San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 524
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 11/4/2009
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 name was spelled in England, who landed in the New World in 1660, settled on West Main Road in Portsmouth, R.I., 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 Corys 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, R.I., 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., both at Portsmouth, R.I., 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, R.I., 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, R.I., 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, R.I., 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 Corys 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.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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