In a Land Not Sown
The Live and Times of Jeremiah William Cory, Sr. 1793-1860
by David A. Cory, M.D.

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Chapter 5
Polk County, Iowa

The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.
--Numbers 14:7, Revised Standard Version

After becoming well established in northern Indiana in the 1830's and early 1840's, the Cory family was struck again by the urge to move westward in the latter part of the 1840's. Why this occurred is open to speculation. As noted in the preceding chapter, the Corys were the objects of some fairly minor civil lawsuits, but these were settled years before the family began to emigrate; threatened litigation is unlikely to have played a role in their decision. There is no evidence that they were involved in any criminal activities; to the contrary, they generally held strong religious convictions. They appear to have been good citizens who paid their taxes [11] and accepted other civic responsibilities such as jury duty [10]. It is unlikely that they moved westward to escape prosecution or angry creditors. They no doubt felt the mysterious pull westward as expressed by Henry David Thoreau in his essay "Walking":

Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a West as distant and as fair as that into which the sun goes down. He appears to migrate westward daily, and tempts us to follow him. He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those mountain-ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which were last gilded by his rays. The island of Atlantis, and the islands and gardens of the Hesperides, a sort of terrestrial paradise, appear to have been the Great West of the ancients, enveloped in mystery and poetry. Who has not seen in imagination, when looking into the sunset sky, the gardens of the Hesperides, and the foundation of all those fables?

On a more practical level, land was becoming scarcer in northern Indiana as more settlers arrived. The Corys saw a more prosperous future for their growing families in the great expanses of cheap, unclaimed land in the west.

The land hunger of white settlers could be satisfied only as the United States government acquired title to the land and the Indians were removed. At the time the Corys were ready to begin emigrating from Indiana, the government had just opened up the central portion of the Iowa Territory to white settlement. The land had been occupied by a confederation of the Sac and Fox tribes. Black Hawk, of the Sacs, led an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim land east of the Mississippi River in 1832. After defeat in Black Hawk's War, the Sac-Foxes signed a series of treaties relinquishing land in eastern and central Iowa to the United States. In the final treaty of 1842, the Sac-Foxes agreed to vacate the land east of a line running through the Red Rocks of the Des Moines River in Marion County by May 1, 1843. By October 12, 1845, they were to give up their remaining land in Iowa and move to Kansas [16]. The government built a fort west of the treaty line at the junction of the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers in 1843. The purposes of the garrison were to maintain peace among the Indians, to protect the Indians from advancing white settlers, and to ensure the removal of the Indians to Kansas by the 1845 deadline [21]. At midnight on October 11, 1845, a gun was fired at the Indian agency at Ft. Des Moines, signalling the end to all Indian claims in central Iowa, and settlers rushed in to make their claims in what is now Polk County, Iowa. By March of 1846, Indian stragglers had been rounded up and moved to Kansas, Fort Des Moines was closed, and the soldiers were gone [22]. The site of the fort became the nucleus of modern-day Des Moines, the state capital.

Into this environment, the first Cory moved to central Iowa. John Calvin Cory, son of Jeremiah and Dolly, appeared in the 1840 United States Census of Elkhart County, Indiana as the head of a household of three people, but his name does not appear in the 1846 tax records of the county [11], implying that he had moved on. J. C. Cory is said to have been the first settler in what is now Elkhart Township, Polk County, Iowa, arriving in the spring of 1846 [15]. Iowa was several months away from statehood when John Calvin settled in the northern part of what is now Polk County. The county, established by the Territorial Legislature on January 17, 1846 [23], had not yet been surveyed or laid out in civil townships. The board of county commissioners had divided the county into six townships for election purposes, and John Calvin settled in what was then Skunk Township [1]. The stand of timber where he settled came to be known as Cory's Grove [4]. Whether his wife and family came with him or moved later is not known. He lived in Polk County for at least two years [4], but he did not make any land entries when the United States began selling land in Polk County in 1848, and where he went after that is not known at this writing.

