upon Thomas' death in 1890, his son Jonathan moved to New York City where he ran a successful campaign to become mayor. While his farm experienced mild success, he earned most of his living off of the interest from the family fortune which he had invested in the American banking system. Yannick left only one son, Thomas, who remained in America and lived modestly on a farm in Idaho. While his death was recorded as a suicide, some have speculated he was murdered by rival beverage companies. It is rumored that Yannick created the first known recipe for what evolved into modern day colas, but his work was destroyed upon his untimely death in 1850. Following in his grandfathers' footsteps, Yannick set out to create his own novelty beverage. In 1815, Yannick set out to the Americas with his portion of the family fortune to pursue a business venture in the then Burgeoning U.S economy.
Thijs' son, Yannick, inherited his fortune upon his death in 1790. At the height of the company's success, Thijs (most likely feeling pressured by the emergence of new novelty drinks) sold the rights of the beverage to a rival company for a large sum of money. Otto passed the business on to his son, Thijs, after his death, and the drink grew in both scope and popularity as it made its way across Europe. Thanks to a patent on the machine necessary to convert cocoa to a powder for easy mixing, Otto Van Houten monopolized the market and started a successful manufacturing business. The concoction was revolutionary in its day, and quickly swept across Holland, becoming the region's most popular drink.
While the Van Houten familial line is documented stretching out for centuries, their name didn't rise to prominence until the late 1600's with Otto Van Houten's discovery of a practical method of mixing cocoa and water.