Cornelius B. Nolan
Lewis and Clark County
History of Montana, Sanders, 1913

Cornelius B. Nolan is a junior partner in one of the best 
known legal firms, that of Walsh and Nolan at Helena.  He 
was born on the day before Christmas in the year 1855 in 
County Limerick Ireland.  His father, Bernard Nolan and his 
mother, Catherine Hickey Nolan were both natives of the 
country in which their son was born.  The father passed 
away in his Irish home in 1886, the widowed mother following 
him two years later.  Of their six sons and two daughters, 
five immigrated to the United States.  Cornelius remained 
at home until his sixteenth year, attending school only 
during the winter terms that he might be of assistance 
on the place during the spring and summer seasons.  He 
completed his school education at Dublin and soon after 
set out for America, reaching here in the autumn of 1873.  
He remained at and around Owego, Tioga County New York for 
four years.  There he attended the academy made famous by 
such pupils as Thomas Platt, General Tracy and John D. 
Rockefeller.  And much more than book learning did the 
quick young Irishman acquire during these years of 
association with the youth of America.  After this he 
moved in 1877 to Allegheny Pennsylvania where he was 
employed in a leather establishment.  In the following 
year he went to St. Louis where he entered the law 
office of Robert B. Foster.  Here he gained much 
valuable experience while learning his Blackstone.  
In 1881 he entered the St. Louis Law School, where 
he remained three years, after which time he was 
admitted to practice law in the courts of Missouri.  
During his years of study he acquired a proficiency 
in stenography, realizing its value to the young 
attorney.  To perfect himself in this line he spent 
three years in a wholesale house in Chicago going 
from there to Montana that he might become the 
private secretary to the general manager of the 
freight and passenger service on the Northern Pacific 
Railroad.  Soon, he relinquished this position to 
become official stenographer and court reporter for 
the First Judicial district of Montana.  The First 
district at that time embraced Lewis and Clarke, 
Jefferson and Beaverhead counties reporting for 
Judge N.W. McConnell and later for Judge Henry N. 
Blake.  It was while filling this position that he 
was elected in 1899, prosecuting attorney of Lewis 
and Clarke County.

In 1894 Mr. Nolan was united in marriage to Miss Harriett 
Shober, a niece of John H. Shober, one of Montana's early 
pioneers.  They have no family.