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

Chapter 6
Story County, Iowa

O resistless restless race!
O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
--Walt Whitman, "Pioneers! O Pioneers!"

Story County lies north of Polk County and was settled later. The pattern of settlement of Story County was the same as the settlement of Polk County, with the earliest claims made in groves along streams. The earliest settlers were Dan and Mormon Ballard, who in 1848 claimed land near the Skunk River in a grove that came to bear their name [1]. Squire Martin Cory settled in Ballard's Grove in the spring of 1850 [1], and made the third land entry in the county July 9, 1851. Another area of settlement occurred further east, along Indian Creek, a tributary of Skunk River. This is where Jeremiah Cory, Jr. made the fourth land entry in the county on August 20, 1851 [1,13]. The civil organization of Story County was approved by act of the Iowa General Assembly January 12, 1853, and completed on April 4, 1853 with election of county officials. The second election was held in August of 1853, and Squire Martin Cory received five votes for sheriff, coming in third in a three-way race.

Over the next few years, more members of the Cory family moved to Story County. The 1854 Iowa State Census shows Jeremiah, Sr., Jeremiah, Jr., and sons-in-law William K. Wood and Peter Gordy as heads of families in Indian Creek Township, while Isaac Walker Cory, Abraham Byers, and Lemuel Veneman and their families remained in Elkhart Township of Polk County. In addition, James Burbridge Cory appears as the head of a household in Story County in the 1856 Iowa State Census. Robert V. Cory, one of two sons of Jeremiah Cory, Sr. who stayed in Indiana when the family moved west, also bought land in Story County, but there is no indication that he ever lived there [13].

Just as they had named Elkhart Township in Polk County, the Corys made another attempt to honor their former home by naming a post office after the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana. The Goshen Post Office was established in the northeast quarter of section 21 in township 82, range 22 in 1854 [3,5]. This quarter section had been purchased by Jeremiah Cory, Sr. in parcels of 40 to 80 acres between 1852 and 1853 [13]. Not surprisingly, Jeremiah Sr. was the postmaster. Whatever plans the Corys may have had for Goshen, Iowa, they were not to be, and the post office was moved to Iowa Center in 1858 [5].

Even though Goshen perished without a trace, Iowa Center is still in existence. The town was laid out in August, 1855 by Jeremiah Cory, Jr. and Tommy C. Davis. Davis and Cory had been in business on the site at least since 1854. They were "engaged in trade, displaying their goods, wares and merchandise in the log cabin in which Jerry's family lived, and for the time it was store, parlor, bed-room, kitchen, and hotel [3]." Salt, sugar, and molasses were stored in a small outbuilding. One day, Jerry Cory began to fill a jug with molasses for his brother-in-law, William K. Wood. The two struck up a hog trade outside the building, and by the time they returned, the entire contents of the molasses barrel had drained onto the ground. Episodes like this may have convinced Jeremiah Jr. to pursue farming and to leave Tommy Davis to mind the store. In the Iowa State Census of 1856, Davis is listed as a merchant and Jerry as a farmer.

Jeremiah Jr. did not give up on business entirely. He and his father were partners. The exact nature of the business is not explicitly stated in available documents.

The probate packet of Jeremiah Sr. contains the following list of assets which the two shared equally:

      1 pr. Fairbanks scales        13.00 
      1 two year old steer          14.00 
      1 one   "   " speckled steer   4.00 
      1 Rone bull                    5.00 
      1 yearling colt               35.00 
      1 parlor stove & pipe          8.00 
                                    79.00 
      Total amount of notes due 
      the firm of Cory and Son    2009.68 
 
      Total amount of accounts due 
      the firm of Cory and Son    1354.79
 
      Amount Total                3443.47 

Also in Jeremiah's probate documents is a note from Dolly asking a county judge to sell some timbered land and "the Iowa Center red mill" from her husband's estate+. We can infer from the list of assets that Cory and Son were involved in the livestock business. Dolly's note raises the question of whether milling was part of their enterprise.

Other family members definitely were involved in milling. Isaac Walker Cory built a water-driven corn cracker mill on East Indian Creek, west of Iowa Center. The mill was a failure, and "never done but little if any grinding [4]." Walker's brother-in-law William K. Wood had more success in the milling business. William, his cousin Christopher Wood, and Nathan Webb operated the first steam grist and saw mill in Iowa Center, which ran until it was taken down and moved away in 1869 [4,9].

