A Land Office list still exists pertaining to the lots west of Fort Cumberland which shows that Michael Corns patented lot 3356 in on March 5th, 1802, and Jacob Corns patented lot 3352 on June 17, 1797. The image below is from page 328 of that list. Note that Jacob's lot was part of Barrell's 1840 purchase. For an 1874 map that shows Barrell's purchase, click here.
The Land Office list pictured below is referred to as the "Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland" 1793-1903 list, available in its entirety at the Maryland State Archives. Other references, below, indicate that Michael Corns was living on his lot in 1787 when the survey was made. There were several different lists. Jacob Corns is not on various published lists of settlers living on the land at the time of the survey, but he is on the 1793-1903 Land Office list; one list has appraised lot values while the 1793-1903 Land Office list does not. Michael's name is clearly "Corns" on the 1793-1903 Land Office list, but it is given as "Corn" on the published lists of settlers who were living on the land at the time of the survey. Lot 3352, which Jacob Corns eventually owned, is associated with a McKenzie on the list of 1787 settlers. Click here to see a survey of land surrounding lot 3352 called "Corn's Addition" that Thomas Beall assigned to Jacob Korns in 1794. Click here to see a modern plat map overlaid on the 1787 Veatch map of Deakin's Survey, showing the location of Jacob Korn's lot 3352 relative to present-day (2009) roads.
This particular 1793-1903 Land Office list is apparently not the original Deakins list of settlers because it lists soldiers, in addition to settlers and others who patented lots. It is apparently a later list that was kept by the Land Office to track who ultimately got which lots. It may have been created at least partially in response to legislation that was eventually passed to specify how settlers, and others who came along later and wanted vacant lots, could acquire the lots. See the Kilty book (links below) for a summary of that legislation.
Pages 345-346 of the Kilty book state "after satisfying the claims aforesaid, as well of settlers as officers and soldiers, the remainder of the said lots westward of Fort Cumberland should be sold for any kind of specie certificates of the state, and that the purchasers, after payment of the purchase money, should be entitled to patents from the register of the land office, on paying the usual fees; that the aforesaid general plot and books of certificates should be lodged in the land office, and that the said books of certificates of the four thousand one hundred and sixty five lots aforesaid should be considered to all intents and purposes as record books of the land office; and it was further directed that the commissioner or commissioners before mentioned should make a record of all valuations by them made, and of all the lots distributed among the officers and soldiers aforesaid, and of all lots sold by them in virtue of this act, and return the same to the register of the land office, to be by him safely kept. These, which as well as the plot and books of Mr. Deakins were returned agreeable to this direction, are also considered and used, in some sort as record books of the office. But they have not been so denominated by law."
The part of this passage that I have highlighted appears to describe legislation that established the Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland 1793-1903 list. The quoted passage also makes it clear that there was more than one list. The Maryland State Archives website describes the Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland 1793-1903 list as "Lists maintained by the Land Office of military lots west of Fort Cumberland..."
The links below show the full pages 328 and 329 from the 1793-1903 Land Office list, and the location of lot 3356, and other lots of interest, on the 1787 map. The lot of Michael Corn was between Wellersburg, PA and Ellerslie, MD. The Michael Corn farm is the farm in the upper left and corner of this aerial photo and this topographical map from the U.S. Geological Survey. In the aerial photo, note that one of the fields has the same angled orientation (relative to the Pennsylvania line) as the Michael Corn lot on the 1787 map. In these two U.S. Geological Survey images, Ellerslie, Maryland is in the upper right hand corner. Lot 3356 is located just beyond the steep western side of the Little Allegheny Mountain, which is a formidable physical barrier.
