Life is so full of surprises. I have written over 50 columns of Cheboygan County history this past year. It is becoming increasingly difficult to bring light to new, unique, and, sometimes, long-lost stories to share with my faithful readers.

As I was looking for a topic to research and write about this week, a miracle happened out of the blue. It was delivered compliments of my next-door neighbor. Knowing my interest in area history, she brought me a copy of her family history as recorded by her aunt.

While her aunt was dying, she chose to use her remaining energy to write down her memories of her life and family. It was a very personal story. She wrote 16 pages, describing family members, where they lived, their joys and tragedies. And their pranks!

Her story begins in Cheboygan County in a settlement called “Cornwell.”

I have been writing Cheboygan County history for many years, but I had never heard of it. Immediately, many questions came to my mind. Where was Cornwell? Was it near Cornwall Creek and Cornwall Flooding? When had it existed? Who lived there? What were their stories? My neighbor’s aunt gave us a vivid description of the village, its purpose, and its people.

I started researching. I was excited to learn something new. I asked the Cheboygan County Historical Society if they had heard of it. They did not have any records related to Cornwell.

I did learn it was a bustling lumbering town that was a vital part of Cheboygan County’s early development. I also learned that “Cornwell” and “Cornwall” were sometimes interchanged.

So next I had to discover where it was located. I have an early Cheboygan County map and using it I located Cornwell in Nunda Township, one of our county’s southern townships. Someone said that it is close to Wolverine but really it is not. It is closer to Forest Township and closest of all to the now extinct Maple Grove Township. A driver turning onto Osmun Road, east of Afton, would drive some distance and take a right turn to get to Cornwell territory.

Cornwell, indeed, had existed.

This is how my neighbor’s aunt described living there:

“The little I know of our family history came from Mom or from my memories. When Mom graduated from county normal it must have been about 1909 or 1910. The school that she was assigned to teach in was at Cornwall, Michigan. It was a one room school located not too far from Wolverine and it is no longer in existence.”

Cornwall was a little lumbering town. It had a one-room schoolhouse, a general store, and a little church, much like the little town from the television show ‘”Little House on The Prairie.'”

“Near this little town was a huge lumbering and logging company which was run by Grandpa Perry. Dad and his brothers all worked there. The railroad tracts ran down the center of the town and on each side were the houses.”

“Grandpa and Grandma lived in a big white house and Grandma took in boarders. This is where Mom lived during the time that she taught at the Cornwall School. Every evening, they would all sit around the kitchen table and Mom would teach the men. Some had never gone to school.”

“Once a month the men would go to Wolverine for supplies. A handcar was put on the railroad tracks. It had a bench on each end and a hand pump in the center. It took two men to push it back and forth to make it go. They had to watch and to listen for trains. If a train was coming they would have to jump off and lift the handcar off the tracks until the train passed.”

She goes on to say that her mom and dad fell in love and went to Cheboygan to be married. When they returned to Cornwall, their home was an abandoned railroad caboose which had been fixed up by relatives. The caboose had all of two rooms!

My neighbor’s aunt added one more thing. She said that one of the happiest moments of her life was when the Cornwall train stopped in front of their house to deliver a new piano.

My interest in this long-gone village was piqued. So I started doing more research to discover why and how it was founded. I learned that the village was founded by Lewis Cornwell. Lewis was a well-to-do businessman in Saginaw and Bay City. He was a large wholesale meat dealer. He was also a lumberman who built camps and two mills, one in Wolverine and on the Pigeon River.

His father, Edwin Cornwall, was born in Connecticut in 1812 and died in Flint in 1883. His mother, Amy Bacon Coats, was born in Massachusetts in 1804. She died in Mt. Morris in 1868. Edwin later married Mary Hinkley.

Lewis was born March 23, 1837, in Mt. Morris, near Flint, Michigan. He married Mary Jane Woolfitt in 1862. They had at least three daughters and five sons. One of his sons, Lewis, Jr, lived on Mullett Lake.

Lewis died May 5, 1903, in Saginaw. His obituary was published in the May 9 edition of the Cheboygan Democrat: “Lewis Cornwell, the wholesaler meat dealer, of Saginaw, died Tuesday at the age of 67. Mr. Cornwell was well known in Cheboygan, owing to lumbering operations which he had carried on in this county for years, having mills at the Pigeon River and also at Wolverine. Mr. Cornwell was a splendid businessman and his loss will be deplored.”

Lewis’ genealogy traces back to Westfield, Connecticut, and, before that, to England. The first Cornwall in America, William, was a Puritan. He arrived in the 1630s.

Little remains in Cheboygan County honoring him as a prominent businessman and lumber pioneer. But, while he may not be remembered today, the name of the settlement he founded is in the news. The state built a dam on Cornwall Creek in 1966 to create the Cornwall Flooding, a 294-acre nonmotorized and undeveloped lake in the heart of the Pigeon River State Forest. The lake is a popular recreation destination for fishermen and women, campers, hunters and hikers. It is good for fishing bluegill, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed fish and yellow perch. It has a boat launch and a shore-to-shore trail.

Today, the earthen dam is in a terribly poor and dangerous condition. If it bursts, it will put people and homes downriver at risk. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has been looking for years for funding and grants to rehabilitate the dam, but efforts have been unsuccessful so far.

MDNR officials believe it is necessary to start a draw-down of the lake to lessen the pressure on the dam and prevent a tragedy. Drawing down the lake could lead directly to a decision to remove the dam and drain the lake completely.

A local group of environmental and recreational-minded residents has also worked for grants to fund the rehab of the dam. They are opposed to dam removal because of the economic costs to the area, the environmental impact on creek water flowing directly to the Pigeon River, and the lost recreational opportunities. The group is also working with area legislators to add an appropriation to rehab the dam to the upcoming state budget.

I am hoping that in some small way, my sharing the long-forgotten story of how Cornwell came to be, will help spur legislators and more members of the public to action to save this important lake. Call it a gift to the memory of the founder. Lewis Cornwell, who believed in the area’s potential more than 150 years ago.