The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia borders Maryland and Virginia. The first European settlers started arriving about 1730.
also spelled McCormack
The New River flows through North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia .In 1755, Mary Draper Ingles (1732-1815) was captured by Shawnee warriors near Blacksburg and taken to Ohio. She escaped and made her way home by following the Ohio, Kanawha, and New Rivers.
John McCormick was born in 1703 in Ireland.
James McCormick (1730, married Mercy Lupton),
Jean McCormick (1732, married James Byrn)
Francis McCormick (1734, married Ann Province),
John McCormick, Jr., (1735, married Ann Redmond),
Mary McCormick, (1736, married Magnus Tate)
William McCormick (1738, married Effelia Crawford),
George McCormick (1742, married Mary and Mary Chapline),
Andrew McCormick (1746).
The Mccormicks were early settlers in, what is now, the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. On May 21, 1740, John McCormick of Orange County, Virginia bought 395 acres from Jost Hite. This land was in a part of Orange County that eventually became Jefferson County, West Virginia. He called the home he built about 1742 "The White House."
From Frederick County Road Orders
9 March 1743/44 O. S., Frederick County Order Book 1, pp. 48-49
Ordered that Thomas Rutherford Gent. Wm. Davis & Richard Stinson or any two of them do View Mark & Lay off a Road the best & Nighest Way from John Shepards to the Head of Bulskin & that John McCormick, Joseph Carter & John Neil or any two of them View Mark & lay off a road from the head of Bulskin Over ye said Neills Mill dam to the Court house & its Ordered that they make return of their proceeding to ye next Court
He later added several other grants to his estate near Summit Point. On July 7, 1760, he received a 157-acre grant next to his land. The next day he received a 456 acre grant on the north side of Long Marsh Run.
On May 30, 1763, John and his wife Anna sold the 456 acres to their son, Francis, for 100£.
On April 12, 1765, John and Ann sold the 157 grant land to their son, John, for 500£.
He wrote his will on May 8, 1768 , and it was recorded on February 8, 1769.
To wife Ann, he willed all of his estate for her natural life and also a negro man and woman providing that Ann remained a widow.
To son James McCormick, he willed a negro man after the death of his wife Ann.
To sons John and Francis McCormick, he willed five shillings each.
To sons William, George and Andrew, he willed land according to a division by Thomas Rutherford.
To daughter Mary Tate (wife of Magnus Tate) and to daughter Jane Byrn (wife of James Byrn), he willed 10 pounds each.
His wife Ann and son James were named executors. The witnesses were David Kenedy, Samuel Mounts, John Cunningham and Patrick Rice.
Slavery is an immoral system of forced labor where people are treated as property to be bought and sold. It was legal in the American Colonies and the United States until the Civil War.
West Virginia is located in the Appalachians and was originally part of Virginia. The capital and largest city is Charleston. It became a state during the Civil War and was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863.
Fayette County is in southwestern Pennsylvania, adjacent to Maryland and West Virginia. It was created on September 26, 1783, from part of Westmoreland County.
It was common for bequests to include wearing apparel.
West Virginia is located in the Appalachians and was originally part of Virginia. The capital and largest city is Charleston. It became a state during the Civil War and was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863.
from Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County Pennsylvania, Volume 2
by James Hadden
The emigrant ancestor of the McCormicks, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, herein recorded, was Dr. John McCormick, who emigrated from Ireland to Virginia between the years 1730 and 1740.
In the Orange county, Virginia, records there is a deed, under date of May 21, 1740, from Jost Hite to "John McCormick, of Orange county," for three hundred and ninety-five acres of land. Later he took up other grants adjoining this property, which was located in that part of Orange county that later became Jefferson county, West Virginia.
It was on this estate near Summit Point that in 1840 he built '"The White House," which was still standing in 1903. He was a graduate in medicine of the University of Dublin, and brought to this country with him a large and valuable medical library, which at his death was sold to Dr. Cramer, then the leading physician of Charlestown.
He died in 1768, leaving a wife and eight children.
In his will, made May 8, 1768, and recorded February 8, 1769, he mentions wife Anne and sons James, John, Francis, William, George, Andrew, daughter ''Mary Tate, wife to Magnus Tate," and "Jean Bryen, wife to James Bryen." His wife and son James were executors of his estate.
It is indicated that he was married before coming to this country, but the maiden name of his wife cannot be found. The descendants of his eight children are scattered throughout many states. It is said of the early members of the family that they were singularly unobtrusive people, content in happiness derived from their own family relations, being extremely clannish; both the men and women were strictly honorable, affectionate, domestic and courteous; one of their marked characteristics was a strict regard for the truth.
One of the heirlooms of the family was an old English prayer book which descended from Dr. John McCormick to his son Francis, and was given by him to his son Thomas at his marriage, but was unfortunately destroyed during the civil war. In it was the family tree on parchment; on another page. Dr. John McCormick in a blue broadcloth suit with brass buttons: another, the marriage scene; and yet another, Anne McCormick with a blue bodice and yellow silk or satin skirt, with a branch in her hand and a bud; an
other, a death scene, coffin, etc., and a notice of dates, births and death beneath. The dates were all in the year 1700.
Estate inventories give us a glance into the home life of Colonial Americans.
Appalachia was the 18th century backcountry and many settlers were Scots-Irish. It includes southern New York, western Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee and northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
