In history the United States was founded based on separation of Church and State. A large part of the reasons for the country involved people leaving England because the King of England was forcing his religion on the people within the country. Ultimately a new country was founded to allow for that freedom and to protect those rights it was expressly written into the constitution that the people were free to choose. (And this means choose what religion they believe in without being forced to follow anther’s beliefs. ) To ensure this freedom the government. To gain these rights the people went to war with the King of England and fought for our freedom.
To ensure that these rights were maintained and separation of church and state occurred – some states put in place laws that no ministers could serve office. My ancestor being the first minister thrown out of office as a minister because of this. We currently have people making the news making the argument that – People that don’t follow their religious beliefs can just go to another county (if you read country hear we can just go back over 200 years)….
I too am really getting tired of hearing the said person’s name and hearing her all over the news. I’ve even seen opinion pages comparing her to Rosa Parks (The page said let Christians move to the front of the bus)…. The author obvious knows nothing about Rosa Parks history….. 1. her seat was in the colored section in the front of the bus. 2. she didn’t give up her seat because she was tired – it had nothing to do with moving from the back of the bus to the front. The segregation case was Brown vs. the Board of Education and involved school busing to the ‘white schools’.
I do want to quit hearing this in the news, but I also want everyone to have equal rights under the law. The current case going on isn’t a case of someone being forced not to practice her own religion – it’s a case of someone trying to force others to practice her religion.
Whatever you believe in…. I think everyone should agree that kindness to strangers and treat others and you would like them to treat you should play into this. I can’t think of one person I know that would say they haven’t done something at one point of another that they would do differently if doing it again.
In October/November of 1777 my ancestor Rev. John Corbley joined the House of Delegates for Virginia.
THE DISQUALIFICATION OF MINISTERS IN STATE
CONSTITUTIONS
By E. G. Swem
As a step toward the separation of the church and state in
Virginia, the convention which met in Richmond, on July 17,
1775, adopted, in the "Ordinance for regulating the election of
delegates," a clause disqualifying all clergymen of the Church
of England, and all dissenting ministers or teachers from election
as delegates, or sitting and voting in convention. 1 In the con-
vention of May, 1776, which adopted a permanent constitution,
the substance of this clause was embodied in the constitution.
All those holding lucrative offices, and all ministers of the gospel
of every denomination were declared incapable of being elected
members of either house of assembly, or the privy council. 2 Un-
fortunately, we have no report of the debates on this or any other
subject in the convention, except as briefly mentioned in the
journal. It will be observed that this disqualification applied not
only to clergymen of the Church of England, but to members of
every denomination. It is not fair to assume that this was in-
serted from fear of the ministers of the established church only.
There was as much danger from religious interference in the new
government by over-zealous Baptist and Presbyterian ministers,
who might get in the assembly, as from the others. The clause,
because of its including ministers of all churches, must have re-
ceived the support of all factions in the convention.
*9 Hening, 57.
2 9 Hening 117, Aritcle XIII.
My ancestor was the first to be disqualified from the House of Delegates with this law….
The first minister to whom the disqualifying clause was ap-
plied, after 1776, was John Corbley, of Monongalia, who was re-
turned to serve in the House of Delegates, when it met in October,
1777. On being objected to, on the ground that he was a minister,
he was heard in his place upon the matter, and confessed himself
to be a minister of the gospel, but alleged that he received no
stipend or gratuity for performing that function. The fact of
receiving no stipend had no effect upon the house, for it was
resolved that he could not serve.
Though I believe in separation of church and state, I personally believe that separation is best to prevent undue pressure on any person by any group. Every person has a right to their own beliefs. Laws in the government are meant to be based on a vote of the majority that follows the norms of society. In our society currently a subset of the population is chosen to vote on the laws to govern. I find it interesting that when first set up the government of VA excluded ministers. (I did find that in 1798 the constitution of Georgia was rewritten to give rights to religious persons – http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=77)
I haven’t researched it yet, but I am curious whether any state still discourages ministers from holding office?
Edward Corbley:BirthApril 19,1832 Death 20 Oct 1891 in Oakwood, IL (Parents William Corbley and Rebecca Stephens). Spouse Mary Ann Littler (February 7, 1860)
My aunt has decided to join the DAR and so this spurred a quest to find all the records for my paternal grandmother’s side of the family. We had already recorded the Corbley bible, but the last three generations needed more documentation. All was going fairly well until my great great grandfather Edward Corbley. Family stories differ on why he vanished and there aren’t a lot of records on him, but they all revolve around livestock that got ill and him losing everything. One story Aunt Ethel told was that Edward Corbley was driving cattle up from Texas when they became ill (she said hoof and mouth disease) and he had to hide from the government… then losing the land and everything to the federal government.
