Thomas R. Cornelius

Cornelius was born in Missouri, on November 16, 1827, to Elizabeth and Benjamin Cornelius. In 1845, Thomas and his family traveled over the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country and set up a farm on the Tualatin Plains, north of what would become the community of Cornelius. The militia prosecuted the Cayuse War in an attempt to punish those responsible for the killings at the Whitman Mission. After gold was discovered in California, Cornelius journeyed there for a brief time, returning to the Oregon Territory in 1849. The next year, he married Florentine Wilkes, and they had six children together before she died in 1864, including son Benjamin. The family would settle on of their Donation Land Claim near Cornelius. In 1855, a second war against the Native Americans started east of the Cascade Mountains against the Yakama tribe. Cornelius volunteered again for the militia. For three months, he led a company with the rank of captain before being elected as colonel after James W. Nesmith resigned his commission. Cornelius continued as colonel until the end of the war in 1856. During this campaign, his troops waged war indiscriminately against any natives found in the area. In one case, a Nez Perce native was accused of being a spy and summarily hanged, which alarmed members of the U.S. military. ==Political career==

In 1856, Cornelius was elected to upper chamber of the Oregon Territorial Legislature, called the council. Serving as a Whig, he represented Washington, Columbia, and Multnomah counties in District 8. He won re-election to the Council in 1857 and again in 1858 to the final session of the territorial legislature. In 1859, he continued holding office in the newly formed Oregon State Senate after Oregon entered the Union on February 14, 1859, as the 33rd state. In the Oregon Senate, Cornelius continued as a Republican, representing Washington County and several other counties through the 1874 legislature. His service was interrupted by the American Civil War during 1862 session, when he was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln to raise a regiment of cavalry for federal service. In 1886, he won the Republican nomination for Governor of Oregon, but lost the general election to Sylvester Pennoyer. ==Later life and family==

After his first wife died in 1864, Cornelius remarried in 1866 to Missouri A. Smith. Cornelius died on June 24, 1899, at the age of 71. ==References==