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 7
The Indiana Legacy

A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
--Ecclesiastes 1:4, Revised Standard Version

Of the ten children of Jeremiah and Dolly Cory, only Abijah Curtis and Robert V. chose to stay in Indiana when the rest of the family moved to Iowa in the 1840's.

Abijah Curtis Cory was born in Pickaway County, Ohio on April 19, 1818. The name Abijah appears many times in the early generations of the American Corys [5]. The closest relative of Abijah Curtis to bear the name was his paternal uncle. A. C. Cory preferred to use his middle name and, mercifully, did not choose to pass on the name Abijah to any of his sons. There is no record of Curtis's boyhood in Ohio. He was thirteen years old when his family moved to Elkhart County, Indiana in 1831 [2]. Six years later, he made an entry at the LaPorte land office for 80 acres in Section 1 of Van Buren Township. He erected a log cabin on this land. In later years, he added another 80 acres to the farm, and built a larger house. On February 21, 1839, he married Sally Ann Mann in Elkhart County. Sally was not quite eighteen at the time of their marriage. She bore three children, Samantha, Almeda, and Alonzo. Sally died on February 14, 1845, probably from complications of childbirth (Alonzo was born February 1, 1845).

On January 4, 1846, Curtis was married for the second time, to Matilda Wood, widow of Charles Gunter [8]. Matilda was a granddaughter of Rev. William Wood, who was a Baptist minister and a founder of the town of Washington, Mason Co., Kentucky [3]. Matilda was born October 23, 1820, in Logan County, Ohio, to John G. Wood and Anna Kinneson. She and Curtis became the parents of nine children, four of whom, Ann Eliza, Carolina, William Luther, and John Albert, died in childhood. Those children surviving into adulthood were Adoniram Judson, Elizabeth, Jesse Franklin, Mary Malinda, and Paulina Celestine. Adoniram, known as Don, was named after the noted Baptist missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson (1788-1859), who translated the Bible into Burmese and wrote a Burmese dictionary [4].

The marriage of Curtis and Matilda was not the only one between the Cory and Wood families. On October 17, 1847, Matilda's brother William K. and Curt's sister Malinda were married and a year and a half later moved to Iowa.

In his later years, Curtis recalled with a touch of humor his days as a pioneer in Kosciusko County [2]. During his second winter as a land owner in the county, one of his horses stepped into a crack in the stable floor and was unable to extricate himself, finally dying of exhaustion in the effort. At that time there was a bounty on wolves, so Curt dragged the animal out into the woods to serve as bait for a wolf trap. While in the woods with the horse, he heard howls in the distance and saw forty pairs of glaring eyes coming toward him. Curtis made for an ironwood tree and made it half the twenty-five or thirty feet to the lowest limb when he lost his strength and slid back to the ground. By this time the wild-eyed creatures were upon him and passed by on either side. He was "scared within three-quarters inch of his life." However, instead of the pack of ravenous wolves he expected, he looked around to see a flock of wild turkeys being chased by an old hound.

Curtis made his living as a farmer and stock raiser, and had "as handsome farm as there is in the county [7]." Like other members of the family, he was a Baptist. He served as a school director and was a member of the Kosciusko County Pioneer Association [2]. He died November 22, 1892 at the age of 74 of "la grippe," an old term for what we now would call influenza [7]. The site of A. C.'s burial is somewhat of a mystery, although there is an unmarked mausoleum adjacent to the graves of other Cory family members in the Syracuse Cemetery. The stone of the foundation matches the stone in the bases of some of the Cory tombstones, and presumably this is where A. C. is laid to rest. Matilda survived Curtis by almost ten years, dying March 22, 1902 at age 81, and her body may also lie in the mausoleum.

