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An American Family History

 

The McCormick Family

 
 

The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia borders Maryland and Virginia. The first European settlers started arriving about 1730.

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  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.

     
 

 

 
 

 

 
     
 

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©Roberta Tuller 2026
tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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