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

Chapter 4
Indiana

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
--Jeremiah 29:5, Revised Standard Version

The Corys came to Elkhart County during the twilight years of the local Native American tribes, the Miamis and Potawatamis. With the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, the Indian tribes ceded the southern two-thirds of Ohio and a narrow strip of southeastern Indiana to the United States. With the exception of tracts of land around the Wabash-Maumee portage near Ft. Wayne, the site of the current city of Ft. Wayne, Ouiatanon (near present-day Lafayette), Vincennes, and Clark's grant (around present-day Clarksville), the rest of what is now Indiana was recognized as Indian land [17,23]. However, with the establishment of the Indiana Territory in 1800, the United States, through territorial governor William Henry Harrison, embarked on an aggressive policy of land acquisition for white settlement. President Thomas Jefferson and Governor Harrison expected the Indians to become "civilized," giving up hunting for white farming methods. The only alternative seen by Jefferson and Harrison was Indian expulsion westward [18]. Between 1803 and 1809 Harrison negotiated several treaties with the Indians which resulted in the United States acquiring southern Indiana for white settlement. After armed conflict between the U.S. and the Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe and during the War of 1812, Indian resistance was broken, ultimately resulting in the New Purchase Treaty in 1818, in which the Indians gave up the central third of Indiana [19].

Statehood came to Indiana in 1816, but at that time northern Indiana was still Indian land. The Treaty of Chicago in 1821 and the Treaty of Carey Mission (located near Niles, Michigan) in 1828 resulted in Indian claims to the land now making up Elkhart County being extinguished [20]. During the years 1828 and 1829, there was an influx of several hundred white settlers into that part of northern Indiana. On January 29, 1830, Governor James B. Ray signed into law "An Act for formation of the counties of St. Joseph and Elkhart," which set the boundaries of Elkhart County [1]. On June 28, 1830, a three-man Board of Justice appointed by the governor organized the county and divided it into two townships, Concord and Elkhart. Concord Township included the four modern townships of Cleveland, Osolo, Concord, and Baugo. Elkhart Township comprised the rest of the county. In addition, the current counties of LaGrange and Steuben on the east, Noble on the southeast, and Kosciusko on the south were attached to Elkhart County for civil and criminal jurisdiction [25].

According to their son, Abijah Curtis, Jeremiah and Dolly Cory and their children settled in Elkhart County in the fall of 1831 [4]. The earliest record of a land entry+ by Jeremiah was dated Sept. 17, 1832 and consisted of 240 acres in section 28 of Benton Township [14]. Benton Township was part of the original Elkhart Township and occupies the southeast corner of the county. The surface is level and the soil is rich, sandy loam well suited to farming. When the first white settlers arrived, the area was covered by forests of oak, maple, poplar, beech, and other species of trees, so abundant that those not used for fuel or for building log cabins were felled and burned on the spot to clear the land for farming [15]. We have no record of the house occupied by the Cory family during their early years in Indiana, but the following account [3] by John Irwin, whose father was a pioneer in Elkhart County, indicates the type of log cabin built by settlers in the early 1830's:

The house was of the uniform size of all the cabins then built, being exactly twenty feet square, made of round logs from twelve to fourteen inches in diameter, laid on each other at the ends and notched so that the space between them was from one-half to five inches. This was afterward filled by driving chinking of suitable size. When the cabin was built there were no saw mills and so no lumber could be had even for the floor, which was made by splitting logs into slabs about four of five inches in thickness. The levelest side was hewn with a broad axe to be used for the upper side. The joists were round poles. On these rested a floor of lighter puncheons. The lower story was about seven feet and the upper story from one to five logs. Then came the ridge pole on which rested the clapboards. These were held on not by nails, for there were none to be had, but by long poles. The chinking between the logs was usually covered by mud, clay if it could be found. If not then straw or chaff was mixed in to hold the sandy composition together. The chimney was made by cutting out five or six logs for a breadth of six feet. A log fireplace was made here, surmounted by a chimney of sticks, all plastered inside with the mud to secure against fire. The mode of access to the loft, which was generally the sleeping apartment of the younger members of the family, was by a row of large, stout pins in the wall.... In the better cabins the ladder took the place of these. The window of our home afforded four lights of glass ten by twelve.

Some cabins used greased paper instead of glass window lights (panes), and some had dirt floors [3].

At the time Elkhart County was formed in 1830, there were thought to be about 500 Indians living in what is now Kosciusko County [26]. In 1826, the Miami chief Flat Belly had signed a treaty which left him with a reservation of thirty-six sections of land in present-day Kosciusko County and adjoining Noble County. He and his brother Chief Wawasee lived on this reservation. In October 1832, a treaty between the Potawatamis and the United States was signed on the banks of the Tippecanoe River, extinguishing Indian claims to their land in Kosciusko County [24]. Subsequent to the ratification of this treaty in 1833, the current Kosciusko County was set off as Turkey Creek Township of Elkhart County. According to Kosciusko County historian James W. Armstrong [25], "While the treaty of 1832-33 was pending, many in Elkhart and Wabash Counties, and other of the earlier settlements, were waiting anxiously for the time to come when the newly acquired lands should be put on the market." The Corys apparently were among those awaiting this opportunity, for between the years of 1833 and 1837, Jeremiah Sr., his sons Jeremiah Jr., John Calvin, and Abijah, his nephews Squire Martin Cory and Andrew Jackson Cory (sons of his late brother Abijah), and his sons-in-law Lemuel Veneman and Peter Gordy purchased from the United States several tracts of land on both sides of the east end of the present Elkhart-Kosciusko County line [14,16]. A James Cory also purchased land in Elkhart County, but this could not have been Jeremiah Sr.'s son James Burbridge Cory, who was a child less than 10 years old in the 1830's. In 1835, Turkey Creek Township of Elkhart County became Kosciusko County [25].