Members of the Cory family participated in the first two Independence Day celebrations held in Story County. The first party was held July 4, 1854 at Iowa Center, a year before the town was formally laid out. John G. Wood, father-in-law to Malinda Cory and Abijah Curtis Cory, presided over the festivities, and Peter Gordy, husband of Cassie Cory, read the Declaration of Independence [7]. Jeremiah's business partner, Tommy Davis, produced a flag by using lampblack to paint an eagle on a white cloth. By his own admission, the result more closely resembled a crow than an eagle [7]. The 1855 celebration was held at Nevada, the county seat of Story County. A parade across the prairie was followed by speeches and a picnic dinner. There was "plenty of corn bread and great many other good things, and with a cask of home-brewed beer" and "a Mr. Cory from Cory's Grove beat upon a drum and was accompanied by a fife, making a good deal more noise than tune [11]." This may have been Isaac Walker, who still would have been making his home in Cory Grove in 1855. In any case, given the pious nature of the Iowa Corys, it is unlikely the cacophony he produced was in any way inspired by the cask of home brew.

Malinda Cory Wood apparently was in ill health at the time that she and William moved from Cory Grove to Story County in 1851. The nature of her illness is not known, but she did bear three sons, Curtis, Cory, and James, before her death in 1862 or 1863. It is interesting to note that W. K. Wood gained considerable prominence in Story County, but in his published reminiscences, little mention is made of his wives, of whom Malinda was the first of four. When her illness is mentioned in Payne's history of Story County [9], it is treated as but another hardship that the heroic Mr. Wood had to bear as he cheerfully walked mile after mile to obtain work and repeatedly plunged into raging rivers to rescue man and beast [6,10]. This is not to belittle the efforts of Mr. Wood, but we should pay tribute to the women who endured the travails of pioneer life with little recognition by a paternalistic society. Payne does note that Malinda was a good mother who made moccasins out of cloth and skins for her three young sons to wear in the winter. In summer they, like most children of that era, were barefoot. When the day finally came for the two older boys to receive their first pair of boots, purchased in Des Moines, they greased the leather with tallow in an effort to prolong the life of the boots. The boots were placed next to the fireplace to dry. When the boys thought the boots looked dry, they attempted to pick them up, but the boots had been roasted to a crisp, and crumbled in their hands [12].

It was in Story County that the life of Jeremiah Cory, Sr. came to an end on January 6, 1860. The census mortality schedule of Story County for 1860, which enumerates all the deaths in the county for that year, lists the cause of death as palsy after an illness of one day. In modern parlance, we would say he died of a stroke. Jeremiah is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Iowa Center. At the top of his headstone is a carving of an open book with the left page bearing the words, "Time How Short," and on the right page, "Eternity How Long." After more than a century, the words are barely visible. The remainder of the inscription is:

Jeremiah Cory Died Jan. 6, 1860 Aged 67 Yrs 3 Ms 21 Ds
A Professor of Religion 15 yrs.
Deacon of Baptist Church 20 yrs.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

Jeremiah died without a will. Probate documents indicate that he had accumulated little in the way of worldly goods during his lifetime, with the inventory of his personal property taking up only a half-page, consisting of a few basic items of furniture and household goods, a few tools, some livestock, a family Bible, a watch, some lumber, and three beehives.

Dolly died January 1, 1877 [8], but there is no stone for her in Woodland Cemetery, and further details of the place and circumstances of her death are unknown.

So ends the journey of a pioneer couple who brought their family across many rugged miles. They left behind no first person written record to give us insight into their thoughts and emotions as they carved out refuges in the wilderness of Ohio and Indiana, each time leaving the security of home to follow the mysterious call to the West, finally settling on the prairies of Iowa. We can only infer what their personalities may have been like--Jeremiah the devout, taciturn head of the clan, who relayed his disapproval of his son-in-law's financial affairs through Dolly, but also a man of ambition, forming a business with his son, acquiring land, preaching, and establishing a post office. And Dolly--"about the best woman in the world," enduring with patience the trials and tribulations of the pioneer life, foregoing education to raise a large family.

References

• William G. Allen. A History of Story County, Iowa. Iowa Printing Co., Des Moines, IA, 1887.
  [1] Page 38.
  [2] Page 55.
  [3] Page 275.
  [4] Page 385.
  
  
• [5] Alphabetical Listing of Iowa Post Offices 1833-1970. Iowa Postal History Society, p. 50.
  
  
• Atlas of Story County, Iowa. Huebinger Surveying and Map Publ. Co., Davenport, IA, 1902, Part I.
  [6] Page 2.
  [7] Page 5.
  
  
• [8] Al B. Cory. Book One--John of Southold, in Cory's of America: Ancestors and Descendants. Jacksonville, FL, 1991, page 64.
  
  
• 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.
  [9] Vol. I, page 229.
  [10] Vol. II, pages 33-34.
  [11] Vol. II, page 135.
  [12] Vol. II, page 154.
  
  
• [13] Story County, Iowa. Original Entries. Docket 153. Exhibit QQ2.27. Iowa Genealogical Society Call No. 177.7, page 19.