The Southampton Township, Somerset County farm of Michael Korns, Sr. is very close to the 1787 Michael Corn lot 3356. In this U.S. Geological Survey aerial photo, the previously known Somerset County Michael Korns farm is labeled at the upper left hand corner, and the location of the newly found Michael Corn lot 3356 is labeled at the lower right hand corner. Note the trace of a road from one farm to the other in the photo. The Somerset County farm of Michael Korns, Sr. is a little closer, "as the crow flies", to the location of lot 3356 than it is to Wellersburg. Click here to see photos of the former George Sturtz Place, including a photo of Michael Korn's Deakin's Survey lot no. 3356 that was taken from the Mason Dixon line.
Note that Charles Uhl is listed with lot 3360 on page 328, and lot 3361 on page 329. Both of these lots are due west of the lot of Michael Corns. Two of the children of this Charles Uhl married children of Michael Korns, Senior. Pages 318-325 of the book "A Clowes-Swanson Genealogy" by Lois Clowes Witherspoon indicate that Charles Uhl, a former Berks County resident and the father of the Charles Uhl who married Barbara Korns, and also father of the Catherine Uhl who married Charles Korns, Sr., bequeathed military lot 3361, and other property, to his wife in his will. This helps to substantiate that the "Michael Corns" on the list is indeed our "Michael Korns, Sr." who we know later lived in nearby Somerset County, Pa. Also note that the Maryland survey list has an 1840 annotation, so the list appears to have been in some kind of Land Office use for a long time. Page 306 of the book "A Clowes-Swanson Genealogy", also states that descendants of Barbara (Korn) Uhl reported that Barbara Korn was born in Maryland in 1797. If true, this appears to be additional support that Michael Korns lived in Maryland before moving to Southampton Township, Somerset County, PA.
Other names on the Maryland survey list have surnames familiar to Korns researchers, such as Cook, Witt, Tomlinson and also Jacob Bealle (on lot 3357, touching the Michael Corns lot). One of Michael Korns' daughters married a John Beal, and I suspect but I am not sure that John was the son of the Jacob Bealle on the list. According to a Beal genealogy on rootsweb.com, a Jacob Beil who lived and died Allegheny County, Maryland, whose wife's name was Maria Barbara, was the father of John Beal b.1781 d.1825 who married Mary Magdalena Korns b.1785 d. 1860. An English translation of the 1795 will of that Jacob Biel is provided on rootsweb.com, and the names of Michael Corn and Jacob Witt are included on that will as witnesses or testators. The will lists Jacob's sons Conrad Biel and John Georg Biehl.
I Certify that I have carefully resurveyed for and in the name of him the said Micahel Corn the aforesaid lot No. 3356 according to its Severail antecedent meets and bounds and find it contains fify acres to which I have added one peice (sic) vacency containing five thousand seven hundred and thirty six acres and have reduced the whole into one entire tract...".
According to the Maryland State Archives, "Resurveys of patented land were frequently made, using a warrant of resurvey. The resurvey verified the original boundaries of the tract and added contiguous vacant land, if any was discovered. On the topic of Unpatented Certificates of Survey, the Maryland State Archives states "Some certificates of survey failed to result in the issuance of a patent under that tract name or at that time. Sometimes the reasons are given, and sometimes are unknown.". Since the "Brushy Ridge" tract is listed by the Maryland State Archives as "Unpatented Certificate 340", it maybe the survey failed to result in the issuance of a land patent. The validity of the resurvey may depend on what "special Warrant of Resurvey granted Out of the land office for the Western Shore to Michael Corn of Allegany County bearing date the 15th Day of May 1794.." means. More research is needed.
The statement "Susannah Corns Wife To Michael Released Her Dower" leaves us with a bit of a loose end, because the 1949 book "The Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset County Pennsylvania" reports that Michael Korns' wife Susanna's tombstone records that she died on May 10th, 1811. Clearly, we need to review the deed records to see when "Susannah Corns Wife To Michael Released Her Dower".
Even though Michael Korn didn't sell the Maryland lot no. 3356 until 1812, he was already very well-established as a resident of Southampton Township, Somerset County PA by 1804, because on Feb. 20, 1804 the Pennsylvania State Legislature passed a law that specified his Southampton Township house as a voting place.