It is likely that during their time in Indiana the Corys were farmers. Census records from 1830 and 1840 do not indicate occupation, but later censuses list them as farmers. In addition to the farm land owned by the Corys, Jeremiah Sr. bought two lots in the town of Benton in 1839 [13]. The purchase was from P.W. Roller, who was a merchant the early days of the town [2]. What, if any, use Jeremiah made of the lots is unknown; in 1845, he sold them. In addition to farming, at least one Cory took advantage of the nearby lakes to obtain food. Squire Martin Cory is credited with building a fish trap in the channel between Wawasee and Syracuse Lakes, just south of the present Pickwick Bridge, around 1832. The trap was constructed of logs six to eight inches in diameter, and the logs could still be seen early in twentieth century [27].

With the exception of James Burbridge, all of Jeremiah and Dolly's children were married in Indiana, as follows:

• Isaac Walker m. Mariah Phebus April 26, 1836 [21]
• John Calvin m. Martha Crosson (?) [5]
• Jeremiah Jr. m. Rebecca Alexander [6]
• Matilda m. Lemuel Veneman++ May 28, 1843 [21]
• Malinda m. William K. Wood Oct. 17 1847 [5,22]
• Lucretia Jane m. Abraham Byers Aug. 25, 1844 [21]
• Abijah Curtis m. Sally Ann Mann Feb. 21, 1839 [21]
• Abijah Curtis m. Matilda Wood Jan. 4, 1846 [4]
• Robert V. m. Elizabeth Gordy March 10, 1844 [21]
• Cassie m. Peter Gordy Nov. 17, 1836 [21]

The names of a few of the Corys show up in legal documents from the early days of Elkhart County. On Dec. 8, 1837, John Cory was sued by Henry W. Kellogg for damages of $2.475, but the defendant was not found, so a summons was then issued to Jeremiah Cory in January 1838, which resulted in the damages being paid [9]. In 1839, Isaac Walker Cory was sued for $1.11 by Hans Hulbert [10]. In 1840, Jacob Connell sued Jeremiah Cory for the amount of $10.33 [11]. On the positive side, Jeremiah served as treasurer of School District No. 1 in Benton Township in 1840 [8]. Finally, the estray notices for Elkhart County for 1842-43 show that Jeremiah Cory, Jr. laid claim to a stray brown stud colt which was appraised at twelve dollars by Isaac Walker Cory and Z.D. Wood on Dec. 3, 1842 [12].

In summary, the life of the Cory family in Indiana was in many aspects typical of American pioneers of the 1830's. They were not adventurers or Indian fighters, but they were on the forefront of the flood of white settlement which continued to push the Indians west. They carved homes and farms out of virgin forest and Jeremiah and Dolly saw their large family marry and begin another generation. They lived simply without great material wealth, living off the bounty of the land. They went from a stage of mere survival in the wilderness to acquiring more land to improve their way of life, and they continued to look to the vast territory of the west to assure prosperity for themselves and future generations.

References

• H. S. K. Bartholomew. Pioneer History of Elkhart County, Indiana. Goshen Printery, Goshen, IN, 1930.
  [1] Pages 12-15.
  [2] Page 48.
  [3] Pages 63-65.
  
  
• [4] Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County, Indiana. Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1887, page 489.
  
  
• Al B. Cory. Book One--John of Southold, in Cory's of America: Ancestors and Descendants. Jacksonville, FL, 1991.
  [5] Pages 64-65.
  [6] Page 131.
  
  
• [7] Arlene Eakle and Johni Cerny. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Ancestry Publishing, P.O. Box 476, Salt Lake City, UT 84110. 1984, pages 224-226.
  
  
• [8] Elkhart Co., IN, Commissioners' Papers, June 1841.
  
  
• Elkhart Co., IN. Docket Record
  [9] Page 34.
  [10] Page 98.
  [11] Page 397.
  
  
• [12] Elkhart Co., IN. Estray Notices, 1842-43.
  
  
• [13] Elkhart County, IN. General Index of Deeds.
  
  
• [14] Elkhart County, IN, Original Tract Book, 1830-1854, pages 41-43.
  
  
• [15] History of Elkhart County, Indiana. Charles C. Chapman and Co., Chicago, 1881, pages 660-666.
  
  
• [16] Kosciusko County, IN, Original Tract Book, 1830-1852, pages 13, 63, 64.
  
  
• James H. Madison. The Indiana Way: A State History. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
  [17] Pages 30-31.
  [18] Page 37.
  [19] Pages 44-46.
  [20] Page 39.
  
  
• [21] Dorothy Murray. Elkhart Co., Indiana Marriages, 1830-1849. Hunting for Bears, Inc., North Salt Lake, UT, 1988, page 13.
  
  
• [22] William Orson Payne. History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress, and Achievement. Vol. 1. S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1911, page 229.
  
  
• L. W. Royse. A Standard History of Kosciusko County, Indiana. Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1919.
  [23] Page 18.
  [24] Page 50.
  [25] Page 83.
  
  
• Ronald Sharp and Joan Sharp. Sharp's Chronicles: A History of Syracuse, Indiana and Environs: Book One 1826-1879. Sharp's News Service, Syracuse, IN, 1983.
  [26] Page 8.
  [27] Page 23.