Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Cornell, Charles W. 1927
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net August 28, 2012, 5:28 pm

The Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Monday, October 23, 1927

Word was received here Monday of the death in Los Angeles, Cal., on Sunday of 
Charles A. Cornell, native of this city and prominent in G.A.R. and O.E.S. 
circles.  Mr. Cornell was born here and would have been 86 years old on 
Armistice day.  His parents were Thomas and Orpha Beckwith Cornell, among the 
original settlers of Ionia in 1823.

At the opening of the Civil war he enlisted in Berdan’s sharpshooters, staying 
with that organization until incapacitated by typhoid fever and discharged.  
After spending the summer of 1863 here, he re-enlisted in Custer’s band, which 
was commanded by his brother-in-law, John H. Axtell.  This band was at 
Appomattox, where Lee surrendered to Grant and announced the surrender by 
playing Star Spangled Banner and Yankee Doodle.

During part of his enlistment his brigade was commanded by the late Gen. James 
H. Kidd.  Following his discharge he returned here and worked in the brickyard 
for his father, later operated by the VanDerHeydens.  He was secretary of the 
Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance company for many ears, resigning in 1887 to 
accept the position of chief clerk to the state labor department under the 
late A. H. Heath of Ionia.

The family returned here in 1891 and he was deputy clerk and deputy county 
register of deeds, moving again to Lansing in 1901 as state armorer of the 
national guard when James H. Kidd was made quartermaster-general.  He remained 
in this department until his retirement in 1917, since which time he had made 
his home at Los Angeles, but spent part of it at Salt Lake with his son, 
Thomas C. Cornell, state editor of the Desert News, and in Washington with his 
daughter, Mrs. Edwin B. Reid.

Always interested in sports, Mr. Cornell was a member of the famous old Custer 
baseball team of the early seventies, playing as fielder in the first no-run 
no-hit game recorded in baseball.  This team was managed by General Kidd.  At 
the age of 65 he took up big game hunting and for a decade spent every fall in 
the northern peninsula hunting deer.  Following retirement, he took up smaller 
game hunting and spent nearly every fall with his son in Utah, adding many 
beautiful trophies to his collection.

During the early nineties he was grand patron of the Michigan O.E.S. which 
organization recently granted life membership to him and his wife.  He was one 
of the first commanders of Stevens Thompson Mason post of the G.A.R., and was 
state quartermaster-general of that organization when Gen. James H. Kidd was 
state commander.

Although holding membership in the Soldier’s home at Sawtelle, Los Angeles, 
Cal., Mr. and Mrs. Cornell maintained a home where many former Ionians have 
been entertained.  Although in feeble health the past six moths, Mr. Cornell 
had remained at his home until Tuesday, where he was taken to the soldiers’ 
home hospital.


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