Introduction

Biography

Warren was the son of Joe­hi­da Cor­nell and Ol­ive Sluss­er, and hus­band of Jen­nie Es­telle Ro­berts (mar­ried 1880, Gaines­ville, Tex­as).

As of 1880, he was in Den­ton, Tex­as, iden­ti­fied in the cen­sus as a Min­is­ter of the Gos­pel.

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 [Gaines­ville] 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 Gaines­ville, 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.

Acme Pub­lish­ing, p. 696–97