Reuben Cornwell, a pioneer of June, 1881, whose adventurous footsteps were among the early ones that invaded that primeval solitude of northern Wyoming, and who has seen the region turned to a smiling garden of productiveness, basking in all the smiles of civilization and prosperity, is a native of New York, where he was born on June 19, 1844. His parents, Wilbur and Sylvia (Mosier) Cornwell, were also native in the Empire state, and when he was six years old they removed to Oakland County, Michigan, where they were engaged in farming. On the Michigan farm he grew to manhood and at intervals attended the schools of the neighborhood. When he was twenty years of age, in September, 1864, he enlisted in the Michigan Light Artillery and served until the end of the Civil War. He returned to Michigan at the end of his term, and, in 1871, moved to Iowa, locating in Chickasaw County. There for ten years he followed farming, and, in 1881, came to Wyoming, settling in Sheridan County and taking up land on Prairie Dog Creek. He passed a year there in the stock business, and, in 1882, took up his residence in the town of Sheridan, and began to carry the mails under contract between that town and Berne, Montana. At the end of three years he relinquished his contract for this work, and, during the next five years conducted a stock business on land he had taken up on preemption and desert claims. In 1900 he sold his ranch and again moved to Sheridan, and since then he has been handling cattle on the ranges, having generally 200 head or more. Mr. Cornwell takes an active interest in the affairs of the town and county of his residence. He is a member of the grand Army of the Republic and also of the Old Settlers’ Club, being active in the service of both organizations. He was married in Iowa in 1874 to Miss Martha Coutant, a native of that state and a daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Stohl) Coutant, early emigrants from Pennsylvania to Iowa, when the latter was a wild and unsettled frontier. Mrs. Cornwell is, also, like her husband, an interested and active member of the Old Settlers’ Club, much esteemed in the social and church circles of the county seat. Her presence and her influence are felt in all works of charity and benevolence.
