Palm Beach County FlArchives Biographies.....CORWIN, HENRY B. 1846 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 July 25, 2008, 2:18 am Author: The History of Florida: Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1923, Vol. II pg.215 CORWIN, HENRY B., a retired contractor and builder of West Palm Beach, is a Florida pioneer, having come to this state half a century ago. He knows different sections of Florida, particularly the East Coast, as only a man can through long experience and residence. Mr. CORWIN is a native of Ohio and represents the distinguished CORWIN family of that state. He was born near Lebanon in Warren County in 1846, son of BENJAMIN and JANE (BROWN) CORWIN. The southern branch of the CORWIN family originated at Jamestown, Virginia. The Corwins were among the contemporaries of DANIEL BOONE as pioneers in Kentucky. They settled in Bourbon County. From Bourbon County JOSEPH CORWIN, grandfather of the West Palm Beach citizen, moved about 1794 and became one of the earliest settlers in the famous Miami Valley of Ohio. His son, BENJAMIN CORWIN, was born in Warren County in 1809. The pioneer spirit has always been strong in the family, and it was doubtless that spirit which actuated HENRY B. CORWIN in seeking a new home and new opportunities for himself in Florida. One very famous member of this family was Gov. THOMAS CORWIN of Ohio, a son of MATTHIAS CORWIN and a nephew of the JOSEPH CORWIN above mentioned. THOMAS CORWIN was a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky, and as a boy moved with his parents to Warren County, Ohio. He served as governor of Ohio from 1840 to 1842, as United States senator from 1845 to 1850, was secretary of the treasury under President Millard Fillmore, and was a minister to Mexico from 1861 to 1864. He died at Washington in 1865. He was a contemporary of Webster, Clay and other great men of that time, and as a lawyer and statesman had a fame of national scope. In a public address on Governor CORWIN, ROBERT G. INGERSOLL declared him to have been “the greatest orator of his time”. HENRY B. CORWIN grew up on the old farm in the rich Miami Valley, famous for its beauty and its agricultural wealth. His life was on the farm until he was twenty-one. In 1868 he left his home state, lived about a year in Michigan, and in 1869 came South, remaining at Rome, Georgia, for a time and then going to Selma, Alabama, where he was foreman in the railroad shops. As a youth he had learned the trade of carpenter, and was a good all around mechanic. After a trip to New Orleans he came to Florida in 1871. After a short stay at Cedar Keys he crossed the state to a locality where has since grown the town and flourishing city of Daytona. No town of any kind existed there when he established his home in 1871, and in fact he was one of the first settlers of what has become one of the most attractive cities on the Florida East Coast. Mr. CORWIN was a resident of Daytona for thirty years, and when he left the city in 1901 he was hailed as “the oldest settler”. After leaving Daytona he spent several years with his family in Colorado and Oklahoma, but in 1911 returned to Florida and located permanently at West Palm Beach. While at Daytona he developed an extensive orange grove at Blake in Volusia County, four miles south of Daytona. This industry was caught in the freeze of 1895, and thereafter he was satisfied to let the citrus fruit business alone. At several periods in his life Mr. CORWIN has suffered severe reverses. Each time he has conquered his difficulties by facing new tasks cheerfully and unflinchingly, wasting no sorrow on the past. With a man of such spirit age has no terrors and the present is always sufficient time and opportunity. On coming to West Palm Beach in 1911 Mr. CORWIN was practically penniless. He began building up a business in a small way as a contractor and builder, being then sixty-five years of age. He put into his business as much energy and enthusiasm as any young man. The result was that he was soon on the road to easier circumstances, and in the course of less than ten years, he had gained a substantial competence. Mr. CORWIN owns much valuable property in West Palm Beach. His home is at the southwest corner of South Poinsettia and Iris streets, on the famous Dixie Highway, and is in the midst of the city’s greatest activity. Mr. CORWIN retired from the building business in 1920, but it is still carried on by his son H. RAYMOND CORWIN. Mr. CORWIN has seen a great deal of the United States, and his long experience has convinced him that the East Coast of South Florida is the finest country in the world. Mr. CORWIN has a daughter, Mrs. SARAH E. CONKLIN, by his first marriage. His present wife was formerly ELIZA E. CAUSEY. Their three children are H. RAYMOND, GLENN and CECIL. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/palmbeach/bios/corwin93nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/flfiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb