Thomas R. Cornelius

Cornelius was born in Missouri, on November 16, 1827, to Elizabeth and Benjamin Cornelius.[1] In 1845, Thomas and his family traveled over the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country and set up a farm on the Tualatin Plains, north of what would become the community of Cornelius.[1] After the Whitman Massacre in late 1847, Thomas volunteered for the militia of the Oregon Provisional Government in 1848.[2] The militia prosecuted the Cayuse War in an attempt to punish those responsible for the killings at the Whitman Mission.[1]

After gold was discovered in California, Cornelius journeyed there for a brief time, returning to the Oregon Territory in 1849.[1] The next year, he married Florentine Wilkes, and they had six children together before she died in 1864, including son Benjamin.[2] The family would settle on 640 acres (2.6 km²) of their Donation Land Claim near Cornelius.[1] In 1855, a second war against the Native Americans started east of the Cascade Mountains against the Yakima tribe. Cornelius volunteered again for the militia.[1] For three months, he led a company with the rank of captain before being elected as colonel after James W. Nesmith resigned his commission.[2] Cornelius continued as colonel until the end of the war in 1856.[2]During this campaign, his troops waged war indiscriminately against any natives found in the area. In one case, a Nez Perce native was accused of being a spy and summarily hanged, which alarmed members of the U.S. military.

In 1856, Cornelius was elected to upper chamber of the Oregon Territorial Legislature, called the Council.[3] Serving as a Whig, he represented Washington, Columbia, and Multnomah counties in District 8. He won re-election to the Council in 1857[4] and again in 1858 to the final session of the territorial legislature.[5] In 1859, he continued holding office in the newly formed Oregon State Senate after Oregon entered the Union on February 14, 1859 as the 33rd state.[6]

In the Oregon Senate, Cornelius continued as a Republican, representing Washington County and several other counties through the 1874 legislature.[7] His service was interrupted by the American Civil War during 1862 session,[8] when he was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln to raise a regiment of cavalry for federal service.[2] He was chosen as colonel of the troops and they deployed to a military post at Walla Walla, Washington, where he assumed command. He resigned during the summer of 1862 and returned home.[2]

During the 1866 legislature, Cornelius was selected as President of the Oregon Senate.[9] In 1886, he won the Republican nomination for Governor of Oregon, but lost the general election to Sylvester Pennoyer.[10]

After his first wife died in 1864, Cornelius remarried in 1866 to Missouri A. Smith.[2] In 1872, he moved to Cornelius, which would be renamed after him, and opened a store.[1][2] In addition to the store, Cornelius owned a total of 1,500 acres (6.1 km²), including covering three farms, a warehouse, and a sawmill.[1] He built the Cornelius Pass Road that linked the Tualatin Valley to the Columbia River.[11] Cornelius died on June 24, 1899, at the age of 71.[1] He was buried at the Cornelius Methodist Church Cemetery.[12]

• Cornelius, Oregon
• Growth of early Cornelius