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NAVIGATION
Michigan
Histories
Kalamazoo County
Biographies
Online Biographies
Illinois
Histories
Also see [Railway Officials in America 1906]
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VALENTINE CORNWALL, one of the early settlers of Wakeshma. was horn in the village of Clonkehune, Roscommon
Co., Ireland, in the year 1818. He was the youngest in a family of eight boys and one girl. His parents, Michael
and Isett Cornwall, were people in good circumstances, and gave their children liberal advantages. Valentine received
a good common-school education. He was reared in the Episcopalian faith, and lived under the paternal roof until
he was eighteen years of age, when he decided to come to America. Knowing that a trade would be of material assistance,
he apprenticed himself; after the completion of his indentures he went into business, and upon the death of his
father, in 1838, he took passage for America, in company with his older brother James. They settled in Canada,
where two brothers, Michael and Edward, had preceded them. Edward was a wealthy farmer and a prominent citizen,
and Valentine was in his employ some four months, when he went to the county of Oxford, where he purchased a farm.
Here he resided fifteen years, when he sold his property and came to Wakeshma, and purchased the farm where he
now resides, which originally consisted of three hundred acres of unimproved land. In 1876 Mr. Cornwall was married
to Miss Matilda Swanwick. who was born in the town of Bedinlough, Roscommon Co.. Ireland. In his political and
religious affiliations, Mr. Cornwall is a Republican and an Episcopalian. He has acquired a competency, the result
of a long life of industry and economy. He has two children, Isett and Mary Ann.
FROM:
History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan
With Illistrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Men and Pioneers.
Everts & Abbott., Philadelphia 1880
Press of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia.
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