Ever since I had first read Agnes’ manuscript, I have had a difficult time resolving one section, which you can see below.  My difficulty has come from the fact that I have lived most of my life in the Kansas City area, and although I do not know the entire area, as my Dad had spent many years as a delivery driver in Kansas City, I was raised to have a basic understanding of where things are located in the city and how to get around the metro without much problem.  Here is what Agnes had to say about the family moving to Kansas City:

In the 1850’s Henry Corel, my mother’s father, and brothers and families, their stock etc. came to Kansas. They came from Virginia by flatboat down the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. Their boat foundered and they unloaded at Wyandotte and drove by schooner to Westport, Missouri using ox teams. Mama was seven years old. Kansas City was not started then. They began a homestead on the Little Blue, now Kansas City’s famous Cliff Drive.

Honestly, I do not think I have ever been to Cliff Drive, but I did know that it was near Downtown and ran along the Missouri River, not the Little Blue River.  Additionally, Henry and his family are found in Washington Township, Jackson County, Missouri on the 1850 census¹.  I had no idea where Washington Township was, so before digging into this, I thought perhaps Washington Twp was just a bit east of present day Downtown, perhaps in the area now simply called “Northeast”.  The Little Blue River runs from near Grandview, south of Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, north to the Missouri River just west of the town of Sibley, Missouri².

My first search was to determine just where Washington Township was located in Jackson County, Missouri.  To my surprise, Washington Township is in the southwest corner of the county.  This completely rules out that the family lived near Cliff Drive, but then I became curious to try to figure out just where they may have lived.

The official description of Washington Township when it was organized on February 9, 1836 was:

Commencing at Cummins Mill on Big Blue so as to include said Mill, thence running due west to the boundary line, thence south with said boundary to the corner of Van Buren county (now Cass), thence east with said county line to a point opposite the head of Little Cedar Fork of Little Blue, thence down said Cedar Fork until it intersects the main fork of Little Blue, thence in a straight direction to the beginning³.

I never could find anything on Cummins Mill, so I was quite grateful for this simpler description:

The southern and western boundaries were then about the same as now, but the eastern boundary ran north and south near the present site of Lee’s Summit, and the northern boundary ran east and was through the junction of Cedar Fork with Little Blue³.

I also spent quite a bit of time looking at the neighbors of Henry Highland Corel.  I looked up land patent purchases and reviewed old plat maps of Jackson County.  None of the Corel family members purchased a land patent in Missouri.  In order to determine a more precise location for Henry Corel and his family, I looked to their neighbors.  The family listed before Henry Corel was that of Edward Gray.  When he died, Edward Gray lived two and a half miles northwest of Hickman’s Mill⁵.  Just after Henry Corel in the 1850 census was Alexander Majors and family.  In 1856 Alexander Majors built a house that is still standing today at 8201 State Line Road, Kansas City, Missouri.

This map is an estimation of the area of Washington Township.  The green line across the bottom is the county line for Jackson and Cass counties. The purple line on the left is the state line for Kansas and Missouri.  The purple line across the top is connecting to the fork of the Little Blue River and Little Cedar Creek.  The dark blue line on the right leads from the start of Little Cedar Creek down to the county line.   The light blue line above the dark blue line is the outline of Little Cedar Creek.  The yellow house in the upper left corner is where Alexander Majors’ house still stands today.  The purple push pin shows the location of the New Santa Fe Cemetery, and the green house in the center is the approximate location of the original site of Hickman’s Mill.  The green outlined area is about two and a half miles from Hickman’s Mill, which would be about where Edward Gray lived at the time of his death in 1869.  The red outlined area is where I would estimate that Henry Highland Corel lived, if his family did live near the Little Blue River, which is what the blue line is showing.  If you click on the map, you will be taken to this map on Google, which has all of these annotations, as well as an outline of Cliff Drive, which is about 10 miles north of Washington Township, plus you can look around the area a bit more.  I would have included the outline of Cliff Drive here, but then the map would have been so small, it would have been difficult to understand.

