U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cornwell, John Jacob (1867-1953) --------------------------------------------------------------------- West Virginia Blue Book West Virginia Legislative Hand Book and Manual and Official Register, 1918 Compiled and edited by John T. Harris, Clerk of the Senate The Tribune Printing Company, Charleston, West Virginia Page 734 John Jacob Cornwell ELECTIVE STATE OFFICERS. Governor. JOHN JACOB CORNWELL, (Democrat), the fifteenth Governor of West Virginia, was born July 11, 1867, in Ritchie county, West Virginia, on a farm near the town of Pennsboro, the son of Jacob H. Cornwell and Mary E. (Taylor) Cornwell. The elder Cornwell moved the family to Hampshire county in 1870 where the younger Cornwell and future Governor of the State was reared to manhood on a Hampshire county farm. Educated in the public schools and at Shepherd College, he began teaching at the age of sixteen and followed that profession for seven years, being the principal of the graded schools in Romney during the years 1889-90. In the fall of 1890 with his brother, W. B. Cornwell he bought the Hampshire Review, published at Romney, and has been the editor of that publication——the single newspaper published in Hampshire county—for a period of over twenty-five years, retiring as the active editor when he was sworn in as Governor of West Virginia. In connection with his newspaper work he studied law in the offices of his brother and was admitted to practice in 1894. He has been largely instrumental in the development of his section of the State. It was through his efforts that the railroad was constructed from Romney to Moorefield, tapping a rich territory and permitting development. He has been active for many years in the development of his section as a commercial fruit-growing country. In 1896 Governor Cornwell made his entry into politics and was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention held at Chicago where William Jennings Bryan was nominated for the first time for the Presidency. In 1898 Governor Cornwell was elected to the State Senate from the old Twelfth Senatorial District which was composed of the counties of Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, Grant, Pendleton and Tucker. In 1902 he was re- elected to the State Senate from the Fifteenth Senatorial District, the Legislature having re-districted the State, increasing the number of senatorial districts from thirteen to fifteen. While serving a second term as a member of the State Senate he was nominated by the Democratic party in State convention at Parkersburg for Governor of West Virginia. In the campaign that followed he ran 25,000 votes ahead of his ticket being defeated by 8,000 majority by the late W. M. O. Dawson, when Theodore Roosevelt carried the State by 33,000 majority. In 1912 Governor Cornwell was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore and four years later was nominated in a general primary election to be the Democratic nominee for Governor of West Virginia. The vote in the 1916 election showed Governor Cornwell to have been the sole Democrat on the State ticket to be elected. The Governor was married in 1891 to Miss Edna Brady and they have one surviving child, Mrs. Eugene E. Ailes, of Washington. Since his inauguration as Governor on March 4, 1917, Governor Cornwell called the State Legislature into extraordinary session on May 14, 1917, and that body responded to his wishes in submitting to a vote of the people a constitutional amendment proposing a budget system, designed to place a check on ruthless expenditures from the State treasury. The Legislature also enacted a number of war measures through the operation of which Governor Cornwell has been desirous of assisting the Federal Government in the prosecution of the war with Germany. He has been the “war Governor” in fact as well as in name, devoting his energies to amusing the people of the State to the causes which impelled America to enter the war against the Imperial Government of Germany. He has been a foremost figure in the Liberty Loan, Red Cross, Y. M. C. A. and other campaigns through which funds have been and are being raised to diligently and successfully prosecute the war. ----------------------------------- REGISTER OF DEATHS, Hampshire County, WV (pg 32-B) Full-name: John Jacob COrnwell Date-of-Birth: Jul 11, 1867 (age 86-1-17) Birthplace: Ritchie County, WV Date-of-Death: Sept 8, 1953 Place of Death: Allegheny County, Cumberland, Md Occupation: Lawyer Father: Jacob H. Cornwell Mather: Mary E. Taylor Marital-status: married Cause-of-Death: Bronchial Pneumonia Burial: Indian Mound Cemetery Informant: Eugene E. Ailes ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ritchie County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ritchie/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------