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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
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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. 0. 0. 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.