So, essentially, I have accomplished nothing in this past week, except that I have learned quite a bit more about the history of Kansas City, and I have deduced that there is no way that Henry Highland Corel lived near Kansas City’s Cliff Drive.  Hopefully now I will be able to focus on Henry’s daughter, Jemima!

I have a brief manuscript written by Agnes Salathiel Hall, granddaughter of Henry Highland Corel, that details her family history.  It is a wonderful piece of history, but some information is a bit warped, and some appears to be downright wrong.  That alone should keep me from looking to verify anything she has written, but there is a strange occurrence in 1855, and it may not be as Agnes details, but there must be something!

Agnes’ Story

Nancy Corel, Henry her husband, Will their teen age son, and Nancy’s sister Jemima all died within a week of measles, the epidemic of measles at Lawrence was in Kansas History I studied in school. Many died as they did not know what it was. They survived an epidemic of small pox and died of measles. All four of them lay dead in the house -one room- at the same time. The neighbors came in and built coffins of native walnut lumber so abundant in Kansas in an early day. Here I might pause to tell you that our old home on 8th st. in Independence, across from the Elks, was of walnut lumber, dimensions, floors and all. Speaking of parents, Mama said she could hear the hammers building the coffins, Mama was fourteen.

All those who died in the measles epidemic were buried on Mt. Oread, Later this was vacated as a cemetery but the graves being unmarked it is likely their ashes are still there. So many years before it was vacated.

Facts

• Henry Highland Corel and his wife, Nancy Matney, as well as one son, William Corel, all died in 1855.
• Henry had a sister, Jemima Corel McGlothlin who died in Jackson County, Missouri about 1851.
• I have not located a sister named Jemima for Nancy.
• Henry’s father, William Corel also died in 1851.  Was this part of an epidemic?
• “Mama” would be Jemima Corel Salathiel, who would have been about 13 in 1855.
• According to burial cards at Watkins Museum, the Corel family was removed from the Mount Oread cemetery and reburied at the Corel family plot at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Possibilities

As I was writing this, I was searching around to see if I could possibly figure out the mystery to these deaths.  By focusing more on ‘epidemics’ rather than ‘measles’, I believe I may have some possible theories.

• Cholera epidemic in Kansas, 1855¹.
• Cholera had claimed 40 to 170 lives but by August 1855 the area is healthy².
• An epidemic of Asiatic cholera sweeps the Kansas Town settlement in Jackson County, Missouri in 1849³.

In Closing

Rather than measles, the epidemic was probably cholera.  It is interesting that I found information about a cholera outbreak in Jackson County, Missouri starting in 1849, as well.  I wonder if Jemima Corel McGlothlin and William Corel were also victims of an epidemic.

Henry Highland Corel married Nancy Matney on August 2, 1938 in Tazewell County, Virginia².  Nancy and Henry would have seven documented children³, the first six were born in Tazewell County, Virginia.  Their seventh child was born while they were living in Jackson County, Missouri.

By January 1855 Henry is listed as a voter in District 1 of the Kansas Territory, the census shows Nancy and their seven minor children living with him⁴.  Henry Highland Corel died on May 15, 1855, family legend says the cause was a measles epidemic.  Not long after, perhaps in October, his wife and son, Nancy and William, suffered the same fate from their battle with measles.  Even if the cause is not accurate, the History of Montgomery County, Kansas does relate that Henry “and his wife died early, thus orphaning a family of eight young children⁵.”  Henry, Nancy, and their son William were all buried at the Pioneer Cemetery at Mount Oread.  After 1865 when Oak Hill Cemetery opened, they were among the Corel family members moved from the Pioneer Cemetery to Oak Hill.

