Pinning Down Edward's Arrival in the Shenandoah Valley

I recently came across an interesting article by Mitchell Farish, an employee of the library at the University of Virginia. The first part of his article is of great interest in helping us understand the early settlement of this area of the northern Shenandoah Valley. We should take parts of his information into consideration when we try to pin down Edward Corder's date of arrival here.

Farish writes of the partnership between Jost Hite (a German speculator) and Robert McKay (a Scots Quaker) as they attempted to secure a massive land grant in northern Virginia through the headright settlement system. Their ambitious plan to claim 100,000 acres of land (by "seed[ing] the land with one hundred Pennsylvania families they said were ready to make homes on Virginia's frontier") was harder to realize than they guessed. The headright settlement system allowed a thousand acres of land per family, but by 1735 the pair had only managed to convince 54 heads of household to relocate to the valley, so things weren't going as well as they'd hoped.

Of very great interest to us is Farish's statement that "Before 1732 the Shenandoah Valley had been virtually empty of humans except for wandering Indian hunters and a few Germans on the South Fork." We know that Edward was here by 1738 (when he petitioned for a road to Jost Hite's mill). We know also that he has been called "one of the seven original adventurers" in this area. In the past we have speculated and wondered whether he was part of Hite's settlement, but since Corder was not German, and is called one of seven "original" adventurers, could he have actually have arrived here prior to Hite and McKay's headright settlers? On the other hand, might Edward have been married - possibly to a German woman - and been somehow related to those "few Germans on the South Fork?"

I estimate that Edward's indenture probably expired around 1728. I am guessing that he served his time in Maryland, or possibly Virginia. Pennsylvania seems less likely, but is not out of the question. We have absolutely no idea where he was or what he was doing between 1728 and 1732, but it's possible that he was indeed one of seven very early settlers to arrive on or around that latter date (I would really love to know who the other six were!). I doubt Edward knew (or cared) that the land he was settling on was part of Lord Fairfax's proprietorship, and so it may have come as a surprise when Fairfax arrived from England demanding rents from those who were "squatting" on his land. (Lest I give the wrong impression, Fairfax was by all accounts a very well-liked landlord, and the settlers probably didn't much care whether they paid their quit rents to Williamsburg or Fairfax.)

To be safe, we can estimate Edward's arrival here during a 10-year span (between 1728-1738), or possibly narrow it per the Farish article to a 6-year span (1732-1738). I would imagine (again, relying on the "original seven adventurers" reference, and assuming he pre-dated the arrival of Hite's settlers) to be on the earlier side, more like 1728-1735.

Don't Miss the "Young Virginian" Exhibit at Mount Vernon

The last of the Blizzard of 2010 has been washed away by several days of rain and we have had some almighty flooding here in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Several main roads are closed, so I had to take the long way around to get up to Long Branch last night to hear Jim Rees, curator of Mount Vernon, speak about George Washington. His engaging presentation covered diverse facets of Washington's life as well as updates on the fabulous new additions to the Mount Vernon estate. Mr. Rees' talk was accompanied by a slide show of beautiful paintings and illustrations of Washington, both familiar and obscure.

Descendants of Edward Corder Sr. will want to make a special effort to visit Mount Vernon to see the new visitor's center and museum. This is top-shelf stuff, I'll tell you, but in addition to being a delight to explore in general terms, the museum contains an exhibit of particular interest to our family.

In The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation Gallery one will find the "Young Virginian" exhibit which includes a life-size model of Washington as a 19-year-old surveyor. From their web site: "Forest sounds and moving animals set the stage for 18th-century western Virginia, where visitors see Washington’s original surveying tools and learn how to conduct a survey themselves." Notice that the exhibit contains Washington's original surveying tools! Are these the same measuring chains our ancestor carried with John Lonem when laying out the town of Little Washington? We know that Edward was with Washington on at least 11 surveys, so it seems probable that he would have carried these very chains at some point (since he is unlikely to have owned his own).

This new exhibit lets us look on the face of Washington as Edward Corder saw him, and since we can't look on the face of Edward, this will just have to be the next best thing.

Jonathan O. Corder's Confederate Pension Application Posted

I've just added a new PDF to the "Original Documents" section of the Edward Corder Memorial Library. Jonathan O. Corder's Civil War pension application contains much valuable information to help us trace his service during the four years of the war. The pension application was made during the summer of 1916, when Jonathan was 73 (and earning only $20.00 per annum as a farmer). Due to a series of frequent and convoluted transfers and splits of command of his cavalry unit, the state of Virginia required some clarification from the applicant, so we're fortunate that there was some correspondence between Jonathan and Richmond wherein he explained a service record that would have otherwise been very difficult to follow. (Sort of like that sentence.)

