The Profitt Family

I've been having fun lately doing some deeper research into my family. Four years ago I drove a few hundred miles to Foosland, Illinois and visited the grave of Henry Profitt Cornelius, my third great grandfather (Henry Profitt Cornelius > Jesse Profitt Cornelius > William Seborn Cornelius > Floyd Cornelius, Sr. > Floyde Cornelius, Jr.). Since then, I discovered the grave of Henry's father, John Cornelius (1776 - 1857), who is buried in the Cornelius Family Cemetery in Christian County, Kentucky.

John's wife (our fourth great grandmother) is Martha "Patcey" Profitt Cornelius (1790 - 1876) and is the obvious origin for Henry and Jesse's middle names. Using Google, I found an interesting website for the Profitt family which traces their origins farther back.

Warning, you might want to take an Advil right now!

Martha “Patcey” Profitt was born in Goochland County, Virginia and was apparently the only child of Jesse S. Profitt (1766 - 1839) and his first wife, Mary Mollie Moseley (1768 - 1857). Jesse and Mary apparently divorced or otherwise split as he married another Mary (Mary Jane Bryant) in 1807!

Jesse Profitt was the third child of William Profitt (1738 - 1812) and his wife, Sarah Thurston (1743 - 1780). Like Martha, Jesse was born in Goochland County, Virginia.

Going even farther back, William was born in St. James, Northam Parish, Goochland County, Virginia. He was the son of Silvester Profitt/Prophet (1698 - 1767) and Alice Pleasants (1698 – 1771).

Silvester, my seventh great grandfather, is apparently the patriarch of the American Profitt (or Prophet) family as he was born in Eassie, County Angus, Scotland and was the son of James or John Prophet. Silvester arrived in America in 1716.

Note: The surname is spelled three different ways – Proffitt, Profitt and Prophet. I am not sure which is the “correct” spelling. For consistency purposes, I am using “Profitt”.

The American Civil War

One hundred and fifty years ago this morning, April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began with the shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. By the time the war ended in April 1865, approximately 620,000 Americans were dead.

In many cases, the war pitted families against each other and brother against brother.

My family was no exception.

The earliest recorded Cornelius immigrant in America was Aaron Cornelius, captain of the English privateer ship, Canary Bird, in the service of the English Crown  in 1639. His place of residence was Flushing, Long Island, which was chartered to the English settlers in 1645 by the Dutch West India Company. Aaron was married and had at least five children. He died in Flushing on February 28, 1695 and his will is on record there.Although his oldest son John returned to England with his family, the others remained in the area and many descendants of this Cornelius line live in America today.

The next earliest record found of a Cornelius arrival in America was John Cornelius who arrived from Holland and settled in Maryland sometime prior to 1651. John and his wife Mary moved to Virginia where a will dated April 14, 1656 bequeathed all of his property to his wife. They had no known children and it is impossible to follow this line.

My immigrant ancestor, Rowland Cornelius, arrived from Holland in 1665 and settled first in Virginia and then moved to Maryland. He returned to Virginia around 1690 and purchased 50 acres of land at the head of Nantepolsen Creek in Lancaster County in August 1697. He purchased the land for the sum of three thousand pounds of tobacco! Rowland lived there until his death in 1727. Although Rowland did not leave a will (thus listing his children), there is documentary evidence that he had five sons (the oldest also named Rowland who is referred to in family documentation as "Rowland #2") who remained in Virginia. He married a woman named Rebecca and they had nine children. Rowland #2 passed away sometime in 1765.

Rowland #2's sixth child was William Cornelius was born in Spotsylvania County in 1732 and passed away in 1801 . William moved around a great deal and eventually located in the Carolinas. He had nine children with three children born in South Carolina. His seventh child, John Cornelius, was born May 20, 1776 in South Carolina and died April 18, 1857. John is my 4th great grandfather. John eventually settled in Christian County, Kentucky and married Patcey Profitt and they had eight children. John and Patcey are buried in Kentucky.