Rebecca Oney was born August 26, 1791 either in Richlands, Russell County, Virginia or a short distance away in Cedar Bluff, Virginia.  Today, Cedar Bluff is in Tazewell County, Virginia.  It is believed, but has not been proven, that Richard Oney and Sarah Highland are the parents of Rebecca.  It is also quite possible that Rebecca was their daughter-in-law without issue, as she is not mentioned in Richard’s will.

Rebecca Oney married William Corel, a man who eludes genealogists as well, on June 6, 1811 in Tazewell County, Virginia.  The couple made their home near Maiden Springs, Tazewell County, Virginia.  The couple had fourteen children, 11 girls and three boys, this alone makes Rebecca a remarkable woman.  Sadly, three daughters did not survive into adulthood, but this did not signify the end of Rebecca’s life.

As the older children were marrying and starting their own families, William and Rebecca Oney Corel decided they would move west to take advantage of the new life that the new frontier had to offer.  In 1849 William and Rebecca packed up all of their worldly belongings and 10 of their 11 living children, along with a few grandchildren and left Virginia.  Many brothers and sisters of their sons- and daughter-in-law joined the family in this westward trek.  The first few days the group traveled by horseback to clear the mountainous terrain.  Once they reached the Ohio River, they continued on by boat until they reached Westport Landing in Jackson County, Missouri.

By the 8th of August in 1850, the day the census taker came by, William and Rebecca Corel had quite a full house in Kaw Township (now Kansas City), Jackson County, Missouri.  Along with their youngest children (William, Cosby Jane, James Pickens, Nancy Maryland, and Olivia Gillespie) they had three other children living with them, Stewart Peart, Mary Louisa Peart, and William B. Peart.

How this came to be, I cannot speculate, but I have found that the mother of the Peart children, Oney Biggs Peart died in January of that same year.  Oney Biggs Peart and her widower, Jonathan Peart had married in Platte County, Missouri in 1842, long before the Corel family moved to Missouri.  In those few months after they arrived from Virginia, they must have made quite a connection with the Peart family to be willing to take on three young children (Stewart was the oldest listed as 7 on the census).

Another interesting note about Rebecca, who was just over two weeks away from turning 59,  is her occupation listed on the census.  Where most wives/mothers we find are listed as “at home” or such indicating they were housewives, which is quite a job in itself, Rebecca is listed as a farmer.

The following year Rebecca is faced with great hardship in this new land her family now calls home.  Jemima, William and Rebecca’s oldest daughter died on June 13, 1851.  Jemima’s husband, David McGlothlin, soon heads back east with his six children.  Life did go on for Rebecca as she prepared for  her daughter, Cosby Jane, to be married to William Justice just two months later on August 14.  On September 27, 1851 even more tragedy strikes the Corel family when the patriarch, William passes away.  I can only imagine that Rebecca found solace knowing that her two youngest sons and her two youngest daughters were still living at home to stand by her throughout these trying times.

Rebecca Oney Corel’s adventure did not stop there.  At 5:00 AM on March 4, 1854 the United States Senate passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill after an all night session.  I wonder how quickly Rebecca and her children heard of the bill’s passing.  I wonder when they decided to move further west.  On May 1, 1854 the Kansas Territory was open to settlers.  According to the December 25, 1890 issue of the Lawrence Quarterly, three Corel brothers (Henry H., William, and James P.) accompanied Clark Stearns of Michigan to stake their claims on land in Douglas County, Kansas.  “The first settlement made in Lawrence was on May 14, 1854 when the foundation of a cabin for Clark Stearns was laid…” A survey map of the area dated July 4, 1857 shows the land of C. Stearns on the west side of the land of J.P. Corel, although, at the time the land actually belonged to Rebecca Oney Corel.  The area that the Corel family settled was not their first choice.  They had planned on settling on the north side of the Kansas River, but the camps of the Delware Indians had them rethinking that plan.

In 1855 a measles epidemic swept through the town of Lawrence.  Rebecca’s son’s family was hit hard.  Henry Highland Corel, his wife, Nancy Matney Corel, and their son, William Corel all died in 1855 from the measles.  About 1858 Rebecca lost yet another child, Margaret Corel Puckett.

