| Background: |
Alexander McCormick (1728-1803) was born in County Down, Ireland. He came to America where he engaged in trading with the Indians in the Ohio Country. During the American Revolution he was involved with the military effort: serving with Capt. Henry Bird's expedition against Kentucky, as well as with Butler's Rangers. After the American Revolution, his trading post at Miamis River was destroyed, so he moved and settled with his wife Elizabeth [Turner], whom he married at Detroit in 1783, to Colchester Township, Essex County, Ontario.
His eldest son, William, married Mary Cornwall, the daughter of John Cornwall, a native to Wales and a Loyalist from Danbury, Connecticut. He was a businessman, served in the militia during the War of 1812 and became the first member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada from that area (1812-24). The McCormick Family Papers contain documents and other records relating to the Cornwall and other families. William and Mary McCormick moved to Pelee Island in the early 1830's, returned briefly to the mainland during the Rebellion of 1837, and moved back to the Island, after calm had been restored, to live there for the rest of their lives. |
| Contents: |
The collection of McCormick Family Papers includes: miscellaneous business and legal records, 1872-1881; personal papers relating to family events, property, etc, 1864-1921; land papers concerning, mainly, the settlement of title to Point Pelee Island, 1847-1913; legal records, including the wills of Lucinda and David McCormick, and documents regarding the settlement of the estate of David McCormick, Ireland, 1808-1830; military papers relating to recruiting and supplying the Essex County Militia, 1818-1842; marine records, 1807-1875, including: the daybook of the schooner, Resolution (Aug. - Oct 1851), memorandum of descriptions of courses to and from different ports on the Great Lakes, account book of the schooner, Adelaide 1835-1836 (pages 443-479), and daybook of the steamer, Champion 1813-1875 (page 479A); and papers and records of individual family members.
Individual family papers contain: Alexander McCormick, business, land, and personal, 1792-1841; Ann McCormick, mostly personal, 1869-1893; Arthur M. McCormick, postmaster, personal, business and land, 1843-1914; Charlotte McCormick, personal and land, 1884-1891; David McCormick and Henry Leighton, business daybook, Point Pelee Island, 1845-1848; Captain David McCormick, personal, land and waste books, 1832-1886; Elizabeth McCormick, letter and appointment, 1803; Francis Burwell McCormick, letter regarding father's estate and deed at Point Pelee Island, 1866, 1867; John McCormick, personal, of note letters regarding militia career, 1828, 1835-1856; Lucinda McCormick, personal and land, 1860, 1867-1891; Mary McCormick, personal, business, land, will, 1816-1884; Peregrine McCormick, receipt, 1888; Sarah A. McCormick, personal letters from brother, 1865-1869; Thomas McCormick, personal, business, land, 1862-1882; William McCormick, business papers, journals and daybooks, as well as, ledger, property, Thomas McLaren estate, personal concerning his military career, journal of a business trip to England and Ireland, and Sketch of the Western District of Upper Canada written in 1824 by William, 1792-1866; and William S. McCormick, archival techniques, correspondence about family history, 1938, 1943.The collection contains material collected by Dr. William S. McCormick of Detroit, relating to the McCormick family history, and includes the following: correspondence - William McCormick's letters to his wife Mary, 1816-18, 1830, Family letters, 1804-70, 1875, and Mary Cornwall McCormick personal letters, 1833-1835; court papers - Regina vs. McCormick, regarding Indian rights to Pelee Island, 1865; newspaper clippings; deeds; wills; and genealogical information. |
