The James Corbin Family: Midwest Travelers

I was fortunate in that when I was finishing my senior year of college at Washburn University of Topeka, my ex-wife was teaching at Washburn Rural High School in Topeka.  That usually meant that I had from about 11:00am until 3:00 or 4:00pm "to kill" before picking her up and heading to our home in Maple Hill.    I would usually go to downtown Topeka and spend those hours in the library of the Kansas Historical Society where I would both do my homework and look for genealogical information.

One day, completely by accident, I was looking for Clark materials and ran across a scrapbook in another folder that was marked "Simmons Clippings, Clermont, Ohio."   I knew enough at that time to make the connection between Mary Anderson Corbin, Clermont, Ohio and my Corbin ancestors.   I was sure glad that I did because the scrapbook was a treasure trove of old clippings related to the settlement of Clermont County, Ohio.   It included a great deal of information about the Corbin family.  To this day, I still don't know how the scrapbook came to the Kansas Historical Society nor do they.

Anyway, it happened that Mr. James B. Simmons had donated the scrapbook to the Society's library sometime during the 1880s.   His father, Leonard Simmons and his grandfather, Adam Simmons had moved to Laurel, Clermont County, Ohio in 1812 from Kentucky and were one of the area's first settlers.   Mr. Simmons wrote many of the historical articles for the "Clermont Sun" and in doing so reveals the history of how the Corbins came to Clermont County, Ohio and in particular the part they played in establishing the Laurel Community, which was first called Mt. Carmel.  

Here are some excerpts:
     "When my father, Leonard Simmons, moved upon his new farm in southwest Laurel, Ohio in 1812, there were no roads leading to it except such as he cleared from his own convenience, or blazed the trees so as to find the road or path from place to place...."

      "The only road that was laid out in that section of the country was the Round Bottom Road leading from August, Kentucky to the Round Bottom of the Little Miami River.   This road passed the farm of my grandfather, Adam Simmons, and the farm of Josiah Carnes.   We had one blazed road path from our cabin out to the Round Bottom Road to a point called the "Big Bear Wallow" now the village of Laurel.

The Symmes Purchase referred to in Mr. Simmon's writing is shown in this old Ohio map.   A portion of the purchase also went south across the Ohio River and into Kentucky.    Since John Corbin, Sr. was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and was in the 3rd Virginia Regiment, it is curious that he didn't take free land just to the east in the Virginia Military Reserve.

     Another blazed path led out by Thomas Larkin's afterwards, to Peddicord's, to the mouth of Boat Run where an old man by the name of Weddin, kept the post office, about four and a half miles distant.    There was another blazed road down what we called the dividing ridge, between the forks of Colclaser, then down the stream to Big Indian.   This led to the Big Indian Road.   Mr. Colclaser and Larry Burns, an old Revolutionary soldier, lived on this stream.

     The above will indicate where our nearest neighbors lived and who were the first settlers.   All between those points was a dense forest, with a thick undergrowth of spice wood, hazel, grapevines, etc.   This region was all called Simon's Settlement.

     About the year 1814, the John Woodford Survey, No. 1156 was offered for sale.   My uncle, James Simon was agent.   Emigration now set in rapidly, and the following settlers soon bought in the woods and began to clear their land.   We will name them as near as we can in the order that they came:  Thomas Hitch, Sr., who came from Kentucky: John Corbin, Sr. who I believe came from Maryland and settled on the Round Bottom Road near where the Laurel Cemetery now is about the year 1815.   His brother, Abraham Corbin, settled just north of him where Joseph Turner now lives and Nathan Corbin, son of John Corbin, settled just across the road from his Uncle Abraham.   John Marsh, from Kentucky, came a little later, John Hitch, Hamilton Reed, Nathan Corbin, Sr., and Wesley Simmons bought in the woods and commended cleaning their farms.

     The average price paid was $4.00 per acre.   Carmel Cemetery was laid out in 1817 when the first Carmel Church was built.   The following were the first trustees:  James Simmons, Leonard Simmons, John  Corbin, Sr., Thomas Hitch, Sr. and William P. Larkin.   Carmel later became the village of Laurel.

     When we first settled in the Laurel neighborhood in 1812, we had to endure many privations and inconveniences.   Our nearest store was at Neville, ten miles distant.   Our nearest doctor was Dr. Ayres, who lived in Cincinnati twenty-five miles away.   Our nearest mill was a small one run by George G. Brown on Indian Creek, seven miles distant.   We had preaching every four weeks, on a day during the week at Josiah Carnes

     John Hayman taught the first school in the area in 1814.   Messers Adams, James, Simmons, Fee, Hitch and John Corbin, Sr. obtained a small log cabin on Rev. Elijah Fee's farm, on Big Indian Hill, fitted it up with puncheon floor and long paper windows.   Here the children of the elder Corbin's, Simons, Hitches, Wilsons, Fee, Abrahams and others attended.   Taber Ricker taught the second school and boarded at John Corbin's place."

