Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

CORY FAMILY
PAPERS, 1828-1943

Collection #
M 0459
BV 2206-2210
BV 2423-2427
OM 0177

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Biographical Sketch
Scope & Content
Box and Folder List
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Kim Rivers
9 September 1986
Hilary Adams
July 1987

COLLECTION INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The Cory family collection spans four generations, from Alexander W. Johnston (1804-1884), originally an Ohio resident of Irish descent, to his great-grandson Alexander Johnston Cory and his wife Barbara Kilpatrick Cory, who own Cory Music Service in Lexington, Kentucky. Alexander Johnston (sometimes spelled "Johnson") left his home in Harrison, Ohio, at the age of 12 to work first as a clerk in his father's store in Brookville, Indiana, and then as a hatter's apprentice. After making an arduous journey to New Orleans in his twenty-second year, he returned to Brookville to start his own hatter business. In 1827, he married Jane Powers (1809-1893), daughter of Thomas and Mary Simpson Powers and a member of one of the Whitewater valley's oldest families. The Johnstons had two children: John, who died at sixteen, and Mary Prudence (1835-1926), who in 1858 married Clement Remington Cory, Jr. (1834-1909), a recently graduated law student from Indiana Asbury University. C.R. Cory never actually practiced law but turned his attention instead to education, first as a teacher and later as Franklin County's first school superintendent (1873-1880). He was also elected State Representative in 1869, 1875, and 1884 and was Reading Clerk for the State Senate in 1871.

Cory and his wife had five children: Rosa Belle (1859-1910), Hannah Adelia (1860-1940), Clememt Alexander (1863-1935), Maude (1866-1952), and Lenora (1870-1947). Clement Alexander married Cora Elizabeth Holland and had one son, Alexander Johnston Cory, who now resides in Lexington, Kentucky. Hannah Adelia sang for local entertainments and married Maynard Irwin, publisher of the Brookville Democrat. Their daughter Ethel also made a name for herself locally with her soprano voice. Maude taught school for a few years in Franklin County before marrying Dr. John G. Smolley of Connersville in 1884. In 1888, she took a medical degree from Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery. A few years later she became very active in the newly-formed Western Association of Writers, and eventually served on the executive committee (1897), the program committee (1898-1901) and as secretary (1898-1901). Her involvement brought her into close contact with such noted Hoosier writers as James Whitcomb Riley, Benjamin S. Parker, and Maude Louise Andrews. After her husband's death in 1896, Mrs. Smolley married Albert Charlton Andrews of Connersville. Interested in writing and education, Charlton Andrews occupied a number of positions that furthered both pursuits, including journalistic work in Paris, Indianapolis and New York between 1898-1914, teaching high school in Indianapolis and college in Pullman, Washington, and Valley City, North Dakota, and writing several plays.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection reflects the business interests of Alexander W. Johnston, the educational and political interests of C.R. Cory, the musical interests of Adelia and Ethel Irwin, and the literary interests of Maude and Charlton Andrews. Alexander Johnston's business interests occupy most of the material dated before 1850; there are receipts from his business dated 1828-1850 and an account book of his hatter business dated 1825-1883. Also dated before 1850 are minutes of the White Water Regular Baptist Association (1835-1859). C.R. Cory's educational and political occupations cover the material from the latter half of the nineteenth-century. Included are reminders of his legislative career in the form of a few of his speeches and some government publications. Cory also kept two scrapbooks of newspaper articles about the Civil War and national and state politics. His work as superintendent of Franklin County's schools is documented by some teaching licenses and reports from schoolteachers about the number of pupils and the subjects taught in their schools. In addition, there is correspondence addressed to Cory, principally from his brother in Lebanon, Illinois, or his childhood friend, Charles Sims, writing from Thorntown or Evansville, Indiana. The latter's letters discuss mutual acquaintances, past events, and the Civil War.

Adelia and Ethel Irwin's musical interests are represented by several broadsides and programs advertising their performances. Much of the remaining material is focused on the Andrews' interest in writing and the Western Association of Writers (WAW). Besides several convention programs of 1887-1901, three scrapbooks of poems and articles about the group and famous writers have been preserved. Other related items are an essay by Benjamin S. Parker, evidently meant to be read at some unspecified WAW convention, an accompanying letter to Mrs. Andrews, and a letter from a nephew of James Whitcomb Riley requesting copies of the writer's letters to Mrs. Andrews. One other literary feature is Charlton Andrew's book, Drama Today, published in 1913.

Other items of interest include Mary P. Johnston's composition book and some poems which she either wrote or copied down, a History of Andrew Kilpatrick, 1801-1855, and Descendents (Barbara Kilpatrick Cory's family), a Franklin Township treasurer's book dated 1853-1865, and a Bloomington Township poll book from 1908. Finally, there are numerous newspaper clippings about family members, prominent Brookville and Fairfield residents, and Indiana affairs, which provide interesting information about the Corys and furnish a sense of community and continuity in the Whitewater area.

BOX AND FOLDER LIST

Charlton Andrews. The Drama Today. Philadelphia & London,1913. 5 broadsides

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END