Omaha daily bee., 1908-06-08
COLONEL ]. N. CORNISH DEAD
Pioneer Attorney and Banker Sue
cumbs to Short Illness.
AN oMAHAN TWENTY ONE YEARS
Had Splendid Civil War and Business
Record-Funeral VIII BE Held
Tuesday Afternoon from Home
on south Tenth street.

Colonel ]. n. Cornish, for twenty-one
years a prominent resident of Omaha and
father of Edward ]. Cornish Omaha park
commissioner, and Albert ]. Cornish, dis
trict judge ~ Lincoln died Sunday after
noon at $50 o'clock. His death resulted
from acute jaundice, following an attack Of
the grip. He was i'll but three weeks.
Funeral services will be held from the
late residence, 144 South Tenth street,
Tuesday afternoon at O'Clock Interment
will be at Forest Lawn cemetery.
Colonel Cornish came to Omaha In 1851,
his children having preceded him to this
city. He was a remarkable man, of strong
intellect and sound business judgment, and
his name has been stamped on many sue
cessful business enterprises. During his
lifetime he counted a number OF prominent
men among his intimate friends. At the
bar and in business pursuits he won recog-
milton for integrity and keenness of thought
and life was spared him until he had reared
a family well worthy to perpetuate his
name.
He was born in Oneida county, New
York, May 2s, 1925 and was so years and
10 days of age when he died. He was of Il
family of fourteen children, all of whom
he survived with the exception of an older
sister. Both his father and his grandfather
served in the revolutionary war, the fam
lily ancestry being traced to the Mayflower
stock.
Graduating from the New York state
Normal school at Albany when still young
man, he became principal of the high
school at Cuba, that state. Later he stu
died law at Utica, and in 1855 moved to
Iowa City, Ia Four years later he moved
to Sidney Ia, where through the courtesy
of Samuel Krkwood governor of the state,
who loaned him his library, the young law
yer began the practice Of his profession.
Military and Business Career.
During the civil war he was commissioned
a colonel by President Lincoln and served
throughout that struggle as Commissioner
of the Board of Enrolment and Draft for
the Fifth congressional district of Iowa,
with headquarters at Des Moines. The
governor also appointed him as his aide-de-
camp and he was made provost marshal
and brigade quartermaster by the president.
Colonel Cornish for many years enjoyed
one of the most lucrative and largest law
practices in southwestern Iowa. but on ac-
count of his eyesght gave up this practice
and, in 1874, moved to Hamburg Ia. and
organized the First National bank of that
place, 1t being the first national bank in
the southwestern part OF. the state and the
first bank in Fremont county. He made
his home there until moving to Omaha in
| 1887.
For time Colonel Cornish was president
of the National Bank Of Commerce OF
Omaha, and director in the Carter White
Lead company, and other companies in
which he held stock.
Colonel Cornish is survived by four chill.
dren: Albert ]. Cornish, Lincoln Edward
j. Cornish, Omaha; Mrs. Ada L. Hertsch
who has lived with her father since the
death of Mrs. [,rnish and Mrs. Anna V
Metcalf, widow of the late Joseph NJ. Met.
calf, 1874 South Tenth street. Mrs Cornish
died in December, 1903.