According to the book "The Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr.", Michael Korns was last assessed in Berks County, PA in 1786, and didn't show up in the Bedford County (now Somerset County) records until 1795. This list of settlers, whose names were collected at the time of the 1787 survey according to this book, explains where Michael Korns, Sr. went after leaving Berks County.
The act states that Deakins had already finished the survey (page 351), as follows "...And whereas, in pursuance of a resolve of the general assembly, at April session, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, authorizing the governor and council to appoint and employ some skilful person to lay out the manors, and such parts of the reserves and vacant lands belonging to this state, lying westward of Fort Cumberland, as he might think fit and capable of being settled and improved, in lots of fifty acres each, Francis Deakins was appointed and employed by the governor and council for that purpose, and he finished the said survey, and has returned a general plot of the county westward of Fort Cumberland, on which four thousand one hundred and sixty-five lots of fifty acres each are laid off, besides sundry tracts which have been patented, distinguishing on the plot those lots which have been settled and improved from those which remain uncultivated; and the said Francis Deakins has also returned two books, entitled A and B, in which are entered certificates of all the lots before mentioned; And whereas it appears to this general assembly, that there are three hundred and twenty-three families settled on six hundred and thirty-six of the aforesaid lots, which they have improved and cultivated;
II. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That a preference be given to the said settlers to purchase the said six hundred and thirty-six lots by them respectively settled, not exceeding the quantities registered and noted by the surveyor in the books aforesaid, at not less than five nor more than twenty shillings per acre, one third part thereof to be paid on the first day of September next, one other third on the first day of September, seventeen hundred and ninety, and the remaining third in twelve months thereafter, in current money; and that the price of any provisions furnished and services rendered in assistance to the said Francis Deakins in surveying the said lands, be discounted out of any of the first or any other payment to be made by the said settlers.".
According to the website of Western Maryland's Historical Society, the lots in the eastern part of the Deakins survey, in what is now Allegany County (where lot 3356 of Michael Corns was), were not used for military land grants.
A comparison of the published lists with the "Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland" 1793-1903 Land Office list also shows there were different versions of the lists. For example, Jacob Corn is listed on the handwritten copy of the "Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland" 1793-1903 Land Office list, but he is not in the list of settlers in the Lowdermilk's "History of Cumberland", and he is not in the list of settlers in the book "History of Allegany County Maryland " by Thomas and Williams, and his is not on the settler list in Scharf's "History of Western Maryland".
Furthermore, roots web.com provides a transcription of a "Deakin's List of Settlers" that lists lots "Given to those settlers to purchase 636 lots by them respectively settled, to be discharged in three equal annual payments in the years 1789, 1790 and 1791" that also lists the appraised value of the lots, and lists Michael Corn, but not Jacob Corn. This has to be a different copy of the list than the "Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland" 1793-1903 list pictured above, because the list pictured above does not show appraised values. The list with appraised lot values was evidently made in 1789, because the legislation which specified the payment schedule was enacted on December 23, 1788, and the legislation specifies payments to be made in the years 1789, 1790 and 1791 (See page 346 of the Kilty book (link below). This appraisal list specifically references the people on the list as "settlers", seemingly proving that Michael Korn was living on his lot at the time it was appraised. One can also deduce that Jacob Korn was not living on his lot at the time the appraisal list was created.
In the "Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland" 1793-1903 Land Office list, the name is clearly spelled "Corns", but in the lists in the books and internet transcript cited above, the name is reported as "Corn", further demonstrating the presence of at least two lists.
One significant loose end in the book is the stated inference that Jacob Korns and Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset county, PA were the sons of Carl Korn of Berks County, PA. In reference to the children of Carl Korn, Page 20 of the book states "The children had moved from Berks County as the census of 1790 and again of 1800 did not enumerate any person by the name of Korn or Corn in Berks County. The inference is that four of the children have located in Southampton Township, Somerset County, Pa.". Page 10 of the book lists 5 different Korns men who emigrated to PA from Europe in the 1752-1754 time period, so this was a significant inference of the sort that any dedicated present day Korns genealogist should want to scrutinize.
