Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Corbin, A T 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 28, 2008, 11:54 pm

Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

A. T. Corbin is probably the oldest merchant in continuous business in Will 
county, having been connected with commercial interests here since 1854. He 
was eleven years of age when he entered active business life and down to the 
present he has sustained an unassailable reputation for probity and fairness 
in his dealings and for progressiveness in the conduct of his interests. He 
was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1843, a son of Elihu Corbin, who came to Will 
county in 1852, accompanied by his family, then numbering wife and five 
children. He was a native of Vermont and his removal to this state followed a 
residence of a number of years in Ohio. Near Plainfield he purchased a farm, 
which he subsequently platted into town lots and the same now comprises the 
eastern part of the village. Later he engaged in mercantile pursuits, 
purchasing a store which he conducted for several years, after which he sold 
his interest to Mr. Chittenden, his partner. He long figured prominently in 
community affairs, serving for about a quarter of a century as justice of the 
peace, in which office he rendered decisions that were strictly fair and 
impartial. He held membership in the Methodist church and his religious faith 
permeated his entire life, shaping his conduct in all his relations with his 
fellow men. He died in the year 1894, at the age of eighty-three years, while 
his wife passed away in July, 1905, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. 
She bore the maiden name of Eliza A. Fish and was a native of Connecticut, 
whence at an early day she removed to Cleveland, Ohio. Pier father was a 
soldier of the war of 1812. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Elihu Corbin were 
five children: L. D., of Plainfield, who is clerking for his brother, A. T. 
Corbin; Mary E., of Plainfield; Mrs. Hannah Sullivan, a widow living in 
Missouri; Mrs. Emily M. Holbrook, a widow of Batavia, Illinois; and Edward, 
who died in Colorado in 1893. A. T. Corbin, entering his father's store at the 
age of eleven years, has since been continuously identified with merchandising 
at Plainfield. He acted as clerk for Mr. Chittenden for a long period and 
became a partner in the business in 1870. In 1880, in connection with Mr. 
Chittenden's son, he bought the interest of the senior Chittenden and 
continued under the firm style of Corbin & Chittenden. In 1890 he became sole 
proprietor and has conducted the store to the present time. Employment is 
given to three or four salespeople and he carries a well selected and large 
stock of general dry goods. Mr. Corbin was married in Plainfield to Miss Laura 
A. Pratt, a daughter of Sanford S. Pratt, a pioneer of this village. Here Mrs. 
Corbin was born and by her marriage has become the mother of one daughter, 
Grace, now the wife of Charles H. Davidson, of Phoenix, Arizona, where he is 
engaged in business as a hardware merchant. They have two children, Harold C. 
and Miriam. Mr. Corbin has recently erected a fine new residence in Plainfield 
and is now most comfortably situated in life. Politically he is a republican, 
but without aspiration for office. Socially he is connected with Plainfield 
lodge, A. F. & A. M., while his wife is a member of the Congregational church. 
No man in Plainfield is better known than A. T. Corbin and none have more 
friends. His long residence here, his sterling traits of character and his 
devotion to the public welfare have made him a most valued citizen and he has 
found in his business career that success is ambition's answer. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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