One of the more colorful characters of the Cory family was Robert V. Cory. The enigma of Bob Cory begins with his date of birth. Census records are consistent with Bob being born in 1824 or 1825, but the inscription on his imposing monument in the Syracuse Cemetery indicates he was born July 2, 1822. In any case, he was born in Pickaway County, Ohio and in 1831 came to Elkhart County, Indiana with Jeremiah and Dolly and the rest of the family. On Oct 10, 1844, Bob married Elizabeth Gordy. They settled in Jackson Township just north of the Elkhart-Kosciusko county line adjacent to the farm of Bob's brother Curtis. Bob had two barns which stood about ten feet apart on his property. He boarded up the space between the barns and painted the following sign in large letters on the boards [1]:

R.V. CORY, VETERINARY SURGEON or LUCKY BOB OF GINGER HILL Never Worked and Never Will

Bob in fact did work successfully as an auctioneer in Elkhart and Kosciusko Counties in Indiana for over 30 years, although I don't know what kind of veterinarian he was. He developed a reputation for drawing large crowds at auctions with his sense of humor and his eccentricity [1]. He also lacked the piety of his father and brothers, being "of rough exterior and in no sense religious [1]." He was, however, the first to donate toward the building of the Solomon's Creek United Brethren Church near Syracuse [1]. His donation was seventy-five dollars, quite a generous sum for those days.

Bob and Elizabeth were the parents of eight children, Orange Lemon, Dorothy Jane, Jerome, Jeniza, Harvey Vaneman Lincoln, Partner, Alice, and James. Bob's will, drafted in 1869 [6], mentions all the children except James, who presumably died young. It appears that Bob expressed his sense of humor in naming his eldest son, but despite this, Orange Lemon went on to be a deputy sheriff in Kosciusko County, and fathered a family of eleven children [11].

Lucky Bob's luck ran out on April 23, 1879, when he committed suicide by taking an overdose of Fowler's solution, which contained arsenic and morphine [10]. Why the popular and successful auctioneer should have ended his life in this way is unknown, but alcoholism may have been a contributing factor. Family lore has it that after an evening spent in town, Bob was often too inebriated to find his way home. Fortunately, his horse knew the way, and could find the farm even if Bob couldn't. It was the job of Bob's son Harvey V. Lincoln Cory to put away the horse after these trips.

Harvey Vaneman Lincoln Cory was born June 7, 1860 [13]. He was named after a neighbor, Harvey Vaneman (variously spelled as Veneman or Vennaman). Since he was born during the presidential election campaign between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, we may infer that he was also a namesake of Mr. Lincoln. H. V. L. Cory was known as Lincoln throughout his life. Lincoln's religious standards were different than his father's, and the young man joined the Church of the Brethren at age 18, around the time of Bob's suicide [13]. In his will, Bob left a 103 acre parcel of land straddling the Elkhart-Kosciusko County line to Lincoln, with the provision that Bob's widow Elizabeth be allowed to continue to occupy the house in Elkhart County during her life, which ended in March 7, 1896.

When Lincoln was a lad two years old on his parents' farm, Paulina Celestine Cory was born September 26, 1862 across Turkey Creek on A. C. Cory's farm. Paulina Celestine (Sella) was the last of nine children born to Abijah Curtis Cory and Matilda Wood Gunter [2]. By the time she reached age nineteen, Sella had fallen in love with her neighbor and first cousin, Lincoln. Despite parental protests, Lincoln and Sella eloped and were married by a justice of the peace at Sturgis, St. Joseph County, Michigan, on January 20, 1882 [12]. They returned to Indiana to live on the farm left to Lincoln by his father, and there Sella bore six children--Van (born Oct. 13, 1882), Maud (March 23, 1884), Dean (July 1885), Tad (Aug 16, 1887), Fay (Sept. 29, 1889), and Lee (Oct. 28, 1891) [14]. In addition to farming, Lincoln carried on in the tradition of his father as a successful and popular auctioneer in the area around Syracuse.

Tragedy struck the young family on August 4, 1893. On that Saturday evening, Sella and Lincoln went into Syracuse for an ice cream festival. They returned to their farm and went to sleep in the barn where the family was temporarily staying while a new house was being built. Around midnight Lincoln was awakened by the struggles of Sella, who soon expired, apparently of heart disease, at the age of 30 [9]. The house was completed, just south of the Elkhart-Kosciusko County line and south of Turkey Creek, and is still occupied, although not by the Cory family, at this writing.

