CORNWALL E. KIRKPATRICK. The combination of human attributes which
yields success in many fields, though a rare one, is embodied in the subject
of this review. Fire insurance, farming, dealing in fruit, vegetables, seed,
oats and coal, the picture business, whatever he has turned his hand to has
given a balance on the right side of the ledger, so carefully has he studied
and so carefully has he wrought, and in addition to successfully pursuing
these lines of endeavor he has served for the past twenty years as secretary
of the board of trustees of the Southern Illinois Hospital for the Insane.
Mr. Kirkpatrick was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, January 10, 1852, and is a
son of Cornwall and Amy (Vance) Kirkpatrick.
Cornwall Kirkpatrick was born in Ohio, and as a young man moved to Mound
City, where he was for some years engaged in the pottery business. Later he
came to this city and for a long period was the owner of the Anna Pottery,
which he was conducting at the time of his death. His wife, a native of
Cincinnati, Ohio, also died in Anna. Cornwall E. Kirkpatrick was seven years
of age when brought to Anna, and his education was secured in the public
schools. For four years he was engaged in the picture business, then
becoming proprietor of a pharmacy, but after three years entered the employ
of the American Express Company, whose agent he was for twenty-six years,
and in the meantime was also engaged in business with W. N. Corlis. He now
handles wholesale fruit, vegetables, seed, oats and coal and does a business
aggregating eighty thousand dollars per year, and for thirty years has dealt
in fire insurance, representing the Phoenix, Continental, New York
Underwriters and Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Companies, in
addition to owning a fine farm of forty-five acres, on which he carries on
truck gardening.
From his father, who was a lifelong Republican, he inherits an interest in
public matters which has manifested itself in his active work in politics.
This has been more than local, his counsel carrying weight among the county
leaders, and he has served as alderman of Anna and secretary of the
Republican County Central Committee for six or eight years. Twenty years ago
he succeeded his father as secretary of the board of trustees of the
Southern Illinois Hospital for the Insane, a position which he has very ably
filled till the institution went into the hands of the board of control.
Both in his business and public relations Mr. Kirkpatrick has displayed more
than ordinary ability, and his standing as a business man and citizen is
exceptionally high. Fraternally, he is connected with Blue Lodge No. 520 and
Royal Arch Chapter 45, of Masonry, and I. O. O. F. Lodge No. 291 and
Encampment, in both of which he has gone through the chairs, while in the
Encampment he has been treasurer for the past fifteen years. He is very
popular with the members of both orders.
Mr. Kirkpatrick was married in 1878, to Miss Frank Hubbard, who was born in
Indiana in 1858, and to this union there have been born children as follows:
Harlow B., Olive M., Harriet V., Cornwall E., John R., Margaret F. and
Hubbard. Harlow B. Kirkpatrick, a graduate of the Union Academy and the
University of Illinois, taught at the latter institution, and Syracuse (New
York) University, went to the Philippine Islands on two occasions for the
United States Government, and at the present time is harbor engineer for the
Sanitary District of Chicago. He married Miss Elizabeth Hileman and resides
at LaGrange. Olive M., graduate of Union Academy, Anna, married Rev. William
Baker, pastor of the Episcopal church of Bloomington, Illinois. Harriet V.
is a graduate of Union Academy and resides at home, as does Cornwall E., who
graduated from the Anna High School and has been on one trip to the
Philippines as engineer for the United States Government. John R.
Kirkpatrick is living in Los Angeles, California, where he is in the employ
of the American Express Company. Margaret F. and Hubbard are living at home,
the former being a graduate and the latter a student of Union Academy. The
family is connected with the Presbyterian church of which Mr. Kirkpatrick
has been elder for a number of years.
Extracted 16 Jan 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 773-774.
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