Category: Paternal tree

S1:E4 ~ Spring of Jessamine Creek

I love this photo. It was taken at the head or spring of Jessamine Creek that I knew somewhat as a child and my father knew as part of his daily life at the old home place. An original of this image is among the family heirloom artifacts I am in the process of documenting, which leads me to wonder if these men are ancestors of mine. The slope of the hillside, stacked layers of limestone formation, trickling water you can almost hear, the majestic shade tree with exposed mature roots like tentacles and brush in the foreground. I easily wax romantic about the richness of the scene. Additionally, this image appears in History of Jessamine County, Kentucky reference found in the Jessamine County Public Library. There are many great resources there.

Can anyone help me estimate the date of the image? The original print I have is affixed to a kind of cardboard so I am not risking damage to examine the back for any notes or context. Does the attire of the two men seated amongst the exposed tree roots provide clues? The man in suspenders does not look significantly of any particular time period as white shirt, trousers and suspenders is fairly common men’s attire. To me, the man on the right in his suit and with his hat and cane astride his lap looks reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln but that is not my assertion for it to actually be him. He would need to be squatted well into that spot, if so. There are physical similarities to my ancestor Pleasant Cook but I doubt the alignment of time periods.

At closer examination of the background milieu, I see the repetition of pattern similar to a fence, a barn and perhaps a farmhouse. I am in the process of determining at what point the land was acquired into our family. A Jessamine County deed recorded in the mid-1800s shows Pleasant Cook (my 2nd great grandfather) purchased 53 acres along Jessamine Creek, among several other sizable property acquisitions. When he died in 1917, the creek property passed to his only daughter, Mayme Cook Mathews, my great grandmother. After her passing, the property was owned by my grandfather, Pleas Cook Mathews.

The image below shows my grandfather, his brother and their cousin standing together adjacent to the Jessamine Creek springs. I can estimate this image to be prior to 1917, which is when Pleas left for France in WWI. I wonder if this could have been taken at a special occasion, like a funeral. They are dressed in a way that makes me think it possible.

As another in this series, here is young Robert Ira Mathews, my uncle, at the same rocky crag as the other images. This image is circa 1935 based on the other artifacts of the same period. The Jessamine Creek spring was an integral part of my father’s family life growing up on the farm. More of those stories to come…

S1:E3 ~ Jessamine County

An interesting notation on the survey map pinpoints the springs of Jessamine Creek with “A Remarkable Camping Place” which leaves me wondering – Did Daniel Boone camp at that spot?

I spent most weekends of my youth on the road to and from my grandparents’ house in Nicholasville, so much so that I could follow it in my mind, specifically after exiting I-64 at Frankfort/Versailles. Passing through Woodford Co along that stretch of horse farms leading into downtown Versailles is picturesque. In my adolescent years, I resented having to go but now find myself full circle longing to spend more time in and around the places of my parents’ youth.

Both of my parents were born at home in Jessamine County – Dad, at the Mathews home place, Harrodsburg Road, and Mom, in Little Hickman, near Lock 8 of the Kentucky River. Eventually, they were neighbors on Richmond Road near downtown Nicholasville and as the story goes, he gave her a ride home from work one afternoon.

In 1798, the town of Nicholasville was laid out and named for General Nicholas, while Jessamine Co was created from part of Fayette Co and named for Jessamine Creek. Historical accounts note in 1774 surveyor James Douglass discovered a creek which he named for his eldest daughter Jessamine. Other accounts note the county was named by Col. John Price for the prevalence of Jessamine flowers, also known as jasmine. And, a bit of oral tradition describes a tragic account that Jessamine Douglass, daughter of James Douglass, was sitting alone overlooking a creek when she was attacked by an Indian. There are competing beliefs for the validity of this story and some who debunk it are adamant against its truth. As best I can tell, there is nothing definitive discovered to date but that is somewhat inherent in oral traditions.

Based on artifacts I’ve found, there was a landowner early in the settling of the county named James Douglass. A survey map with notations of Daniel Boone indicates as of August 17, 1784, Douglass owned property adjacent to present-day US-68 (Harrodsburg Road). Part of this property was later acquired by my great-great-grandfather Pleasant Cook and stayed in the family until the late 1960s. It was the home place for my father, his siblings and parents.

An interesting notation on the survey map pinpoints the springs of Jessamine Creek with “A Remarkable Camping Place” which leaves me wondering – Did Daniel Boone camp at that spot?

Credits to: Jessamine County Historical Society map image and the work of countless researchers before me, and to my cousin Jeff Mathews for sharing family artifacts that kickstarted my obsession.

S1:E1 ~ “And now…Whose Corman are you?”

In the mid 1970s, retired school teacher Fanny Dean (Corman) Mathews self-published a compilation of genealogy research she had conducted over many years. The nearly 200-page publication was the product of building on a fellow kinsman’s tree published in 1916 Carlisle PA by Charles Cornman.

