My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE W. CORNELL was born in Warren county, near Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 18, 1835, and is the son of Sylvenus and Sara (Flora) Cornell. His father was born in New York in 1790, and served in the war of 1812. About 1810 he moved to Ohio, where he died in 1879. John Cornell, grandfather of our subject, was a Canadian by birth, but whose father came from England and is believed to have constructed and operated the first flouring mill in the Dominion of Canada.

George W. Cornell began life as a farmer in Warren county, Ohio, at the age of twenty-four. He had, however, served an apprenticeship at saddle-making, but never followed the trade to any great extent. In 1852 he entered Delaware University, at Delaware, Ohio, where he remained for three years.

In 1859 he joined a company at Kansas City, comprising about seventy-five men and fifty yoke of oxen, and went on an expedition to Pike’s Peak.

He returned in a year or so, however, and engaged in farming, until 1868, when he moved to Dayton and engaged in the coal and wood business.

In the fall of 1870 the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Emigration Colony, of Dayton, Ohio, was organized, with Mr. Cornell as president. In 1871 several members, including the president, were sent to Buffalo county, Nebr., to inspect the country and report to the organization the result of their observations. The report sent back was highly satisfactory and in the following spring several more members came out and took claims. Mr. Cornell purchased 539 acres of railroad land just outside the present limits of the city of Kearney.

Mr. Cornell was appointed distributing clerk for Buffalo county during the grasshopper times, when provision and clothing were sent from all over the East to the unfortunate settlers in this desert region. Many families were so destitute of the actual necessities of life that they were obliged to live on frozen potatoes, corn meal and boiled wheat. It was indeed a time of great suffering throughout the entire county, and many men came to Mr. Cornell in those days and told him they did not have a mouthful to eat in their houses. In 1877 an era of prosperity set in and since then there has been very little suffering among the people for want of food and clothing.

Mr. Cornell was married January 25, 1860, to Rebecca Davis, who was born near Xenia, Ohio, January 7, 1837, and is the daughter of Jonathan and ___. Six children were born of this union, namely — Florence, born November 17, 1860 (wife of William Paterson); Willis E., born July 31, 1862 (deceased); Carrie I., born September 8, 1863 (deceased); Mary A., born October 10, 1865 (wife of Wm. Bishop); Sarah A., born September 23, 1873. George S., born October 22, 1879. Mr. Cornell was deputy sheriff under Capt. Anderson in 1875.