Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Schoonmaker, Cornelius

SCHOONMAKER, Cornelius, member of congress, b. in Rochester, Ulster co.. N. Y., in June, 1745; d. in Shawangunk, Ulster co., in February or March, 1796. He sat in the state assembly from the adoption of the constitution in 1777 till 1790, was a member of the convention that adopted the Federal constitution in 1788, and served in congress from 24 Oct., 1791, till 3 March, 1793; — His grandson, Marius, b. in Kingston, N. Y., 24 April, 1811; d. there, 5 Jan., 1894, was graduated at Yale in 1830, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and hud practised in Kingston. He was a member of the state senate in 1850-'1, and, as chairman of a special committee on the code drew up amendments that constituted a thorough revision of the act. He was elected to congress as a Whig, and served from 1 Dec., 1851, till 3 March, 1853. In 1854 he was auditor of the canal department, and in 1855-'6 he served as superintendent of the bank department of the state of New York. He was president of the Kingston board of education from its establishment in 1863 till 1872, and in 1867 was a member of the State constitutional convention. He had published speeches in congress on “Public Lands” (Washington, 1852) and “The Slave Question” (1852), and is the author of a “History of Kingston from its First Settlement to 1820,” which was published in 1888.