John's oldest child was Henry Profitt Cornelius who was born in 1806 and died in 1895. Henry was married twice -- first to Mary Ann Quisenberry who passed away in 1845 -- and he then married her cousin Catherine Quisenberry. In total, Henry fathered 18 children! Henry moved to Champaign County, Illinois and is buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Foosland, Illinois.

Henry’s eight child (with Mary Ann) was Jesse Profitt Cornelius who was born in 1840 and died in 1885. In 1879, he and his wife Mary Ann Spencer, moved to Kansas. Jesse’s oldest child was my great grandfather William Seborn Cornelius.

As the families moved from Virginia and the Carolinas and headed west, a number of family members moved north. By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, members of the Cornelius family lived in the North and in the South and in the border state of Kentucky. There is documentary (and anecdotal) evidence that family members fought on both sides.

My Kentucky ancestors apparently leaned to the South. A tombstone of a family member named John Wilkes Cornelius appears in the Christian County Cemetery.

The war separated the country and the effects are still felt 150 years later.

Short biography of Henry P. Cornelius

Last summer I posted about my visit to the gravesite of my third great grandfather, Henry P. Cornelius. Today I was going through some of my father’s mementos and found a photocopy that my uncle Eldon sent him that contained a short biography of Henry. The book was entitled: Portrait and Biographical Album Champaign County, Illinois. It contains “…full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county.” [Note: I guess if you were not included in the book, you must not be very important!] The book was published in 1887 by Chapman Brothers of Chicago. This is what the book says about Henry:

During the early settlement of Central Illinois there came from Kentucky a hardy band of pioneers. That state not only took the lead as to the time of sending its sturdy sons and devoted daughters to settle in the beautiful woodlands which skirted the broad prairies of this section, but in the number of its pioneers it excels all other states. It was characteristic Kentucky hospitality that won for the pioneers such an enduring reputation in this respect, and made life on the frontier happy. We have as our subject one of these veteran Kentucky pioneers who, although not an early settler of Champaign County, is a pioneer of this part of the state. He now lives in Brown Township, where he is the proprietor of a good homestead of Section 16, and employs the greater part of his time superintending the cultivation of 160 acres of improved land. He took up his abode here in 1882, and although not classed among the pioneers of this township, has by his age, experience and most excellent personal qualities, secured the respect and esteem of all who know him. His head has been whitened by the frosts of eighty-one winters, yet he possesses in a marked degree the energy of character which distinguishes him in his youth. Mr. Cornelius was born within seven miles of Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky on March 16, 1806, and is the son of John and Martha (Profitt) Cornelius, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Virginia. After marriage they commenced their life together in Christian County, Kentucky where they reared a family and spent the remainder of their days. The children of the parental family who grew up on the farm in the above county were eight, four of whom are now living. The subject of our sketch removed to Tazewell County, Illinois in 1836 and lived there over forty-five years. He first located in Hittle’s Grove Township, where he lived until the spring of 1877, and from there removed to Minier, where he lived five years, and thence removed to Brown Township, this county, locating upon his present farm. Mr. Cornelius was first married, in his native county in Kentucky, July 17, 1828, to Miss Mary Quissenberry, who was of Southern birth and parentage, her father and mother being natives of Virginia, of which she was also a native. Of this marriage there were born nine children, whom they named as follows: John H.; Edward, deceased; Nancy A.; Gustavus, deceased; Agnes, deceased; Lin; Jesse, deceased; Mary and Levi. The wife and mother, while the family were living in Hittle’s Grove Township, folded her hands for her final rest in 1845. The second wife of our subject, to whom he was married in McLean County, Illinois, in July, 1847, was Miss Catherine Quissenberry, also a native of Christian County, Kentucky, born July 20, 1826. Mrs. Catherine Cornelius became the mother of eight children, all of whom are living, namely, Ann, James, Charles, Millard, Laura, George M., Ida and Julia. Mr. Cornelius is greatly opposed to the manufacture and sale of spirituous liquors, and in voting upholds the principles of the Republican Party.

You just don’t find writing like this anymore! By the way, I bolded the name of Henry's son Jesse Cornelius who was my second great grandfather.