A brief look at the geography of central Iowa provides some insight into the immigrants' choice of location. Central Iowa is a glacial moraine, where mounds and ridges were formed as the glacier piled new material on top of old. After the retreat of the glacier, the area became a high grass prairie, with forests extending only along the larger streams that coursed across the moraine [19]. Early immigrants from the woodlands of the east chose to settle in familiar surroundings, at the edge of timber. Only after land in the groves was claimed did the pioneers become "sodbusters" on the prairie. Aside from providing them with accustomed surroundings, the groves of central Iowa afforded other advantages to the pioneers. Logs were readily available for shelter and fuel, and water was nearby. The land of the groves was well-drained, in contrast to the prairies, which could not be cultivated until drainage tiles became widely available.

In October of 1846, John Calvin's brother, Isaac Walker, and his family were the next Corys to migrate to Iowa [4]. The 1840 United States Census for Elkhart County, Indiana shows five people in the household of Isaac Walker Cory and Mariah Phebus, presumably including three children. There are said to have been five children in the family when they left Indiana, with two dying on the way to Iowa, and one dying after arriving in Iowa [6,15]. The 1850 United States Census for Polk County corroborates this version of events, showing Isaac, Mariah, sons Isaiah and Francis, and Mariah's father, George Phebus (who migrated in 1849), living together in a household in Polk County.

Much of what we know of the early days of the Cory family in Iowa comes from the reminiscences of Isaiah Martin Thorp (I. M. T.) Cory, eldest son of Isaac and Mariah. He was nine years old when the family migrated from Indiana, traveling southwest from Elkhart County, entering Illinois at Vermillion County, then traveling westward across Illinois to cross the Mississippi River at Burlington, Iowa [1]. They then proceeded northwest along a route used by freight haulers to Polk County, stopping at "Uncle Tommy" Mitchell's tavern, a resting place for pioneers entering the county. After another two-day journey, they arrived at Cory's Grove, where, I. M. T. observed, "there was nothing . . .but Indians, deer, elk, turkeys, otter, beaver, and 'coons, but there was not a rabbit or rat in the whole county [1]." Two basic requirements for pioneer survival, water and timber, were plentiful, along with gooseberries, currants, grapes, plums, choke cherries, elderberries, and nuts. Hollow trees contained honey and plenty of sugar maple trees were available to be tapped in the spring [8]. One account states that the family put up a small log cabin with walls chinked with mud, and a chimney built of sticks and clay [1]. Another narrative has the family occupying a roofless, doorless cabin abandoned by a trapper, with the only entrance being a ladder over the wall [8]. A pile of stones in the woods north of the current site of the Cory Grove Church near Elkhart, Iowa is the only possible remnant of the original dwelling [7]. Regardless of the privations Isaac Walker, Mariah, and family suffered during the winter of 1846, Isaac must have described Iowa in glowing terms in his letters to his parents and siblings back in Indiana [8], and in 1847, Jeremiah Jr., wife Rebecca, sons Marcus and French, and daughter Missouri Ann migrated to Iowa [18]. At about this time, William K. Wood, the Corys' brother-in-law, visited Cory's Grove [4].

Surveys of Polk County were carried out from June through November of 1847 [2], and the surveyors stayed in the cabin of Isaac Walker and Mariah Cory while working in their vicinity [13]. In 1848, the settlers in Township 81 North, Range 23 West, held a meeting at which time the civil township was organized and called Elkhart in honor of the Indiana home of the Corys [1].

In 1849, several more members of the Cory family, along with children, spouses, and in-laws set out for Iowa. William K. Wood's recollection [4] of the trip provides a colorful look at the events and the personalities involved:

In our party making the trip from Kosciusko County, Indiana, in the early summer of 1849, there were thirteen adults and several children. The heads of families were Father Jeremiah Cory, and his three sons-in-law--Lemuel Venneman, Abraham Byers and myself. Father and Mother Cory rode in a comfortable covered carriage. The rest of us, all young and vigorous, came in true emigrant style. Five covered wagons, each drawn by a team of horses, conveyed the wives and children, the small store of goods and provisions, and the indispensable implements of warfare with the soil, while we young men followed with the herd.

