LINKS TO RELATED WEB SITES
LINKS TO RELATED WEB SITES
The purpose of this Web Page is to make the book "Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn, Sr. 1753-1809" freely available to those desiring to learn of this man and his life. That book is the result of research activities undertaken by Rebecca Martin Christiansen, a fourth great-granddaughter of Jesse Corn Sr. In January 1999, she and her husband Larry found a copy of the late O. E. Pilson's book on the cemeteries of Patrick County, which listed a Jesse Corn cemetery. They learned that Pilson had visited the cemetery on March 3, 1983, and gave a brief description of the location and data from four grave stones he could read, with acknowledgment of six marked with crude stones.
The Christiansens found the cemetery, which was located on a small knoll in a cow pasture. Three headstones had been tipped over and the fourth was leaning badly. Cattle grazed among the graves and a mat of leaves, fallen limbs and other debris covered the burial area. They decided that if something was not done soon, all traces of the burial ground would disappear within ten years.
They then undertook work on two fronts: research into Patrick County land records tracing the property back from the present owner to Jesse Corn Sr., and securing the area so cattle could not continue to degrade it. The property owner, E. B. Turner of Martinsville, had a fence constructed around the cemetery with access independent of his cow pasture. Howard Pilson, brother of the book's author, gave his assistance and helped clean the burial area.
The Allied Families of Patrick-Henry Counties agreed to receive contributions for the cemetery. Corn family members, now living in places as far away as Texas, Tennessee, New York, Ohio and Colorado, sent small contributions with concerns that the cemetery be saved from obliteration. Equally important, family members sent old photographs that showed what was written on the now unreadable inscriptions for the headstones of Elizabeth and Judeth Corn. New markers were purchased and placed at these graves. Now renovated, it is being maintained by the Christiansens with welcomed help by volunteers and with donations made to the cemetery.
The above efforts by the Christiansens further increased their desire to learn more about Jesse's life, resulting in an understanding of his life that forms the basis for Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn, Sr. 1753-1809. As the book is fairly large (about 200 pages), which can be time consuming over lower speed communications, its Table of Contents may be separately reviewed first if desired.
July 10, 2007
It was recently learned that Larry Christiansen, the principal author of "Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn" has developed a web site of his own. On his new site he has included a wonderful write-up on the history of Corn/Stovall Cemetery and it's renovation. Pictures of the cemetery and it's surrounding terrain, from it's discovery in 1981 through the present time, will also be found there. Click here to visit Larry's new web site.
November 7, 2005
Well over two years ago, evidence found by Jim Corn and Mary Faith Matthews, as to who was the father of Jesse and his brothers, has been presented on this website. However, many queries still appear in Corn genealogy lists asking who the parents of the brothers were. So, although now the answer to this question is not really new, I will try to further broadcast this knowledge by adding it here in the "What's New" section. After reviewing Jim & Mary's evidence that appears in John Adam Corn's Scrapbook, I believe you will concur that their findings clearly prove that John Adam Corn was the father of Jesse and his brothers.
Several more errors were found in "Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn" and have been corrected. These errors were found and reported by several readers, and we are grateful for their feedback. We appreciate your comments and feedback and it is always welcome.
Should you want to know the specific changes that have been made, Changes.pdf is a file containing those pages in "Sketches... " that have been revised since it was first published. The file also shows where within those pages each change was made. These revisions have now all been incorporated into the accessible version of the book itself, which is now dated on it's footer 11/13/2004.
Between 1914 and 1922, the state of Tennessee sent to its soldiers a Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaire giving them an opportunity to share their perceptions of the Old South, the Civil War, and the post-bellum world. There were 1,650 respondents. Each of the questionnaires constituted a short, uniform autobiography, and included questions about the soldier, his family, his parents, how they lived, etc. Bill Corn found that two of Jesse Corn’s descendants had responded to this questionnaire, and he has made available a copy to be shared at this web site. Documents giving responses to the questionnaire are for the following two Jesse Corn descendants:
· Thos J Corn b Jul 4, 1843<John A. Jr<John A. <Jesse
· Wm J Corn b Sep 10, 1843<John W<Wm <Jesse
These responses may also be accessed where these descendants appear within the Jesse Corn Descendant Reports. Thank you, Bill, for providing these very interesting Civil War accounts.
Sharon Doubiago provided additional data on the genealogy of her ancestors, William and Nancy (Corn) Chitwood. Nancy's Descendant Report has been augmented with the Sharon's information, including several pictures. Pictures are shown for :
Makajah P. Reagin (b1827 d 1902) & Jane Winn Goodloe (b 1833)
George Washington Chitwood (b 1848 d 1915) & Nancy Goodloe Reagin (b 1859 d 1914)
Marion Avon Edens (b 1878 d 1948) & Maude Lura Chitwood (b 1880 d 1953)
Francis Marion Edens & Phoebe Stovall Overby (b 1837)
Another web site was created several months ago that specifically addresses the life of Jesse's daughter, Mary (Corn) Sharp. To that site, Sharon provided an interesting newspaper article from 1931. Written by J. E. Sanders, the Chattanooga News article relates a conversation he had with 107 year Abraham Jackson, who was one of the slaves freed by Mary in 1855.
