Robert Cornwell

Cornwell was born in Orange County, New York, on January 29, 1835, to Daniel and Elizabeth (Thompson) Cornwell. His parents were farmers. Cornwell attended Monticello Academy in Sullivan County, New York, and the University of Northern Pennsylvania in Bethany, Pennsylvania. He taught at both of his alma maters in 1853 and 1854. In April 1855, he moved to Millersville, Pennsylvania, to teach at the Lancaster County Normal School, founded that same year by county superintendent James P. Wickersham. In the fall of 1858, Cornwell and another teacher founded a normal school in Indiana, Pennsylvania, which eventually evolved into Indiana University of Pennsylvania. == Military career ==

When the American Civil War erupted in April 1861, Cornwell raised a company of infantry troops in response to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers. Cornwell soon disbanded the company, as Lincoln's quota for Pennsylvania volunteers had been filled. In August 1862, he raised another company, which joined the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, attached to the Army of the Potomac. He became captain and commanding officer of Company I. His company guarded infrastructure in Annapolis and Baltimore in 1862 and later deployed to West Virginia. At the Second Battle of Winchester in June 1863, Cornwell was captured by the Confederates while sick with typhoid fever in a military hospital. He was held as a prisoner of war at the Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, until paroled on May 2, 1864. In July 1864, he joined the staff of General James B. Ricketts, serving as provost marshal of the 3rd Division of the VI Corps. Cornwell served at the Battle of Monocacy and in Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign. He was honorably discharged on October 25, 1864, when his term of enlistment ended. == Later life and career ==

Following his military service, Cornwell joined his wife in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He read law under William Bell Waddell and gained admittance to the Chester County bar on December 10, 1866. From 1868 to 1878, he practiced law alongside William Darlington in the firm of Darlington & Cornwell. == Personal life and death ==

Cornwell married Lydia Ann Jackson of Chester, Pennsylvania, on May 9, 1859. The couple had five children: Gibbons Gray, Martha Jackson, Mary Elizabeth, Ada Westlake, and William Darlington, who was named in honor of Cornwell's friend and business partner. Gibbons Gray earned a law degree from Yale University, practiced law with his father, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel during the Spanish–American War. Cornwell died at his home in West Chester on April 26, 1927, at the age of 92. He was interred at Oaklands Cemetery. == References ==