Jonathan was one of the sons of Elijah Corder Jr. and Nancy Osborne Corder of Scott County, VA (and my gr. gr. grandfather).

You can find the PDF near the bottom of the page at http://www.laurahenderson.com/genealogy/corder/ecsmemoriallibrary/docs/index.html#original

Updates to Corder Family Timeline

This is a link to an Excel spreadsheet of my working timeline for this family. The file includes tabs for unidentified individual records and limited entries for lines or individuals known to be unrelated to ours (to help distinguish from our own entries). This is an ongoing work in progress. Please feel free to download this file or share the link, but I request that you not share or re-post the actual Excel file since it is updated frequently. Please subscribe to this blog to be notified of updates.

Corder Family Timeline.xls

Could Susannah (or her first husband) have been a Harvey?

Those of you who have been following the Corder Family DNA project will know that we had a genetic mismatch between two sons of Susannah [maiden name unknown] Corder, wife of Edward Corder II. Eldest son Benjamin Corder's Y-DNA signature does not match the Y-DNA signatures of younger sons Elijah Corder Sr. and Stephen Corder. This has lead us to conclude that Susannah already had one or more children when she married Edward Corder II sometime in the 1760's. It is possible that Susannah had a prior marriage, as she apparently also had one or more daughters believed to be older than Benjamin.

On January 19, 1797 Elizabeth Corder (daughter of Susannah, although she may or may not have been the biological child of Edward) married Thomas Cassidy in Burke's Garden, Tazewell County, VA (formerly Montgomery County, VA). Thomas and Elizabeth Corder Cassidy had six children before she died in about 1815. They were: Hiram b. ca 1799, Benjamin b. October 18, 1800; Elizabeth b. ca 1806; Thomas b. ca 1812; Harve b. ca 1814; and Margaret b. ca 1815.

It looks like Elizabeth named one child for her brother Benjamin. She named a younger son Harve (Harvey). Benjamin's family line uses the name Harvey frequently through the subsequent generations. Notice that Elizabeth does not name any of her children Edward, nor does she name any of her sons after her younger brothers. From what I've seen, the lines of Edward's biological sons do not use the names Benjamin or Harvey (although they do use Stephen, Edward, John [a brother to Edward II], Elijah, and Elinor [possibly the name of Edward II's mother] frequently).

Based on these naming patterns, I wonder if it makes sense to theorize that Elizabeth and Benjamin were full siblings through their mother Mary Susannah's (or Susannah Mary) first marriage, and that either Susannah's maiden name was Harvey (although if so, you would think that the name would have been passed through the younger Corder lines as well), or more likely, their biological father was named Harvey (first or last name)?

Corders in the McKay Family Genealogy Index

I spent an hour in the new (and greatly improved) Samuels Public Library in Front Royal today and started making my way through the shelves of their Local History Room. I'm looking for the Corders of old Frederick County, VA. Not a lot of luck so far, except for a couple of entries in the McKay Family Genealogy Index.

There was a reference to Edward Cordit (Corder) on page 680 of the index referring to Frederick County Order Book 1:316, an entry dated 2 April 1745 when he (among others) petitioned for a road from the Court House to Gregory's Ford. Not too sure where Gregory's Ford is. I've Googled it and I'm not getting any satisfactory results. I assume it's somewhere along the Shenandoah or the Opequon. Edward was later tasked with maintenance on the resulting road.

Another entry on page 826 concerns John Corder, believed to be the second son of Edward Corder Sr. of Greenway Court. John married into the Quaker Branson family (she was disowned for marrying out of unity) and he and his wife Elizabeth Branson Corder inherited land in Frederick County from her father, John Branson. On August 5, 1772 John and Elizabeth Branson Corder sold their parcel of land to Andrew McKay. (In 1762 John Branson sold acreage to Andrew McKay; in 1767 Thomas Branson sold land to Jacob McKay; in May 1768 John Branson sold another parcel to Andrew McKay. Looks like when the Bransons wanted to liquidate land, the McKays were the go-to guys.)

The third entry concerned a Mary Corder who had married a A. R. Y. Compton. After digging around a bit, I concluded that Mary was the daughter of Alexander Corder and Elizabeth Arnold of Culpeper County, VA. These Corders are descendants of the Fauquier County group as far as I can tell.