Finding John H. Corley

The Crider family had no knowledge of what happened to Mary Corley’s brother John H. Corley (as well as her sister Kate Corley, but that was resolved in another post). In 2007 we started looking closely at the pictures in an old album that had been left to the children of Clarence Crider (son of Mary Corley Crider). We found that pictures of some children were photographed in Terrell Texas and some had annotations on them to “Aunt Mary and Kate”. So we felt that this was a place to start.

Through an internet search we found a John Corley in Terrell Texas. Tom made a phone call to find out if he were in fact a descendant of John H. Corley, originally from Scaneateles, New York. This John Corley III said yes in fact he was, though he did not know much about the family history.

We decided to make a trip to Terrell to meet John in March 2007. We had a very nice visit with him and he took us to the cemetery at Oakland Memorial Park where there was an entire section of Corleys buried, including John H. Corley and all his children.

John Corley III provided us a picture of John H. Corley (see above) and his wife Martha, as well as a copy of a “Resolution of Respect” from the bank where John H. Corley I had served as president, which included a later picture of him. John III also gave us a picture of himself and the black daughter of the cook at the Corley home, plus a picture of the home in the early 1900s. In our drive around Terrell Texas, he also showed us the family home that was no longer in the possession of the Corleys.

We also met John III’s daughter Cindy Neuman.

We also did some research at a genealogy library and found a small amount of information of John Corley relative to the formation of the bank in Terrell TX.

John Corley was born in Skaneateles NY Jul 7, 1844. He died Apr 19, 1913 in Terrell TX.

According to a book we found in a Kaufman county genealogical library, John enlisted in the Union Army and served in the Army of the Potamac. He saw action at Gettysburg and Spottsylvania. We were told he was a Prisoner of War but I have not been able to find a record of this.

John had lived for a period in the early 1870s in Millwood, MO, owning property there. We found John and his sister Kate living in the James Crider household with their sister Mary Corley Crider in the 1870 census. At some time in the 1870s he moved to Texas and eventually ended up as Bank President of the American National Bank of Terrell, Texas. Here is a picture of his home in Terrell Texas in approximately the early 1900s. He had 9 children.