Biographical Sketch of

Rev. Warren Cornell

Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou for the Marquette Co WI Pages


Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 696 - 697


Rev. Warren D. Cornell, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Berlin, and Secretary of the Union Council of 
the Paving Cutters' Union, is a native of Michigan, having been born in the town of Whiteford, Monroe County, April 
25, 1858.  His parents were Joehida and Olive (Slusser) Cornell.  His father was born near White Lake, Vt., of 
English parentage, and removed to Monroe County, Mich., in an early day, where he became acquainted with and 
married Miss Slusser, a native of Whiteford.
 
Our subject was reared in his native State and in his youth attended the common schools, that course being 
supplemented by a partial course in Raisen Valley Seminary.  When nineteen years of age, in 1877, he went to 
Dallas, Tex., where he had charge of the colored schools of the First and Fourth wards of that city.  Beginning 
in the fall of 1878 he taught until early spring of the following year, when he went to Fort Worth, of the same 
State, and was licensed by the Methodist Episcopal Church as a minister of that denomination, and assigned to 
Denton as his first charge.  He was there maintained until the fall of 1880, when he was transferred to Gainsville 
in the same State, where he discharged the duties of pastor until the autumn of 1881, when he came North and 
joined the Wisconsin Conference at Berlin.  He was first sent to Iola and Ogdensburg, Waupaca County, and in 
addition to his duty as pastor of those churches, he conducted a revival in Union, of the same county, with 
great success. His labors in that community were productive of much good, and he continued until 1882, when he 
took charge of the church in Parfreyville, Waupaca County, where he labored two years at a salary of $450 a year.  
In the fall of 1884 he was assigned to Hortonville and Medina, in Outagamie County,Wis., where he spent the two 
succeeding years, when in the fall of 1886 he went to Rosendale, and was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in that village until the fall of 1888, when he came to Berlin, and has since served as pastor of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church of that city.  In November, 1889, he took charge of the Methodist Home Journal,  was publisher 
and editor, a State illustrated religious monthly newspaper.  Twenty-five hundred copies of this paper have been 
issued ever since November, and the list of subscribers has constantly increased, and the paper promises to be 
of great service to Wisconsin Methodism, and the charges in general.
 
Mr.Cornell was united in the holy bonds of matrimony in Gainsville, Tex., July 31, 1880, with Miss Jennie E. 
Roberts, daughter of Henry and Mary Roberts.  She was born in Seneca Falls, N. Y., and in childhood removed to 
Lenawee County, Mich., with her parents.  She is an accomplished lady, having graduated from the High School 
of Sylvania, Ohio, in the class of 1871.
 
To Mr. and Mrs. Cornell there have been born a family of five children, four sons and a daughter--Gerald Arthur, 
Lona Gladys, Louis Jacquot, Warren D. and William Collins.
 
Mr. Cornell is Secretary of the Paving Cutters' Union, and since Jan. 1, 1888, has edited a monthly journal in 
the interest of that organization at Berlin.  The paper has a circulation of 2,000 copies, and is rapidly growing 
in popularity and circulation.  The Paving Cutters' Union of America has sixty different branches, representing 
nearly every State in the Union, and a total membership of more than 2,000.  Mr. Cornell possesses vigor and well 
trained intellectual powers, is eminently practical in his views, and earnest and dramatic in delivery.  His 
hearers are always entertained and instructed and all speak in high terms of his ability and earnestness in his 
work.






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