The Corbley Farm was a big farm that included the land across from the high school all the way to the land that included Muncie (there is a street in Muncie named after the Corbleys). One article shows that the Congressman J.G. Cannon purchased the farm in both Champaign and Vermilion counties for $30,000. I’m not sure what the mention of Pearsons and Taft of Chicago means?
From that I can piece together though Edward Corbley went on after the livestock ‘fiasco’ to live in Kansas city, Missouri. He lived there approximately 8 years before visiting his daughter in Illinois and passing away in her home. The article tells that he sold his property and went west when reverence overtook him.
Mary Ann Littler (his wife) is rumored to be buried in Stearns Cemetery in Muncie Illinois with her family, so the thought is that he might be buried in the same cemetery. There isn’t a record of his burial that I can find so far, and the only undocumented tombstones are so worn that they can no longer be identified.
Somewhere the name switched from Corbley to Corbly also. Edward Corbly had a brother Lindsey that was in the new constantly (a lawyer) – so it makes it surprising to me that Edward fell off the books. I did find one mention that Edward and another man were responsible for surveying and laying out the town of Muncie but in a book with the history of Vermilion County, Edward is dropped completely from the history. I’m not completely sure I’m ready to quit searching for the history of what happened to Edward. Most stories though may be lost to time.
From what I’ve found about the livestock disease at that time, Texas cattle were immune to the illness and any land that they inhabited became infected. New cattle brought in to graze on that land then became ill and died off. Several states closed off cattle drive routes and would not allow those cattle to be driven through their states. Shortly after the time I was looking at Illinois closed it’s borders to new Texas cattle. BUT not knowing what was causing the illness, the farmer bringing in the cattle was vilified by neighboring ranchers for killing off huge herds of cattle. My ancestors seems to have been caught up in the bad luck of bringing in the wrong type of cattle at the wrong time.
The history of Texas Cattle Drives is available here, but includes:
TEXAS FEVER. Readers of the Veterinarian, an English journal, were informed in June 1868 that a “very subtle and terribly fatal disease” had broken out among cattle in Illinois. The disease killed quickly and was reported to be “fatal in every instance.” The disease was very nearly as fatal as the Veterinarian claimed. Midwestern farmers soon realized that it was associated with longhorn cattle driven north by South Texas ranchers. The Texas cattle appeared healthy, but midwestern cattle, including Panhandle animals, allowed to mix with them or to use a pasture recently vacated by the longhorns, became ill and very often died. Farmers called the disease Texas fever or Texas cattle fever because of its connection with Texas cattle. Other names included Spanish fever and splenic or splenetic fever, from its characteristic lesions of the spleen. The disease is also known as hemoglobinuric fever and red-water fever, and formerly as dry murrain and bloody murrain. To protect their cattle, states along the cattle trails passed quarantine laws routing cattle away from settled areas or restricting the passage of herds to the winter months, when there was less danger from Texas fever. In 1885 Kansas entirely outlawed the driving of Texas cattle across its borders. Kansas, with its central location and rail links with other, more northern markets, was crucial to the Texas cattle-trailing business. The closing of Kansas, together with restrictive legislation passed by many other states, was an important factor in ending the Texas cattle-trailing industry that had flourished for twenty years. (See also, e.g., SHAWNEE TRAIL.)
I almost wonder if in the mention of Texas Fever in Illinois, if the story might be referring to what occurred with Edward Corbly. Corbly moved to Missouri in 1883, leading me to believe that the epidemic with his cattle occurred shortly before that in the 1880 to 1883 time frame – though it could have been as early as the 1870s.
MUNCIE was platted and recorded in 1875, and evidently named by the surveyors, Alexander Bowman and Edward Corbley.
One story is that part of Muncie was handed over to make restitution for the loss of livestock.
r seat was in the colored section in the front of the bus. 2. she didn’t give up her seat because she was tired – it had nothing to do with moving from the back of the bus to the front. The segregation case was Brown vs. the Board of Education and involved school busing to the ‘white schools’.