Page 28 of the book states "Michael Korn was assessed in Berks County as late as 1786.", and also states "No records are available as to the assessment of Michael Korn or others of the Korns family from the time he was last assessed in Berks County until he arrived in Londonderry Township, Bedford County.". Page 21 of the book provides details on the 1786 tax assessment of Michael Korn. Page 8 of the book states "The enumeration of the First Census in 1790 does not name one person by the name of Korn or Korns, although there is a Michael Corn in Derry Township, Westmoreland County, Pa., and Henry Corns in Northumberland County, Pa., both enumerated in the 1790 census.". Page 13 of the book states "A Deed was granted to Michael Korns and his brother Jacob Korns in Bedford County by John Tomlinson, February 9, 1796." Page 39 of the book states that Michael Korn was assessed for taxes in Londonderry Twp., Bedford Co., Pa. in 1795, and page 20 states "He moved to Londonderry Twp., Bedford County, Pa., in 1795.". Page 28 of the book states "When Somerset County was organized in 1795 that part of Bedford County including Londonderry Township was added to Somerset County and named Southampton Township in Somerset County.". So, the Korns book, as remarkable as it is, leaves us with a serious problem--a time gap of 9 years, and only an inference that the son of Carl Korn of Berks County was the Michael Korn of Somerset County, and not the Michael Corn in the 1790 Westmoreland County, PA census.
The new information presented above on this page fills in that 9 year time gap, showing that right after Michael Korn was last assessed in Berks County, PA in 1786, a man named Michael Corn was documented in 1787 or 1788 to be living in Maryland close to another Berks County emigrant Charles Uhl, and close to the eventual Somerset County farm of Michael Korns, Senior. Through a number of findings presented above, this Michael Corn living in Maryland is obviously the Michael Korns, Sr. who later lived in Somerset County. The reason that no other Michael Korn showed up in the 1790 census, aside from the Michael Corn of Westmoreland County, PA (as the book reports), is explainable because the census records of 1790 for Allegany County no longer exist. Since our Michael Korns, Sr. showed up in Maryland records shortly after Michael Korn disappeared from the Berks County, PA records, it appears safe to infer that they are one and the same person.
Dr. Korns' inference that Jacob Korns and Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset County were the sons of Carl Korn wasn't just a wild guess, but he doesn't specifically detail its basis. He had names that disappeared from the Berks County area and reappeared in the Somerset County and nearby Maryland areas, and perhaps some known connections to other individuals who once lived in Berks County. Further, he knew that Jacob and Michael Korns owned property together in Somerset County, PA, which suggests that they were related. I don't have time right now to analyze the facts that he had available at the time he wrote the book, but the Maryland records strongly support that he made the correct inference. If Dr. Korns were still alive, I believe that he would be delighted to know that these newly analyzed Maryland records support his inference. Much credit is due to Dr. Korns, because without his extensive research, our understanding of the significance of the Maryland records would not be possible.
Page 21 of the 1949 Korns book indicates Michael Korn was listed as a weaver in the 1786 tax list for Maxatawny Township, Berks County, PA. While weaving was a common activity in those days, performed on a small scale by many farm wives to clothe their families, the many weaving items that were sold at the December 8th, 1824 public sale of Michael Korn's personal property suggests that the Somerset County Michael Korns was engaged in commercial weaving activity. The evidence of probable commercial weaving activity in Somerset County, and the listed occupation of weaver in the Maxatawny Township tax list, are harmonious facts that tend to support the inference that the Berks County Michael Korn and the Somerset County Michael Korn were one and the same individual.
L. Dietle
Originally written June 3, 2007. Last revised November 2009.
Return to the Korns family genealogy home page