The trip was without notable incident till Mount Pleasant was reached. There we were detained three days by rains and floods which made the Skunk River impassable. We camped, and one tent and our wagons afforded us shelter. As soon as it seemed reasonably prudent, we attempted the crossing. The river was about 200 yards wide from bluff to bluff, and rapid at that place. The ferry was poor old craft which a short time after this went down and carried some people to watery graves. Each team and wagon with its load was driven on board and ferried across with a cable and pulleys. Mother Cory, who was about the best woman in the world, scented the danger and rebelled against staying cooped up in the covered buggy. But Father Cory, feeling competent to take care of her and steer the craft too, insisted upon her remaining where it was dry, and his strong will prevailed. But her spirit boiled, and to stir it still worse, as we started off, Uncle George Phebus called out from the bank: "Good-bye, Dolly, I expect never to see you again."

When we were safe on shore again, the good mother made us all laugh by exclaiming, "Lordy massy, just to think what might have happened if I had drowned, for I was just as mad as I could be!" In swimming the cattle across four of them were carried by the current a quarter mile below, where and island and a lot of drift made the passage ugly. "They are goners!" the Mount Plea- sant men, who were assisting us, exclaimed. "There never was a dog got out of that drift." I did not know fear, nor hesitate a moment to risk my life when it seemed necessary. One of the steers in danger was mine. I stripped and went after him, and he came out and so did the rest of the cattle.

Wood goes on to describe their early days in Iowa:

The immigrant's choice of location was largely determined by proximity to water and wood. We settled, June 22, 1849, in the edge of the timber which skirts the Skunk River, in the north part of Polk County. My brother-in-law, Calvin Cory, had already lived there for two years, and the neighborhood had ac- quired the name of Cory's Grove, the name it keeps yet. I had some acquaintance with the locality, having visited my brother-in- law there about eighteen months before. I entered a quarter section with the government and loaned the money in Des Moines at 40 per cent interest to pay the government price, $1.25 per acre. My wife and I had little besides--$5 in cash, five head of yearlings, two milch cows, two yearling colts, one small horse and a little household stuff comprised it all. We, however, got along with a fair degree of comfort there for two and three- fourths years, and paid off the loan and increased our stock. I had a good pair of hands which I turned to whatever I could find to do, besides working my land. I thought nothing of walking eight miles to do two days work, and nine miles for a three days' job for Eli Trulinger. To get my first breaking done, I walked three miles and chopped and split rails at the rate of 400 rails for each acre of breaking.

My way of managing worried Father Cory some. Mother Cory told me about it. She said, "Father doesn't like it because you don't do as he advises you." "Well," I answered, "the way it is, I've set my stake, and I have to work to it. When father's advice helps me toward making that stake, I'm thankful for it, and use it; but when it doesn't, I have to let it go. I have to work on my own plan." After that I was allowed to work out my own ideas without remonstrance.

It is interesting to note that the relationship between generations in 1849 was very much as it is today.

Wood goes on to describe a coon hunting trip where he and his companions repeatedly treed an animal, only to watch the animal escape and lead them further into the woods. It was only after Wood had climbed a tree to within ten feet of the prey that the hunters realized they were stalking a wildcat. The hunt ended with no injury to either wildcat or hunters.

In 1849, large numbers of emigrants took part in the California Gold Rush, taking provisions with them, and leaving shortages for those remaining in Iowa. As a result, grain became a valuable and coveted commodity, with corn selling for $2.00 to $2.50 per bushel. On November 30, 1849, William K. Wood, Abraham Byers, Isaac Walker Cory, and James Burbridge Cory+ set out for the mill nearest Cory's Grove, which was at Oskaloosa, over sixty miles away. The mill was so busy when they arrived that the party had to camp in their wagons for almost a week before their corn and wheat could be ground. During this time, they successfully guarded their precious cargo against theft, and had what Wood described as "a rather lively time" when a rogue unsuccessfully attempted to steal a buffalo robe from one of their wagons. On the way home, Isaac Walker had a driving accident and broke his arm, obtaining medical attention at Oskaloosa before returning to Cory's Grove [4].