Lincoln's second marriage was to Sarah Viola Shelmadine, who assumed the role of mother to his six children. In February 1895, she bore the first of six more children, a girl named Eve. In July 1896, while Lincoln and family were homesteading in Kansas, son Guy was born. The family lived in a sod house in Kansas, which Viola tried to brighten up with flowers on the window sill. The homesteading attempt was a failure, and by the time Ruth was born in May 1898, the family was back in Indiana. The remaining children, Marie (born April 12, 1900), Joy, and Noble (1911), were all born in Indiana.

Lincoln was said to have been "a man of unusual temperament, looking on the bright and joyous side of life," [13] despite the setbacks he had suffered. The final tragic chapter of his life began in Goshen, Indiana on June 20, 1912, when the horse he was driving was frightened by an automobile and ran away, throwing Lincoln from his buggy. He broke his right leg and suffered internal injuries. He was alleged to have had a heart condition which, combined with his injuries, ultimately lead to his death July 12, 1912. His funeral was said to have been the largest held in Syracuse for many years, with over a thousand people coming to pay their last respects. Only about 200 of these could be seated in the United Brethren Church where services were held [13].

The following quote was attributed to Lincoln Cory by the Syracuse Journal, which reported his death on the front page of the July 18, 1912 edition: "I have no wealth or worldly possessions to leave my children, but I consider that one of the best legacies that a man can leave the world is a well educated family." Probate documents from Kosciusko County corroborate Lincoln's statement, indicating a personal estate amounting to $364, excluding real estate. The inventory of his estate included chickens, four horses, four cows, a calf, a harness, a cultivator, three vinegar barrels, a root cutter, a wagon, a wagon box, a harrow, and one dollar's worth of "junk."

The Milford Mail of July 18, 1912 reported the death of "Lincoln Cory, the prominent farmer and famous auctioneer." The final laudatory but rambling sentence of the article read:

His father known as Old Bob Cory, while rough in his way, left a vacancy until his son Lincoln took up the work, and had it not been for him, Old Bob's place would be vacant yet, but who will take up the work of the son.

The vacancy was taken up by Lincoln's son Lee, who not only learned the auctioneer's trade, but fulfilled his father's wish for educated children by attending Manchester College and becoming a minister in the Church of the Brethren.

After Lincoln's death, Sarah Viola succeeded in raising the large family still at home, which ranged from a baby one year old to teenagers. Though her own health was poor, she lived to age 62, dying January 14, 1930 [14].

References

  • [1] H. S. K. Bartholomew. Stories and Sketches of Elkhart County. E.V. Publishing House, Nappanee, IN, 1936, page 316-317.

  • [2] Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County, Indiana. Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1887, page 489-490.

  • [3] G. Glenn Clift. History of Maysville and Mason County, vol. 1, Transylvania Printing Co., Inc., Lexington, KY, 1936, page 42.

  • [4] Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia. Windows Edition. Britannica Software, 1991 edition, version 1.01 W. Adoniram Judson.

  • [5] Al B. Cory. Book One--John of Southold, in Cory's of America: Ancestors and Descendants. Jacksonville, FL, 1991, pages 394-395.

  • [6] Elkhart County, IN. Will of Robert V. Cory.

  • [7] The Indianan Republican, November 24, 1892. Obituary of A.C. Cory.

  • [8] Kosciusko County, IN. Marriage Records, 1843-1847, microfilm #10, Allen County Library, page 160.

  • [9] The Milford Mail, vol. 5, August 10, 1893, page 4. Sad Death of Mrs. Lincoln Cory.

  • [10] The Northern Indianan, May 1, 1879, page 2. Obituary of R.V. Cory.

  • [11] L. W. Royse. A Standard History of Kosciusko County, Indiana. Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1919, page 503.

  • [12] St. Joseph County, MI. Marriage Record, vol. E, page 305, record 31.

  • [13] The Syracuse Journal, vol. 5, July 18, 1912, page 1. Lincoln Cory Passes Away.

  • [14] Scrapbook compiled by Lee Cory. The book contains a photo of the Robert Cory farm from an unidentified newspaper (probably the Milford Mail). A handwritten note by Lee indicates that Lincoln and his first six children were born on the farm. An obituary for Sarah Viola Shelmadine is also pasted in the scrapbook.
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