The next few years, Rebecca married off her children that were still living at home:  William was married  to Margaret Ann McGee about 1856,  Nancy Maryland married Francois LaHay December 19, 1856,  James P. married Susannah Clay McGee on August 20, 1857, and Olivia Gillespie married John Jacob McGee April 19, 1860.

After Olivia and John Jacob McGee were married, Rebecca lived with the couple along with two of her grandchildren, Rebecca Corel, daughter of Henry H. Corel and Nancy Matney, and Henry H. McGlothlin, son of Jemima Corel and David McGlothlin.  It was about this time that Rebecca sold her land claim to her son, James Pickens Corel, but he would not be vested in the land until after her death.

November 9, 1860 Rebecca left this world to see the many family members who had passed before her.  Rebecca was buried along with her family members, son Henry H., daughter-in-law Nancy, granson William, and daughter Margaret, in the Mount Oread Cemetery, also now known as the Pioneer Cemetery.

In 1865 the city of Lawrence, Kansas opened a new cemetery, Oak Hill Cemetery, and burials at Mt. Oread ceased.  After Oak Hill Cemetery opened many of those buried at Mt. Oread were moved to Oak Hill.  It would be over 100 years after the moving of the graves that Corel descendants would find that the Corel family members originally interred at Mt. Oread were among those moved to Oak Hill.  Watkins Museum in Lawrence, Kansas received old burial reinternment cards from the city of Lawrence that proved the transfer of the bodies.  There are no markers for the graves that were once at the Pioneer Cemetery, but the burial cards now in possession of Watkins Museum show that the Corel family members are buried in the same area as the Corel family plots.

Rebecca Oney Corel led a difficult life being one of the pioneers who left Virginia to settle in the Midwest.  Five of her fourteen children passed on before her, as did her husband and a few grandchildren.  In a time when her peers were often housewives, she farmed the land.  She continued to live when others may have found the circumstances too difficult.  Sadly, even in death she was not able to rest in peace, as she was moved from one cemetery to another.

The women of the early 1800s were required to live through many trials and tribulations that we may not have to face today, but the inspiration I get from knowing that I am descended from Rebecca Oney Corel is that no matter what I must face, in the end I can still live to fulfill my dream, just as Rebecca was able to make it to Kansas and claim land as her own.  Today, four families that are descendants of Rebecca Oney and William Corel still live on the land that Rebecca settled on in 1854 on the south bank of the Kansas River.

The last update blog post I did, I wrote about how I did not think that Robert Emmitt McGlothlin was a child of Judith Leathers and John McLaughlin.  Cousin by marriage, Teresa Klaiber, shared some information with me, as well as some conversations she had with her mother-in-law, and now I believe that Robert Emmitt McGlothlin must have at least been raised by Judith Leathers and John McLaughlin.  On the McGlothlin page, I share the reasons why I do not think that Judith Leathers is the mother of Robert Emmitt McGlothlin, but since I do believe that she played a part in his life, I also have a link to the information I found on Judith Leathers and John McLaughlin (found here and on the McGlothlin page under Corels by Chance) and what is believed to be their descendants.

In addition to the McGlothlin family, I have also added the Matney family.  There is also conflicting theories on the ancestry of the Matney’s and who is the father of Brooks Matney who married Jane Young.  As these families are not my direct lines, and much of the research I have done for each of these families is no more than a week of scouring the internet, I have decided to go with the majority on this question.  On the Matney page you will find links to the descendants of both Walter Matney and Brooks Matney.

A page has also been created for the Dobbins family.  This is the family I have spent the least amount of time on because Cousin Bobby Dobbins Title has been so kind to share her work with me for this site.  On the Dobbins page you will find the descendants of Robert B. Dobbins and Katy Alexander, as well as a link to a page for James Alexander Dobbins and Elizabeth Perkins.  I also have a link for a wonderful essay written by Cousin Bobby on this line.

