San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN RANDOLPH CORY
We all owe much to the pioneers of
San Joaquin County for the secure foundation they laid for the present
prosperity, and among these men we mention John Randolph Cory, a ‘49er, who was
well and favorably known to the early settlers of Stockton and vicinity. His forebears were of English stock; the
progenitor of the family in America was William Corry, as the named was spelled
in England, who landed in the New World in 1660, settled on West Main Road in
Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and erected a stone house at the foot of Barker’s
Hill, two and three-quarter miles from Bristol Ferry, which was thereafter
called Cory’s Castle. About sixty years
elapse before the Cory’s are again heard from, this time when Thomas Cory, born
about 1720, served in the British army when Canada was taken from the French in
1759. He was never heard from and it is
supposed he was killed in battle. He
left a widow, Patience Haskell Cory, who died in 1794. These were the great-grandparents of J. R.
Cory. There was a son named Samuel Cory
in their family and he was born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1758 and died
in 1841. He married Jemima Walden on
August 2, 1781, and she died on September 23, 1848. Samuel Cory served in the Revolutionary War
and with his comrades suffered great hardships when they were forced to march
through snow and ice without shoes and left bloody tracks in their wake. The next in line was Pardon Cory, father of
John R., born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1793, married Abigail Lake,
daughter of Daniel and Ruth (Tripp) Lake, on January 7, 1816, and went to live
with his parents in a house near the head of Cory’s Lane; part of this house
was used as a town hall. It was here
that John R. Cory was born. In 1810
Samuel Cory bought a place on a road, afterwards known as Cory’s Lane, and the
family removed there in 1822, and this remained the home for many years. Pardon Cory died on South Kingston Road in
1863.
John Randolph Cory first saw the
light on October 11, 1816, and was named for John Randolph of Roanoke. He received a good common school education
and when he was seventeen went to Lippitt, Town of
Warwick, Rhode Island, to learn the trade of blacksmith with his uncle, George
Cook, who had married his mother’s youngest sister. He only remained there a year, then returned
home and attended school that winter.
Upon the suggestion of his mother that he should learn a trade, he went
to Providence, Rhode Island, and apprenticed himself to Solomon Arnold for
three years to learn the wheelwright trade and was to receive as his pay the
sums of twenty-five dollars for the first year; fifty dollars the second; and
seventy-five dollars the third year, including board. He only remained two and one-half years, then
went to work at the trade in that city until he went to New Bedford and engaged
in the business for himself, continuing there until he decided to come to
California in 1849. He sailed on the
Bark Diamond in February, 1849, coming via Cape Horn, and arriving at San
Francisco on July 22, that same year. He
wrote an interesting account of his voyage to his family after his arrival
here. Mr. Cory bought a lot in San Francisco
soon after his arrival, then went to the mining districts but did not stay very
long, intending to return to the east.
He stopped off in Stockton, then a city of tents, and was so well
impressed with the possibilities that he made his decision to locate here. In 1851 he returned to New Bedford, disposed
of his interests there and made arrangements to have his wife and child join
him in California a little later, again made the trip, via Panama, to Stockton.
He had married at New Bedford, April
25, 1844, Miss Abby, daughter of Benjamin and Penelope Cory, who was born at
Tiverton, Rhode Island, on July 17, 1823, and two children were born in
Massachusetts, one dying in early childhood.
In January, 1852, Mrs. Cory, with her small daughter, arrived in
Stockton to join husband and father, having come by way of Panama, crossing on
mule-back, the child being carried on the back of a native. The fording of the Chagres River was attended
with numerous mishaps, the trunks and other baggage being carried on pack
animals. On January 15, 1852, Mr. Cory
purchased four lots from Captain Weber at the corner of Fremont and California
streets, paying $400 for them; here he built a small three-room house for their
immediate needs and enlarged it from time to time as necessity demanded. He engaged in the carriage making business in
a shop on Channel Street, and besides other work that came his way, he built
wagons for heavy freighting to the mines.
He lived in town and carried on his business until 1863, when he moved
with his family to a ranch of 285 acres on the Weber grant about two and one-half
miles east of Stockton he had purchased several years before. Mr. Cory had also become the owner of what
came to be known as the Fanning property (he having sold it to Mr. Fanning)
where the Western States Gas & Electric Company is now situated; later he
owned a forty-five acre ranch near Lockeford.
Five children were born of the
unusually happy marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Cory:
Caroline Jemima, died in the east in early childhood; Abby Amelia, a
school teacher, died February 22, 1880, Adaline A. married James A. Louttit and died August 21, 1884; Nellie, married Charles
H. Cory and died April 4, 1918, near Soquel, Santa Cruz County, where she had
lived for a number of years; and Carrie E., who still lives at the old Cory
ranch on the Waterloo Road and upon which Mr. Cory farmed and raised stock for
many years, which has been the home place of the Cory’s since 1863. Miss Cory still has 184 acres of the original
tract and her nephews 60 acres. Here Mr.
and Mrs. Cory lived and died, he passing away on February 12, 1898, and his
good wife breathed her last on May 3, 1901.
Mr. Cory was a good friend, a good neighbor, and was esteemed by all who
knew him for his honesty, industry and integrity and left to his descendants
the heritage of an untarnished name.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
524. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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