Tales of "Indian scares" were common among the early settlers of central Iowa, doubtlessly embellished with each retelling over the years, but there is no record of any settler actually being molested by an Indian [25]. Although the Sac-Fox Indians had been removed to Kansas before white settlement began in Polk County, a few Mesquaki++ either avoided relocation or drifted back to their former home, subsisting by hunting, fishing, and by begging from the white settlers [17]. There are three published accounts of threatened Indian massacres involving the settlers of Cory's Grove [1,4,13], all of which include the Mesquaki in some fashion. It is very possible that all three stories are different versions of the same event. No doubt the Corys felt a sense of terror at the perceived threat to their well-being, but it is unlikely that they were in real peril. At worst, the scare or scares may have been an attempt by the Mesquaki to trick the settlers into abandoning their homes and livestock, leaving easy pickings for the Indians. However, the Corys banded together at the cabin of Jeremiah Cory, Jr. to defend themselves. Two accounts have some of the Mesquaki in the cabin to help the Corys. Accusations of lying about the supposed massacre attempt were exchanged between a male member of the tribe and Aunt Sarah, the wife of the tribe's chief (just who was accused and who was accuser varies between the stories). The end result was a knife fight which ended in the killing of the chief's wife. The murderer ran from the Cory cabin, but eventually was caught. One account has the brave escaping again without being brought to justice, while another has him being apprehended and burned at the stake by his fellow tribesmen while the Corys watched!

Religion played an important part in the lives of the Corys. In the early days of Cory's Grove a log church was built, and Elder Isaac Walker Cory was the first minister. One of the first Sunday Schools in Polk County was established at the church, and the first Sunday School library in the county was created at the church when I. M. T. Cory carried the books sixteen miles across the prairie on horseback [14]. I. M. T. later came to be a minister in the Church of Christ [3] and served as chaplain of the Early Settlers' Association [5]. Early marriage records of Polk County show Rev. Jeremiah Cory, Baptist Church minister, being credentialed to marry in Polk County on March 16, 1850. Whether this is senior or junior is not stated; it is very possible that both were preachers. Jeremiah Sr.'s tombstone states that at the time of his death in 1860 he had been a deacon of the Baptist Church for twenty years and a "professor of religion" for fifteen years [27]. There is a record [26] of "Jerry Corey" (probably Jr.) speaking words of comfort at the funeral of a baby, a frequent event in the life of the pioneers, owing to difficult living condi- tions and disease.

Apparently, the religious practices of the Corys were subject to misinterpretation [24]. In the fall of 1854, two would-be pioneers from Illinois named W. J. Silvers and A. J. Barr traveled northwest from "Uncle Tommy" Mitchell's tavern in Polk County to camp in a grove near what they thought was an abandoned log cabin. They thought the local men were "rough looking" characters who probably had their eyes on the visitors' horses. Silvers and Barr had their guns at the ready when they heard the settlers pass by their campsite, and, according to Silvers, "Failing to find us, they went up to the deserted shanty, built up a fire and sang and yelled for a couple of hours. I have no doubt, if we had not been on our guard, our horses would have been missing, for those fellows were not prowling about in that manner for nothing." The following commentary provides another perspective on the story:

The run-in with the rough characters . . .is strictly ludicrous when viewed with some hindsight. It was probably like this: From the context, the first night's stop could only have been at Cory Grove, where the considerable settlement was made up entirely of the Cory family and their relatives. Far from being horse thieves, or rascals of any ilk, the Cory men were all devoted members of a fundamentalist religious sect, and several of them were ministers of that faith. In all probability the vacant cabin was their meeting house, where the Cory Grove Church now stands. And the singing and yelling merely the normal exercise of a "shouting" religion. The story points up the rugged appearance of the pioneers as well as the suspicious nature of the visitors from more civilized areas [24].