The author of this blog found this information all interesting---especially the tales of what daily life was like.

A map of Clermont County, Ohio.   The area where the Corbins settled is in what is now called Monroe Townhip to the east and south of the county seat, Batavia.

I will now write about James and Cynthia Ann (Casteel) Corbin, my great great grandparents.    The title of this blog pretty much describes their life journey though Midwestern States.   James was born to Nathan and Mary Anderson Corbin in Clermont County, Ohio on May 15, 1813.  We don't know what happened to his father Nathan, but by 1819, he had died and his widow, Mary (Anderson) Corbin, married Elijah Lindsey on December 30, 1819.   Nathan Corbin had owned 40-acres of land in Clermont County, and since James died without a will, half his estate went to his children and half to his widow.  Nathan must have known he was dying because he signed a legal guardianship for his two minor children, Sarah and James Corbin, giving guardianship to his brother Nicholas Corbin.   Therefore, Mary (Anderson) Corbin had to go to court when she and Elijah wanted to buy the land from her children, James and Sarah Corbin.  There must not have been "trouble" in the family because Elijah and Mary were the purchasers of the land and they lived on the former Nathan Corbin farm for 15 years or more until moving to Lake County, Ohio sometime after 1835.

Court documents specifically state that Mary is the widow of Nathan Corbin. They also state that Nathan left two minor children, Sarah Corbin and James Corbin. In addition, in the will of Sarah and Jame's grandfather, John Corbin, bequeaths "to the children of my deceased son Nathan, James and Sarah, I leave one dollar." So we have no doubt of the relationships, the documents just do not give the cause or date of Nathan's death.

We are fairly certain of those dates because Sarah Corbin was married to Miles Harper Mattox on April 22, 1832 at Laurel, Clermont County, Ohio.  When the 1835 Ohio Census was taken, James Corbin, the Lindseys and the Mattoxes were all living in the same house.  On a neighboring farm, were the family of William and Mary Casteel and their daughter Cynthia Ann, as well as other family members.   The Casteel family had also been living in the Laurel, Clermont County, Ohio area and moved to Indiana at the same time as Mary and Elijah Lindsey.

At this point, I want to relate a coincidence.   My daughter Amelia M. V. (Clark) Allendorf, her husband Rich and children Will, Wyatt and Weston live about 10 miles from that original Corbin Farm in what is today Loveland, Ohio.  It's interesting that the 3rd great granddaughter of Nathan and Mary (Anderson) Corbin is now living within a few miles of their home some 195 years after they took up residence there. 

Mt. Carmel-Laurel Cemetery, Clermont County, Ohio
When our family was living in Muncie, Indiana we drove to Amelia, Clermont County, Ohio and looked up the old Laural Cemetery where so many of our Corbin ancestors are buried.  My son Nicholas was about 15 and Amy 11 at the time.   We had a Chevy Van and when we drove into the cemetery, Amy pulled the back door open and stepped out----right on a big black snake.   They hadn't wanted to go anyway but that certainly ended any exploration of the Laural Cemetery.    I got out and took pictures and we quickly left.   I don't know if the black snake recovered or not :)

Elijah Lindsey was a widower with two children when he and Mary (Anderson) Corbin married.   Their names were Alice and Samuel Lindsey.   With Sarah and James Corbin, that made a combined family of four when they married in Clermont County, Ohio on December 31, 1819.  It was very common for widows and widowers with children to marry quickly after the death of a spouse    They had four more children:  Catherine, Elizabeth, Nancy and Elijah, Jr. who they called "Lijh."  The new family was enrolled in the 1820 U. S. Census in Clermont County, Ohio.

A charcoal rendering of James and Cynthia (Casteel) Corbin probably done in later life when they lived at Ayr, Adams County, Nebraska.


James Corbin married Cynthia Ann Casteel on February 5, 1837 in Clermont County, Ohio.    The families then moved to Winfield Township, Lake County, Indiana a little further to the west.   Goodspead's "History of Lake County, Indiana' says,  "The James Corbin and Lindsey families were among the earliest in the area."   Lake county is now part of the Chicago area and is on Lake Michigan.   The families would have lived there between 1840 and 1848.

Sarah (Corbin) Mattox and her husband Miles Harper Mattox left the Corbins and Lindseys and moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where she died in 1849 and is buried in or near Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Mary Anderson-Corbin-Lindsey-Brewer from a tintype.

Elijah Lindsey died before 1840 and Mary Anderson Corbin Lindsey married a third time to John Brewer on February 28, 1844 in LaPorte County, Indiana.   No record of her death has been found.

