James Benijah Corey and Elizabeth Ann Kidd

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Husband James Benijah Corey ^{1 2}

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           Born: 23 Apr 1832 - near Utica, Venango Co, PA 2
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         Father: Alfred Corey (1804-1891) 3
         Mother: Rachel Adams (      -1881) 3

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Elizabeth Ann Kidd ^{1 4}

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         Father: Peter Kidd (1795-      ) 4
         Mother: Ellen Wilcox (      -      ) 4

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Children

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1 F Margaret Jane Corey ^{1 4}

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         Spouse: Samuel Clarence Weimer (1846-1904) 5 6
           Marr: 3 Oct 1883 1

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2 F Mary Ella Corey ⁴

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         Spouse: William Yost (      -Bef 1915) 4

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General Notes: Husband - James Benijah Corey

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His educational advantages consisted of five terms, of four months each, at the public school, when those who were able to pay subscribed one dollar a month each, and those who were unable to pay in money, took turns in boarding the teacher. His school books were the few simple ones in use in those days. While a young lad he earned a prize by committing to memory more than eleven hundred verses from the Bible, and this feat was accomplished in the course of one week. This was in 1845, and two years later, when General Winfield Scott was touring the United States, prior to the presidential election, he passed the lock on the Monongahela river near which young Corey lived. A crowd had assembled to greet General Scott, and one of the General's party, Attorney McCandless, who knew the lad, introduced him to General Scott, saying "General, this boy committed the whole of St. John and eight chapters in Acts to memory in one week." (1,132 verses.) An old sailor who fought on Lake Erie in 1812 under Commodore Perry laid his hand on Mr. Corey's head, and said: "James, treasure those verses in your heart; if they do not make you the president of the United States, they will make you a good man."
In the fall of 1849 Mr. Corey piloted his first pair of coal boats down the Ohio river, and as he was not eighteen years of age, he was known as the "Boy Pilot." From pilot to partner was a short step for the energetic young man, and it was but a few years later that the firm of J. B. Corey & Company was formed. His partners in this enterprise were David Shaw, George M. Bowman, John H. Peterson and Judge Thomas Mellon, of Pittsburgh, and they transported coal to the southern river ports. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Confederate States confiscated all the coal of northern men, and as the firm had a large stock of coal in New Orleans, their loss was about $50,000, but they eventually weathered this storm. Mr. Corey was desirous of serving his country during the war, but was rejected on account of physical disability. As the coal business was at a standstill, he went to Washington, District of Columbia, and became a clerk in the commissary department, issuing rations to soldiers, at a monthly pay of $50.00. President Lincoln, Secretary Cameron and Secretary Chase gave this department their personal attention, and Mr. Corey was in daily contact with them. At the close of the war the coal business was resumed, and they operated several mines along the Monongahela river, the Duquesne mines being among the largest, and of these Mr. Corey was manager. He was possessed of remarkable executive ability, and had the happy faculty of understanding the men in his employ, of winning their confidence and their affection, and during the thirty years he was connected with the coal business he never had a strike. During three periods of strikes in other mines, Mr. Corey's company supplied the Pennsylvania Railroad Company with coal. June 1, 1885, in association with his cousin, Alfred A. Corey Sr., the Corey Coal Company was formed, William Ellis Corey, son of Alfred A., and later president of the United States Steel Corporation, acting as weighmaster and bookkeeper. At the end of five years, Alfred A. Corey withdrew from the company, and was succeeded by William M. Dixon. Beginning in 1900 Mr. Corey lived retired from business responsibilities, on Jones avenue, Braddock, Pennsylvania, his favorite form of exercise being the driving of his thirty-two-year-old horse, attached to the old-fashioned buggy, which he prefered to any more modern vehicle. He always took an active interest in all political questions, and was at one time a candidate on the Nationalist ticket for the office of governor of the state. In religious matters his influence was also felt for good, and he was an ardent Methodist. The first meeting of the Salvation Army ever held in Pittsburgh was held by the late General Booth in the office of Mr. Corey. [GPHWP, 656]

1 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 440.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 656.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 655.

4 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 657.

5 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 671.

6 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 439.