CORNETTS

The families, that in the late 1700s, settles in what was to become Knott County Kentucky were limited in number and was a result, in their lines crossed often.  They were the Ritchies, the Combs, the Cambells, the Smiths, the Fugates, the Sizemores and the Brashears to name a few.  The "Ishmael Ritchie-Lucinda Cornett" families are heirs of William Cornett along two lines. William's son John by his first marriage descents directly down the paternal line through Robert S. and Manton to Simon Kenton, Lucinda's father.  William's son Roger by his second marriage bore a daughter, Nancy who was the mother of Mariah Brashear, the mother of Katherine Campbell, who was Lucinda's mother.  Meanwhile, Brashear brothers, Sampson and James, contemporaries of
William Cornett, fathered lines to Lucinda through her mother also.  Sampson descends through Ezekiel who married Nancy Cornett and was the father of Mariah.  James descends through his daughter Adeline who married Robert S. and was the mother  of Manton.  So, if anyone tells you that there were families from Knott County with the same names  that are not related, be skeptical, we are all related, even without the same name. When William Cornett, Alexander Crockett Ritchie, Richard Smith and the Brashear brothers came to those mountains, they were part of scarcely a hundred families   You can bet even some of them were related.  

John Canule was one of seven brothers who came to America from England in 1740.  He subsequently changed his name to John Cornett.  I have no information on his birth date or who he married. He had two sons:
Samuel, married Polly Davidson and bore children:
Clark
William
James
Samuel
Hiram
Joe
Katie
Linda
William  (1761-1836 
William Cornett was born in Henrico County Virginia in 1781.  On the 4th of May, 1790, he married A. Rhoda Gilliam.  The ceremony was performed by John Frost in Washington County Virginia.  In 1779, William served in the Revolutionary War for six months.  He enlisted again in 1780.  In 1797 William moved his family to Kentucky and settled on Bull Creek.  He and Rhoda bore four children:
John (1794-1871)
Arch
Lucy
Elizabeth
The marriage with Rhoda ended for unknown reasons and William married Mary Everage.  They bore children:
Nathaniel Woleary (April 2, 1818-Jan 12, 1889)
Robert Bustard
Margaret
Roger married Polly Lewis and they bore at least one child.  Nancy Cornett
who married Ezekiel Brashear
Nancy
Rachel
Samuel
Joseph E.
John Cornett was born in Washington County Virginia in 1794.  In 1797 his father moved his family to Kentucky, settling on Bull Creek where he grew up.  In 1818 he secured a land grant of 550 acres that included all of Sassafras Hollow and bottom land along Carr Fork Creek.  He built a log home on the East Side of Sassafras Creek.  He married Rachel Smith either before or after
he moved from his Father's home on Bull Creek.  I do not know the location or date of the marriage, though it is interesting to speculate that Rachel might have been of the William smith family that settled on Carr fork in 1796.  Rachel could well have bee the older sister or aunt of Kesiah Colley Smith (1812) who married Thomas Grigsby Ritchie. Kesiah's older brother William was born in 1795, so a sister of marriageable age for John Cornett is very possible.  John and Rachel bore ten children:
Robert Samuel (December 25, 1825-November 11, 1914)
John, Jr.
Arch (Archibald?)
Russel (Russell ?)
Rhoda
Mary
Elizabeth
Frankie (Frank?)
Nancy
Harden
Robert Samuel Cornett (1825) married
Adeline (Adaline?) Brashear (Nov 2, 1832-May 24, 1923)
Adeline was the daughter of James Brashear and Elizabeth Young. 
Adeline had siblings:
Eli
Robert s.
James Jr.
Sampson
William
Elizabeth
James' brother Sampson Brashear (Adeline's Uncle) married
Margaret Bright and they bore:
Ezekiel
Isaac
John
James
Sampson, Jr.
Robert
Harvey
William r.
Jessie
Hezekiah
Saran Ann
Elizabeth
Louisa
Ezekial Brashear married Nancy Cornett and they bore children:
Mariah
Hezekiah
Lafayette
Sarah
Ursula
Robert and Adeline bore twelve children:
Manton (Nov 21, 1851-Sept 24, 1925
Jasper (twin) (1855-?)
Newton (twin) (1850?)
Theopolis (1853)
William Riley (1869)
Mary (1874)
Elizabeth (Dec 6, 1858)
Rachel (1860)
Rhoda (1853)
Nancy (1866)
John Dixon (1871)
Robert Samuel Jr. ( May 25, 1878-Jan 9.1900)
Manton Cornett married Juliah Godsey (March 25, 1856) in 1871, daughter of John J. Godsey and Margaret Duff.  They bore nine children:Simon Kenton (April 29, 1880-April 1959)
Rufus
Luke
Mark
Oscar
Adeline
Margaret
Sarah
Myrtle
Simon Kenton Cornett (1880) married Katherine Campbell
Katherine was the daughter of William G. Campbell, Jr and Mariah Brashear
Her siblings were:
William
Lafayette
John
Maranda
Judy
Sally
Effie
Ursula
Lucinda
Elizabeth
Mary
William Campbell Jr. was the son of William Campbell and Katherine (Catherine?) "Katie" Creech who allegedly beat a bear to death with a laundry paddle (baffling stick) to protect the contents of her smoke house.  William Jr. had a brother Wohlary (Woleary) Mariah Brashear was the daughter of Ezekiel Brashear and Nancy Cornett Simon Kenton was a skilled carpenter and craftsman.  He built a large home at the head of Sassafras Hollow and farmed his share of the land handed down from the original land grant to John Cornett. He was always thin and wiry.

Submitted by Susan Fahnstrom