When I think of how she conducted her research in contrast to the modern relative ease for finding resources on the Internet, I am all the more inspired by her work and the tenacity that must have been required. She wrote letters – no such thing as email then. [Child, can you EVEN imagine it?] Her focus appears to have been recording the demographic details – births, marriages, siblings, deaths, locations, etc. As it was, she was working with knowledge of two of her own 32 great-grandparents, if not more.

The Corman surname is widely known throughout central Kentucky and has evolved from the original spelling – Kornmann. The pioneer ancestor of this paternal family tree branch was born in 1713 near Munich, Germany. At 24 years old, he emigrated to America – sailing from Rotterdam and landing in Philadelphia in 1737. Ludwig Kornmann, Sr. and his wife were early settlers and eventually, they made a home in Lancaster, PA. Their seventh child served under Gen. Washington in the notorious winter of Valley Forge.

Their eleventh child and my direct ancestor, son Abraham Cornman, Sr., arrived in Jessamine Co, Kentucky and had thirteen children of his own – five of whom are mapped in the two Kornmann-family tree publications. Numerous resources in Jessamine Co KY archival material indicate these Corman siblings lived in the same vicinity on Jessamine Creek three miles southwest of Nicholasville.

As Abraham of The Bible and the stars of the sky, the Abraham Corman family prospered and multiplied. An enclave of German Protestants representing other surnames of my family tree included Earthenhousers, Easleys, Funks, Grows, Rhorers, Rices, and Yosts. These “United Brethren” as they were known were members of the Morovian Church. The original Morovian Church, located on present-day Short Shun Pike, was also the site of a school.

Abraham Sr.’s third child, son George A. Corman, Sr., served as a private for Kentucky’s volunteer Militia in the War of 1812 and fought along with his younger brother, John, in the Battle of River Raisin. John Corman, just fifteen years old, has been cited as firing the first shot at this conflict.

Unlike the families before him, my paternal great-grandfather, Surber, was an only child. This will continue to be a question that I seek to answer in my research. Surber inspired my grandmother Fanny Dean – along with her siblings – to serve as active members of the numerous Corman Family branches quite literally spread out across the United States. The annual Corman family reunion was a significantly attended occasion bringing travelers from near and far. I feel a kind of melancholy that we do not still gather.

Forward from “Whose Corman Are You?”

“This book is dedicated to

some favorite ancestor of yours

and to my father

Surber

Who was proud of being a Corman

And whose chief topic of conversation

when Cormans got together was —

“And now…Whose Corman are you?”

Compiled by

Fanny Dean Corman Mathews

A3-B11-C3-D7-E1-F3

My grandmother was a voracious reader and I suspect she went to the library far more frequently in a week than to church. I grew up knowing of her book. And, it delighted little me to no end that my name and the names of family members appeared in the book. It was big in my little world and I was somebody in a way that had not been validated as such before. Fast forward to today, this publication has taken on a different significance. It is a road map. With fresh eyes, I read Fanny Dean’s call to action on the inside cover, I think of the 128 individuals that were my fifth-great grandparents and all their stories. It excites me to think of all the possibilities waiting to be discovered.

As if her own voice speaking these words to me –  

“It is hoped that this information will make it easier for anyone who wishes to carry the work further.”

I hear you calling, Fanny Dean.

Fanny Dean Corman Mathews (circa early 1970s)

Why do you shake?

I’m from the shaking Quakers

If not by The Blood

yet formative all the same

pneumonia took Momma

when only forty four

her body rests everlasting

on the Old Kitty Bradshaw place

well-known in Mercer County

Martha, thirteen days from turning five

and little Susie, only two

seventh & eighth of Fannie’s babies, after all

What can the men of the house do

Please raise these young’uns,

entrusting them to your care

as I tend to your Pleasant gardens

asking not to be forced into your ways

I ask that they be loved

their primary formation spent in Centre utopia

lessons deeply, profoundly echoing through generations.

Resonating over 130 years,

So dance on you dervish

whirling to the glory of all

before, after, below and above

proof for what we carry in our DNA.

Sisters Martha Jane Bradshaw and Susie “Mattie” Bradshaw, estimated soon after the 1886 death of their mother, Frances Jane Murphy Bradshaw (framed in copper with all elements fused together such that the image cannot be separated from the packaging that is potentially more than 130 years old)

Overview

The scope of this current project (updated August 2022) is the result of 12 years active research and 3 years in earnest. Ancestry.com has been an invaluable tool both for discovery and organization. The scaffold is set. I am confident in the fourth- and fifth-generation connections and have acquired enough formal documentation to support the validity of research to all eight sets of great-great grandparents.

The next phase of research is to build the narratives to better understand the lives of these ancestors. And, to dig even deeper with confidence in reaching the far branches. Gratitude for the modern advances and tools.

Surnames

Paternal Surnames – Bonn, Bradshaw, Chowning, Cook, Corman/Kornmann, Dean, Mathews, McDowell, Moffett, Murphy, O’Neal, Porter, Rieglin, Ritter

Maternal Surnames – Blakeman, Brumfield, Bryant, Chrisman, Doggett, Easley, Fain/Fayne, Grant, Macquarrie/McQuerry, Scrivner, Simmons

basement studio for endless hours in rabbit holes of bliss