| Notes |
- Cornelius Vorhis (Voorhees) & Elizabeth Ann Large
By Marfy Goodspeed
posted at:
I had a hard time finding Cornelius Voorhees in the records. That’s probably because he went west before census records got really detailed. Actually, Vorhis, as his name was frequently spelled, was quite a restless fellow. He was born in Alexandria Township [in New Jersey] in 1809 to Cornelius Voorhees, Sr. and Martha Debon. About 1830 he married Elizabeth Ann Large (1810-1864), daughter of Ebenezer Large of the Quakertown family. Cornelius and Elizabeth had a son, Van Rensalear Voorhees, in 1831. In 1837, they bought a lot in Milford from Cornelius’ brother Charles, but in 1840 they were living in Readington Township.
That was the year they got their chance to try out real farming. The assignees of John S. Rockafellow of Raritan Township were putting his farm of 127+ acres on the market. Cornelius was the highest bidder, offering $3,962.79 for it. The farm that was sold to him on March 30, 1840 was bordered by Joakim Hill on the south and east, Matthias Bellis and “the road” [i.e., Route 31] on the east, Gershom C. Sergeant on the north, and Elijah Carman and David W. Bellis on the west. 5
This farm was located just east of the old Carman farm with Johanna Farms Road running along its northerly border. A nice piece of ground, as they say, but it did not suit Cornelius. After eleven years, he advertised it for sale in the Hunterdon Gazette, describing it as a farm of
“127.5 acres more or less -- one hundred acres of which is arable land, which has partly been lately limed, and a good proportion being meadow. The Farm is in a good state of cultivation, divided into nine fields, enclosed with good fences; and having two streams of never-failing water passing through it. . . . It lies on the great Copper range, and ore has been found in considerable quantities thereon. The improvements consist of a comfortable Dwelling-House, Barn, Hovel, Wagon-house, and other out-buildings. There is a good well of lasting water at the door ? also three perpetual springs near at hand. There is an Apple Orchard and other fruit trees on the place.”
As you can see from the map (above), the house was connected to the Trenton-Ringoes Road, not to the Carman-Hoagland Road. 6 Despite its sterling qualities, the farm was not sold until 1854. The purchasers were brothers Leonard P. Kuhl and William B. Kuhl, who paid a handsome $5,856.65 for the 127+ acres. 7
About this time, and possibly earlier, Cornelius and Elizabeth Vorhis had moved to Deerfield, Indiana with their children. But things did not go well there. Perhaps Mr. Voorhees should have heeded his own words when he described the farm he had left -- “its location is one unusually healthy.”
That was not what he found in his new home. On November 14, 1854, only a few months after leaving New Jersey, Cornelius Voorhees died “after a painful illness of eleven days.” 8 He was only 45 years old. An infant daughter died about the same time. His widow Elizabeth Ann and their son Van Rensalear Large Vorhis survived.
With a name like that, I suspect that the son relied on his initials. A certain “V. L. Vorhis” went back to Raritan Township sometime after his father’s death, where he met and married in 1858, Nancy Coates, granddaughter of Sarah Carman Coates and grandniece of Elijah Carman. The Vorhis couple stayed in Raritan Township for a time before moving back out to Indiana, perhaps following the death of his mother Elizabeth Ann in 1864.
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