In addition to playing a key role in establishing the civil township of Elkhart, the Corys are also credited with founding the town of Elkhart, Iowa. The first Elkhart Post Office was established in section 2 of Douglas Township in 1853, probably by Jeremiah Cory, Jr. [15] Then in 1856, the town of Ottawa was laid out in Elkhart Township. Isaac Walker Cory [9] and I. M. T. Cory [1], among others [15], have been credited with laying out the town. The Elkhart Post Office was moved to Ottawa in 1856, but the town wasn't renamed Elkhart until 1884. Finally, in 1902 and 1903, the town was moved a mile west to be located on the Des Moines, Iowa Falls, and Northern Railway [13]. Many descendants of the early settlers of Cory Grove continue to live in and around Elkhart, and an annual Cory reunion has been held in Elkhart since the early years of the twentieth century.

References

• L. F. Andrews. Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa and Reminiscences of Early Days. Baker-Trisler Co., Des Moines, IA, 1908.
  [1] Pages 67-71.
  [2] Page 398.
  [3] Page 995.
  
  
• [4] Atlas of Story County, Iowa. Huebinger Surveying and Map Publ. Co., Davenport, IA, 1902, Part I, pages 2-3.
  
  
• [5] Johnson Brigham. Des Moines and Polk County, Iowa. S.J. Clarke Publ. Co., Chicago, 1911, page 676.
  
  
• [6] Al B. Cory. Book One--John of Southold, in Cory's of America: Ancestors and Descendants. Jacksonville, FL, 1991, page 64.
  
  
• [7] Neva Cory and Sharon Dunbar, personal communication, June 21, 1992.
  
  
• [8] Evangeline S. Cowman. Left for Dead on Iowa Prairie in 1849, Lived till 1932, The Des Moines Sunday Register, June 16, 1935. This is a story of Vinie Longnecker, whose family joined the Cory wagon train on the final leg of the journey to Cory Grove in 1849.
  
  
• [9] J. M. Dixon. Centennial History of Polk County, Iowa. State Register, Des Moines, IA, 1876, page 66.
  
  
• [10] Elkhart County, IN. Commissioners' Papers #1, Elkhart Co Archives, Bristol, IN, Call No. 77.16.91, 1842. Jeremiah Corey appears on the Petit Juror list for the 2nd term, 2nd week.
  
  
• [11] Elkhart County, IN. 1846 Tax Duplicate, Elkhart County Archives, Bristol, IN, Call No. 77.15.1. page 23.
  
  
• An Elkhart, Iowa History, 1846-July 17, 1976, no publisher, 1976.
  [12] Pages 2-3.
  [13] Pages 6-8.
  [14] Page 45.
  
  
• [15] The History of Polk County, Iowa. Union Historical Co., Birdsall Williams & Co., Des Moines, IA, 1880, pages 642-643.
  This reference states that the first death to occur in what was to become Elkhart Township was "a little daughter of J. W. Cory.f" This must be a typographical error, since both Jeremiah W. Cory, Sr. and Jr. were living in Indiana in 1846. The facts are consistent with a daughter of I. W. Cory being in Polk County in 1846.
  
  
• William Houlette. Iowa: the Pioneer Heritage. Wallace-Homestead Book Co., Des Moines, IA 50305. 1970.
  [16] Page 13.
  [17] Page 20.
  
  
• [18] Iowa State Census, Indian Creek Township, Story County, 1856, p. 16.
  
  
• Julian E. McFarland. A History of the Pioneer Era on the Iowa Prairies. Graphic Publishing Co., Lake Mills, IA, 1969.
  [19] Pages 2-7.
  [20] Page 28.
  [21] Page 57.
  [22] Page 61.
  [23] Page 64.
  [24] Pages 112-113.
  [25] Page 145.
  
  
• 26] William Orson Payne. History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress, and Achievement. Vol. 2. S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1911, page 134.
  
  
• [27] Tombstone of Jeremiah Cory, Woodland Cemetery, Iowa Center, Story County, Iowa.

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