The Cores – Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio

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.