My great-grandmother, Agnes Core Patton (1896-1963), was
very proud of her heritage, or so I am told. Her family history was indeed an
interesting mix. On her mother’s side, she was German and French, a granddaughter
of Adam Gettman, who fled his native Hesse in the midst of the 1848-1849
uprisings and fought in the American Civil War. Her paternal grandmother,
Viletta Norton Core, descended from an old New England family that settled in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio in the first years of the nineteenth century. Her direct
paternal line, the Cores, came from early pioneers of the parts of Virginia
that would become West Virginia.
Grandma Agnes was born in or near Columbus Grove in the
southeast corner of Putnam County, just north of the Allen County line. Agnes
and her siblings grew up in town. In her youth, she worked in a milliner’s shop
in Columbus Grove as well as helping with typesetting for the Columbus Grove Vidette, the local
newspaper. It was likely during these activities that she met her husband,
Cloyd Patton, who himself worked in the early ‘teens in a shop that developed
photographs. They married in Columbus Grove in 1915.
 |
| Ed and Louise (Gettman) Core with children Agnes, Ralph, and Ethel - about 1910 |
Agnes’ grandparents, John and Viletta (Norton) Core married
in Putnam County, Ohio in 1868. John came to Putnam County with his older
brother, David, and his sister-in-law, Rebecca Layton Core in 1866. David,
John, and Rebecca were all born in Monongalia County in what is now West
Virginia. Monongalia County sits along the Mongahela River about an hour south
of Pittsburgh. They were born near the tiny community still known as Core in
the western part of the county. David and John were two of the five children of
Moses and Elizabeth (Piles) Core. Moses Core died unexpectedly in September
1845 at the age of thirty, leaving Elizabeth with five children ranging in age
from eight years to one month. It is not clear how Moses died. It appears that
Elizabeth was assisted in the raising of her children by her husband’s family,
as she appears on the 1850 census dwelling near several in-laws. Elizabeth
married again after her children were grown to David Henderson, whose son
Alpheus had married Moses and Elizabeth’s eldest child, Druscilla, in the
mid-1850s. Elizabeth remained near Core until after her second husband’s death
in 1875 and after the 1880 census, when she relocated to Putnam County to join
her two sons. She died there on 15 December 1889 and is buried in Truro
Cemetery along Route 12. Besides John and David, who each raised large families
in Putnam County, Elizabeth left two
children, Druscilla Core Henderson and Christopher Core, in Monongalia County,
where both died and left families. The other son, Barton Core, apparently never
married and spent some time with his brothers in Ohio before disappearing in
the West in the late nineteenth century.
 |
| The family of John and Viletta (Norton) Core - Christmas 1911 |
Moses Core’s parents, Christopher and Hannah (Snider) Core
were both members of pioneer families in Monongalia County. The pioneer period
of this community is chronicled like few others in The Chronicles of Core, written by Earl Lemley Core, a professor of
biology and botany at the West Virginia University in Morgantown. Core
collected stories and data regarding the community all of his life. While the Chronicles are not without errors, they
are an invaluable human resource. I wish that all communities had such a
collection of history.
The 1860 census tells us that both Christopher Core and
Hannah Snider Core were born in Virginia. Christopher was born about 1770 (his
tombstone and a death record disagree slightly on his age at death). He married
Hannah Snider, daughter of Rudolph Snider, on 16 August 1797 in Monongalia
County. He died at either 90 or 91 years on 20 May 1861 and is buried at Mt.
Herman Cemetery in the hills above Core. Hannah Snider Core survived until
1868. Both the Chronicles of Core and
later research by Brian Core give substantial details on Christopher and
Hannah’s life and family.
Most, if not all, of the Core families of Monongalia County
trace their roots to Christopher’s thirteen children. He was not, however, the
only Core to settle in the area. A Michael Core settled on Dunkard Creek near
Core in 1785 on land supposedly settled by a George Core as early as 1772.
According to the Chronicles, Michael
died in an accident in 1815, leaving a widow and a daughter. Earl Core stated
that Michael and Christopher were brothers. They were also brothers of John and
Henry Core who lived just across the Pennsylvania state line in German
Township, Fayette County. This assumption appears to be born out by much
circumstantial evidence. Brian Core later argued that all four were sons of the
George Core mentioned in Michael Core’s land patent of 1785, for which he cites
an earlier land record in Hampshire County, Virginia in 1775, which lists
George’s sons as Henry, Michael, and John Core. This assumption is further
supported by Henry Core’s claim in his Revolutionary War pension application
that he was born in Hampshire County, Virginia in 1762 or 1763. The evidence is
indeed strong that these four Cores – Henry, John, Michael, and Christopher –
were sons of George Core who appears in the records of Hampshire County,
Virginia in the 1770s.
Many genealogists claim that these men were sons of John
Christian Core and Catharine Noacre Core of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and
Washington County, Maryland. Brian Core has done a fine job of demonstrating
that this could not be true, as this family is well documented in records in
both Pennsylvania and Maryland. John Christian Core (known generally as Christian)
was in turn the son of Michael Kohr/Core of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who
immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1728 and died in 1749. Michael came from what is
today southwest Germany with his second wife, Anna Maria Fitler Kohr. He left a
family of children that is quite well documented in church and will records in
Pennsylvania and Maryland. Michael’s youngest son, Christian Core, married
Maria Barbara Hauck and died in 1781 in Washington County, Maryland. Christian and Maria Barbara Core's son, Christian, married Fanny Sparlin in
Berkeley County, Virginia in 1789 and later lived in Fayette and Greene
Counties, Pennsylvania. Christian appears on the 1800 census of German
Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, alongside a “Marey” or “Morey” Core,
aged over 45 years, who may have been Maria Barbara Hauck Core, his mother.
This placement is interesting, as their neighbors also included Henry Core, son
of George, discussed above, as well as members of the family of Henry’s wife,
Sarah Barrickman Core.
This close association in 1800 as well as similar naming
patterns in both the Monongalia County Core families and the families of the
children of Michael Kohr/Core of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania suggest a link.
Logic would say that perhaps the George Core of Hampshire County was a son of
Michael Kohr/Core. This seems improbable, as the sons mentioned in Michael’s
will are generally well documented in Pennsylvania and Maryland. One son,
George Casper Core, left a solid document trail and a German-language tombstone
in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Like many Pennsylvania Germans, he went mainly
by his middle name. It is possible that, somehow, Michael had another son named
George that has for some reason not showed up in substantial research on
Michael’s family. Perhaps DNA testing can demonstrate if the Cores of
Monongalia are indeed descendants of Michael Kohr/Core.
If the families are indeed linked, they represent an
important part of the trans-Appalachian migration of the late eighteenth
century. Many German and non-German families with roots in eastern Pennsylvania
headed south into western Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Monongahela
Valley in the 1770s and 1780s. Many of these settled in the hilly terrain that
is now Monongalia County, West Virginia and Fayette and Greene Counties of
Pennsylvania. Others used this as a base for immigration across the Ohio into
the Northwest Territory at the dawn of the nineteenth century. What exactly
brought the much later immigration of David and John Core to Putnam County,
Ohio in the years after the Civil War remains a mystery. It was there that
their children and grandchildren intermarried with diverse families, many from
New England, to leave a strong population of Cores that exists to this day.