Lastly, Sharon also pointed out another error in the descendant reports, this time in the one of Jesse's daughter, Laodicea. The ages of Dicea's daughters, Virgina and Elizabeth, were interchanged, and are now correctly shown. Thank you again, Sharon. All of the new information you provided and the errors you've reported are very much appreciated.
Sharon Doubiago, a descendant of Jesse's daughter, Nancy, found two separate errors in the Descendant Report of Nancy and her husband William Chitwood. William's death date was erroneously shown as 1833, and their son John was erroneously shown to have the middle initial "W". The corrected report shows theirs son's name simply as "John Chitwood" and does not give a death date for William, as that date is unknown. Thank you very much, Sharon, for pointing out these errors.
Feedback, such as Sharon has given, is extremely helpful in making the information that appears on this site more useful and reliable. So, to everyone who reviews the information herein, please communicate any conflicting, or erroneous, information that you believe exists to me.
The Descendant Report for Jesse's son, Samuel, has been revised to include the family and descendants of Samuel's granddaughter, Mary H. Corn. Mary was the daughter of Samuel's son, George W. Corn. Mary married Wiley T. Sublett on February 3rd, 1881 in Franklin County, Tennessee. Wiley and Mary probably had several children, but only Callie Lee Sublett (b:~1885) is known of. A picture of her can be found in the scrapbook for William Washington Sharp. Another descendant of Jesse Corn, Bennie Sharp (Duncan) McCandless, appears with Callie in the picture.
A web site has been created that tells of the life of Jesse's daughter, Mary, and a link has been added for it on the home page for Jesse Corn.
Several errors were recently found and corrected. They are as follows:
The middle initial previously shown for James Sharp, the second husband of Jesse's daughter, Mary, was found to be unsubstantiated. It had been incorrectly shown in the Franklin County, TN Cemetery Book. The initial, "S", has been removed from his name. If he had a middle name, it is unknown.
Jesse's youngest daughter, Laodicea, had been shown with a death date of June 26, 1841. This date can not be substantiated. Furthermore, the fact that she can't be found in the census records for 1840 suggests that she had died sometime between the birth of her daughter, Susan Frances Sharp, in 1838 and the 1840 census of Franklin County, TN.
The name of a "Robert Sharp" found on the 1810 Tax List for Patrick County, VA was erroneously shown in the "Sketches" document as being "the future husband of Dicea". Dicea's husband wasn't much over ten years old in 1810, and was too young to be on a tax list.
All information on this site has been revised appropriately to correct the above errors. For those who would like to manually update existing hardcopy printouts of "Sketches", a PDF file containing those four pages having the specific changes can be viewed using the Acrobat Reader. These are not replacement pages! They should only be used to locate where the changes are within the book, and what should be changed.
The informational page was restructured to add a site search capability and a table of contents. These changes were done to make it easier to access the information on this web site.
May 25, 2003
Larry Christiansen, the principal author of "Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn", has just completed another in-depth article regarding Jesse Corn and his comrades. This document focuses on Revolutionary War service of Jesse and his brother, John Peter.
Larry had wanted to learn more precisely about the service of each brother, such as exactly where they served, when, etc. He decided that the best way of doing this would be to research the microfilm records from the National Archives for the entire company that they had served in. Larry began sharing the information with me as he learned more from his analysis of those records. It wasn't too long before it became clear to me, based on the thoroughness of his research efforts, that Larry could produce a document that would not only give more detail on the military service of the Corn brothers, but also provide considerable insight regarding the service of those soldiers who served with the Corns. At my suggestion, Larry expanded his research to encompass that objective. As a result of this effort, a forty-six page document entitled "Revolutionary War Military Records of the 7th Virginia Regiment - Captain Matthew Jouett's Company" has been written by Larry. It is now included with the other accessible collateral below.
This new document should spark further interest in the Jesse Corn Web Page, not only by descendants of the two Corns but by descendants of their comrades-in-arms which appear in the article. A table, listing those soldiers referenced by his article, may also be found with the collateral below that summarizes information content for each individual. One can quickly scan this list for the name of a person they are looking for, and if found, obtain a synopsis of the associated information that has been ascertained.
For descendants of the two Corn brothers, factual information is made available to clarify the mysteries and myths of their ancestor's revolutionary service. For descendants of the Corn brother's comrades, this document affirms their service and activities.
Those who have previously visited the Jesse Corn Web Page may notice that this informational page has been reorganized. Originally set up as a vehicle for making "Sketches" available, the information content has grown considerably since then. Reorganization of this page was done to communicate the recently added artifacts more coherently and to make it easier to incorporate future information.
Since Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn, Sr. 1753-1809 was first made available, other artifacts and collateral have been added to this website, which now include the following:
The book "Sketches in the life and times of Jesse Corn"
War Records of 7th VA Reg, Capt. Matthew Jouett's Co (Jesse & John Peter Corn's Company)
List of soldiers for whom information is found in the above War Records
Muster and Pay Roll Records:
- Jesse Corn
- John Peter Corn
Please contact me if you have problems accessing any of the information, or if you would like to add or correct to the information that you see on these pages. I would also appreciate hearing from anyone having thoughts or ideas as to content and/or presentation of the information that is shown here within the Jesse Corn site. Please feel free to convey your thoughts and suggestions to me by email.
Thank
you,
-Tom
Melton
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If you are unfamiliar with search engines, or would like to be more proficient in their use, an excellent and easy to read explanation may be found on this page of Cliff Lamere's Web Site.
