Cornish, James, 1877-1935

CORNISH, ARMSTRONG

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:36

From the Hawarden Independent, October 31, 1935:

KIDNEY CRUSHED IN ACCIDENT
James Cornish Badly Hurt While Picking Corn Saturday

James Cornish, who formerly farmed southwest of Hawarden but the past year had made his home with his brother, Arthur Cornish, southeast of Hawarden, was seriously injured Saturday afternoon when the team hitched to a wagon became frightened and ran away. Mr. Cornish and his brother, Arthur Cornish, were picking corn in the same field with two wagons and when the team became frightened Mr. Cornish reached for the lines in an effort to stop them. Mr. Cornish fell to the ground and the wagon passed over his side and chest. He was brought to the Hawarden hospital immediately where he was under observation for several days. Wednesday morning he submitted to an operation for the removal of a kidney which was ruptured in the accident.

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From the Hawarden Independent, November 7, 1935:

JAMES CORNISH DIED SUNDAY
Death Caused by Injuries in Runaway Accident
Was 58 Years Old and Spent Most of His Life Near Here—Leaves Ten Brothers and Sisters

James Cornish, for the past fourteen years a resident of the Hawarden community, died at the Hawarden hospital at 3:20 Sunday afternoon [November 3] as a result of injuries which he received in a cornfield runaway accident about a week earlier. While assisting his brother, Arthur Cornish, residing southeast of Hawarden, with corn picking the afternoon of Oct. 26th, the team which he was driving became frightened and ran away. In reaching for the lines in an endeavor to stop the team Mr. Cornish fell down and the partially loaded wagon passed over his side and chest.

He was brought to the Hawarden hospital immediately and after being kept under observation for several days his condition became so critical that surgery was resorted to in an effort to save his life. One of his kidneys was found to be badly crushed and it was removed but the shock to his system had been so severe that he failed to rally satisfactorily and death claimed him Sunday.

Funeral services were held at the home of his sister, Mrs. Henry Jones, at Beresford at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon and at the Congregational church there at 2 o’clock, with Rev. Harper of Beresford in charge. Interment was made in the Gothland cemetery between Alcester and Beresford.

Thomas James Wesley Cornish, son of Andrew S. and Margaret Cornish, was born in Canada April 22, 1877, so was 58 years of age at the time of his death. He was the eldest of a family of eleven children and was the first to be called by death. His father died in 1896 and his mother passed away four years ago. When still a small child he came to Plymouth county with his parents but after a brief period there moved to Union county, S.D., and lived the greater part of his life in the vicinity of Beresford, Alcester and Hawarden. About twenty-five years ago he took a claim in Canada but returned to this locality after a residence of six or seven years there. He farmed for himself for a period of about ten years, southwest of Hawarden, but since the death of his mother four years ago he has made his home with his brothers and sisters.

Being the eldest child in a large family a great many of the hardships of pioneer life fell on his shoulders but he carried his responsibilities cheerfully and without complaint. He was always a hard and steady worker, a kindly neighbor and enjoyed the confidence and respect of all who knew him and many outside the family circle are grieved at the tragic manner of his death.

He is survived by six brothers and four sisters, Mrs. D. R. Jenkins, Alcester; Mrs. E. G. Harris, Riverside, Calif.; Alfred Cornish, Beresford; Mrs. Frank McGuire, Hawarden; Mrs. Geo. McCall, Alcester; Martin Cornish, Estelline, S.D.; Arthur Cornish, Hawarden; Mrs. Henry Jones, Beresford; Mrs. Jesse Hoard, Beresford; and Archie Cornish, Alcester.

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From the Alton Democrat, November 8, 1935:

HURTS FATAL IN RUNAWAY
J. M. Cornish Is Run Over By Corn Wagon

James M. Cornish who received serious injuries in a cornfield runaway past week passed away at the Hawarden hospital last Saturday. Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at Beresford, S.D., the old home of the deceased. Mr. Cornish’s team became frightened and in an attempt to stop them he grabbed the lines, slipped and fell beneath the wagon wheel which passed over him, crushed his chest and inflicted head injuries from which he did not regain consciousness. He was 57 years of age and made his home with his brother Art near McNally at whose farm the accident occurred. He was unmarried.

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RESEARCH NOTES

His death certificate also gives his full name; parents Andrew Cornish, born in Canada, and Margaret Armstrong, born in England; died November 3, 1935; cause of death, ruptured kidney as the result of a runaway accident on October 26; contributory cause, traumatic pneumonia. A nephrectomy had been performed on October 30.

A Middlesex County, Canada birth register on Ancestry.com shows him born in North Dorchester, where his father, Andrew S. Cornish, is a farmer.

His FindaGrave.com page has him as James W. Cornish, with a photo of his headstone. It gives his parents as Andrew Saul Cornish (1849-1896) and Margaret Armstrong Cornish (1854-1932).

His World War I draft registration card (September 1918, age 41) has him as Thomas James Cornish (and he signs it thus), living in Beresford; citizenship: non-declarant alien; medium height and build, blue eyes, brown hair.

The 1930 U.S. census shows him as a farmer in Virginia Township, Union County, South Dakota; age 53; renting his farm; immigrated in 1880, naturalized. His widowed mother Margaret (76) is living with him.