The Corner-Mellor Family History (Extracted from The Tallow Light, Vol 3, #1, April/June 1968 - by: Ralph L Schroeder).
Out in Washington County, Ohio, you can visit various Burying Grounds. There, graven on stone, you are again told various things. Out in the western part of the county reposes the oldest members of the Corner Family. Stand there a moment. The hills are gentle. It is Springtime. The valleys are flooded with green. Violets plunder the fields. It was to these hills and valleys that these people, now seemingly long dead, came with trepidation. This was to become their land, long before we were born. They neighbored these fields with their log houses. They wrangled with one another. More often than not they laughed together. Their stories about the old country became tales for a winter's hush. Some came to stay. Others, after a brief spell, moved westward. Still others come to die.
When they left their homeland, MacClesfield, Cheshire, England, was then already a most ancient town, more than a thousand years old. Its existance was before the coming of William the Conqueror (RIN:450). A walled town, with remparts and gates, Old MacClesfield knew well the call to war. Once its men went forth with Sir William Stanley (RIN:1746) to the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. On that field King Richard III (RIN:9311) was slain, and Henry Tudor (RIN:12974) crowned. For centuries MacClesfield had streets that were filled with the hustle of baking and buying, with sales of woven and pummeled ware. Nor was pageantry unknown. For example, to dispose of the body of Sir John Savage in 1597, there was a procession preceded by a trumpeter sounding the doleful note. Then came "80 poor people in gowns, 73 for the age of the knight, and seven added; then the colours and great ensign, then the knight's great horse covered with black cloth to the heels, with arms thereon on each side, then the body in a coach covered with velvet." It was not all nor always pageantry and charm, however. Old MacClesfield had its district of squalor known as the Gutters, while the butcher's space was called the Shambles. Yet the olden names of its streets mellow its history. There was Goose Lane, and the narrow way that let to Cuckstoolpit Hill with its sousing water, and Pudding Bag Street. Dog Lane was later called Stanley Street. Being situated in the center of the town, this thoroughfare was one of the busiest in Old MacClesfield. Here were important houses and taverns. In fact, Public Houses at one time so populated this street, sat open all night to rowdiness, so that they dawned to an unsavory reputation. The Old Lamb Inn was one of the famous houses along Dog Lane. It was a building of great antiquity, romantic in its appearance, on its front a stone was to be seen that bore the date 1516. At one time the building had been used as a parsonage in connection with the old church, first named St. Allowes. An extensive garden and orchard had then surrounded the building. The Old Lamb Inn is no longer; and time itself draws it from remembrance.
The Old Lamb Inn was still open for business in March of 1795, when George CORNER, (RIN:99) the Elder, with his wife, additional married members of his immediate family, together with Samuel MELLOR, Sr., (RIN:44) and his family left their homes near MacClesfield and came to the United States. There were some forty persons in this party and they were intending to settle in Kentucky where, through some pre-arrangement, they had purchased 1,100 acres of land on the Green River. Moreover, they took with themselves, upon leaving England, the accouterments of farming. Having sailed from Liverpool, and after a voyage of nine(9) weeks, the CORNER-MELLOR family group arrived at Baltimore on the 6th of June.
The trip overland from Baltimore to Pittsburgh (Ft. Pitt), was a harrowing experience. It is not that this party was necessarily subjected to greater hardship than were other pioneering families, however they had more than their fair share. They had left Baltimore with wagons to carry their farm implements, with room to convey the women and children. As they came into the mountains the horses could not draw their burdens. The wagons had to be lightened and so certain implements were discarded along the way. For additional featheriness the women and children forsook the wagons and marched afoot with their men. The youngest were carried on the shoulders, or tugged between the older children. At times the journey went gladly. At other times it was made with sighs and sobbings. Accomodations along the way were often of shanty and barn. By the time this party had reached Ft. Pitt it had lost three of its members. No doubt to recoup their wholeness and to make arrangements for the downriver journey they lingered in Ft. Pitt during most of the month of August. Eventually they reached the Marietta, Ohio settlement where they again paused. No wonder they felt as though they had reached their destination, Marietta was an English community in its beginnings. Moreover, the offer of land tendered to newcomers at this time by the Ohio Company of Associated seemed liberal. Journey-worn the CORNER-MELLOR group abandened their notion of Kentucky. Instead the CORNER and MELLOR families settled in Washington County, Ohio, in the Plan of Allotment N. W. of the Worl Creek Mills, Waterford Township. Here George CORNER, Sr., (RIN: 99) and his wife Martha, NEE DUMVILLE, spent the remaining years of their life. They were buried in Wolf Creek Chapel, Watertown Township, Washington County, Ohio on land donated by George CORNER (RIN:99) himself.
There were apparently twelve members of the MELLOR family in the emigrant party. This family became increasingly difficult to determine. Apparently, after they settled in Washington County, their neighbors declined to give their surname its nicety of pronunciation. Instead of MELLOR, as often as not, it became MILLER.
The Ohio Company's Purchase was a tract of land containing about 1,500,000 acres lying along the Ohio River. The tract was purchased from the Federal Government on July 24, 1787 by agents for the Ohio Company which had been formed in Massachusetts for purpose of a settlement in Ohio. The "Donation Tract" (1792) on which the MELLORS and CORNERS settled is situated in Washington and Morgan Counties. It consists of 100,000 acres located off the northeastern corner of the "Ohio Company's First Purchase." In order to encourage the development of the land, and as a protection from the Indians, the "Ohio Company" proposed to donate to each settler 100 acres of "Ohio Company" land. Each donee was required to have arms and ammunition and to maintain upon each tract thus donated a man able to bear arms for a period of five years after which the donee was to receive a deed for the land.
The Indians resented the settlements as encroachments on their rights. The slender protection of Ft. Harmar at Marietta was further weakened by the transfer of troops to Ft. Washington near Cincinnati. As a result, the settlers at Marietta were required to protect themselves and this expense was borne by the "Ohio Company."
Watertown Township is the largest in Washington County, containing an area of 42 1/2 square miles. The name of the township was changed from Wooster to Watertown, December 6, 1824 in honor of the Waterman family, one of whose members lost his life in the early settlement.
Much of the early history of Watertown is embraced in the history of the expansion of the Ohio Company. The valley above Wolf Creek was settled first in 1797 by two families named MELLOR and CORNER.