Along the top and bottom of each of the pages on this site, you will see the main page links for this site:  Home, Calendar, Contact Us, Welcome!, William & Rebecca, Corel-Oney Children, and Corel by Chance. 

• Home is the main page you see when you come to Corel Cousins.
• Calendar is something new I thought might be fun to share important dates in the Corel family.  I have created a Google Calendar and so far I have added the birth dates, marriage dates, and death dates for William Corel and Rebecca Oney and their children.  I plan to add more dates to the calendar at a later time, most importantly the Corel-Oney reunion will be added once a date has been decided on!  If anyone has any dates they would specifically like to see, or if you see a correction that needs made, please let me know!  This is a public calendar on Google, so anyone who is already using GCal can add this to their personal calendar.
• Contact Us is similar to the ‘Corel Researchers’ page on the original site.  I have included names and email addresses, as well as photos for those that I had, for the different sections of the family.  I have also added Connie Bishop to the top of the page as the contact for the family reunion.  At the bottom of the page is a contact form if anyone wants to drop a quick note to me without getting into their email program.
• Welcome! gives a brief history of what is going on with this site, and it’s purpose.  It was the home page on the original site.
• William & Rebecca gives the history of William Corel and Rebecca Oney Corel.
• Corel-Oney Children lists the
• Corel by Chance is the page for the links of the allied families, most of which came into the Corel family by marriage.

On the sidebar, I have two ‘widgets’ I’d like to point out.  You can find these ‘widgets’ beneath the Corel Cousins links.  By the way, if anyone has a website who is a Corel Cousin and it isn’t listed, please let me know so I can add your site!  The first ‘widget’ is Google Friend Connect.  For those of you who are already active with the Google products, this is a way we can stay connected.  The second ‘widget’ is for FaceBook.  I have many of you already as FaceBook friends, and if other family members are out there are on FaceBook, I would like to add you, as well.  This widget is for anyone who is on FaceBook to follow this blog from within FaceBook, and it lets me know that I have a couple of people who might like it!

So this is what is new on Corel Cousins since my last update.  I am in the process of completing quite a few more pages!  I am nearly done with a page for the Justice family.  I’ve been researching for the Puckett family page.  Which reminds me, I’ve tried emailing Cousin Sandy who is a Puckett descendant, and haven’t heard back from her.  Has anyone heard from her recently?  Did she perhaps change email addresses?  I’d love to hear from any Puckett descendants, because I’m really struggling with this line!  I need to start on the McGee family.  I think it scares me because it’s my line and I have so much info scattered everywhere on this family!  Plus I’m afraid this might end up looking like a McGee site if I go a bit overboard!  I have been compiling a links page that will be included on the top and bottom menu on each page.  I could probably put it up now and just add to it as I need to….  Look for that soon, I will probably do that!  The next thing I’ve been working on is one thing that really had me nervous before…. I’ve started working on the grandchildren of William and Rebecca!  You may have noticed that I have also started participating in a blog meme called Tombstone Tuesday.  This is to help me make sure that I remain active on this site, and so you all know I’m still here!  If anyone has a tombstone photo that they would like featured here, please send it to me!

Finally, I want to share a bit of my thought process with you.  As I am going through these lines and I am seeing other families mingle in with the Corel descendants, I am looking to see the connections.  This is part of what fascinates me is how this family mixes it up so much with other families.

For instance, what I found yesterday was that Lucinda Meek and Melinda Meek were sisters.  Lucinda married James Whitehead Ward and Melinda married his brother, Jonathan Ward.  After Jonathan died, Melinda married David McGlothlin, widower after Jemima Corel’s death, on July 19, 1853.  Lucinda’s son, George Washington Ward married Mary McGlothlin, oldest child of Jemima Corel and David McGlothlin, on July 31, 1854.