I have recently been able to trace Cynthia Ann Casteel's ancestors five generations back to France.  Cynthia's fourth great grandfather was Edmond (de Blangerral) du Casteel who was born in 1668.   He was married to a Dutch woman, Christiana Bom.   They immigrated to Philadelphia, Delaware County, Pennsylvania where their son Edmond Casteel, Jr. was born in 1695.   As happened many times, the original spelling of the family's last name was either Americanized or was changed because the census taker did not understand the French spelling.

Edmund Casteel Jr. married Johanna Acres, a native of Prince Georges County, Maryland.   Census details show that Edmund and Johanna took up residence in Prince Georges County, Maryland.  They became the owners of a 160-acre tract of land which was called Edmund's Frolic there.   They were the parents of several children but our ancestor is their son Joseph, born in 1740.
Joseph married Margaret McClelland, who was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania in 1745.   Therein lies another coincidence in that Margaret McClelland is the great grandmother of Frank McClelland who settled his family at Maple Hill, Kansas in the 1870s. 

Joseph and Margaret moved to Russell County, Virginia where their son, John Casteel, was born in 1770.  John Casteel married Nancy Anna Cooper and they moved to Putnam County, Missouri.   Their first son, William Henry Casteel, was born on March 5, 1796 in Russell County, Virginia.   William Henry Casteel married Mary E. Blevins in Putnman County, Missouri and their first child was Cynthia Ann Casteel, who was born October 8, 1819 in Putnam County, Missouri.  Their other children were: George Washington; John R.; Nancy Anna; Margaret and Anna.    John Casteel died at West Liberty, Putnam County, Missouri on May 5, 1865 and Nancy Anna Casteel died at West Liberty, Putnam County, Missouri in 1875.   Both are buried in the West Liberty Cemetery.
I have not been able to unravel how Cynthia Ann Casteel came to be in Crown Point, Indiana where she met James Corbin.   Her family were all living at West Liberty, Putnman County, Missouri.  However court records indicate that she and James Corbin were married at Crown Point, Lake County, Indiana on February 5, 1837.  They remained in Indiana for over 10 years, living near his mother and step father, Mary and Elijah Lindsey.

James and Cynthia Ann (Casteel) Corbin were the parents of nine children, eight of whom lived to become adults.   They were William T. Corbin born February 2, 1838 in Lake County, Indiana; Griffin Corbin born December 4, 1839 in Lake County, Indiana and died December 14, 1839; Elmer Nathanial Corbin born January 22, 1841 in Lake County, Indiana, Mary Elizabeth Corbin born February 4, 1844 in Lake County, Indiana; Sarah Catherine Corbin born February 1, 1847 in Winfield Township, Lake County, Indiana; James Polk Corbin born July 13, 1850 in West Liberty, Putnam County, Missouri; George Washington Corbin born May 16, 1853 at West Liberty, Putnam County, Missouri; Martha Jane Corbin born May 27, 1856 at West Liberty, Putnam County, Missouri and Nancy Anna Corbin born February 2, 1860 at West Liberty, Putnam County, Missouri.

For some reason unknown to me, I never heard my Grandfather, Robert Corbin talk much about his family.  We had a close relationship with his brothers and sisters, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, but I never heard him talk about the dozens of first cousins that he had in Missouri and Nebraska.   He died in 1958 but his sister, Edna Corbin, lived until 1975.   I had already begun some genealogical research then and when I'd mention finding one of Aunt Edna's aunt's or uncle's families, she would say, "Oh yes, I knew them and we used to take the train to see each other."   However they didn't maintain the relationships into their adulthood, so far as I recall.   Some of that may have been because of the Great Depression and not having money to travel.    Among Aunt Edna Corbin's possessions, my mother did find two albums of post cards and there were many Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Cards from Corbin cousins in Missouri and Nebraska.

Much of the information and most of the photographs I have copies of are from the collections of my Todd cousin, Reva Todd Dixon, who lived west of Unionville, Missouri near what used to be the little village of West Liberty.   When I visited Ms. Dixon during the early 1970s, she was in her late 60s but had grown up in the West Liberty community and had known as many Corbins as she had her own Todd family.  In addition, I traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas where I became acquainted with my Corbin cousin, Betty Bell, daughter of Nancy Anna and Edgar Bell.   Nancy Anna was the youngest daughter of James and Cynthia Ann (Casteel) Corbin and lived most of her life at Ayr, Adams County, Nebraska.   Her daughter Betty was in possession of the family Bible of James and Cynthia Corbin and also had many albums of old photographs which she generously allowed me to have copied.  Nancy Anna Bell and Betty are both deceased now.

I am going to end this writing now.   I will discuss the children of James and Cynthia (Casteel) Corbin in my next writing.   Happy trails!