Corvis Barre - Civil War Soldier

Corvis was only fifteen years old when he joined the Union Army in May, 1864. He was in active service until the surrender of the Confederate forces.

Following the war Corvis taught in Ohio and then raised livestock and grain on a farm outside Reading. Eventually Corvis moved to Hillsdale and boarded for a time with a local US Marshal and his wife. He made

a wise choice when he married Kate Mitchell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Mitchell, setting himself up to have useful connections. Corvis was an ambitious man with aspirations to be a political force.

He lost as many elections as he won, but in 1878 he was elected county clerk and register in chancery. He studied law in his spare time and became a member of the bar in 1885.  

Kate died in 1885 and Corvis remarried in 1891. According to the Reading Hustler, during that marriage Corvis was sued by another gentleman in town for having an affair with his wife. This salacious bit of news apparently didn't reach Washington, D.C. In 1892 President Henry Harrison appointed Corvis the U.S. Consul at Valparaiso, Chili. Corvis returned home after the next administration appointed its own consul to Chili. He became a businessman, establishing the Hillsdale Screen Company in 1900 and helping to establish the First State Savings Bank in 1902.

JoAnne P. Miller