People

Upon leaving Harvard, Henry Corning entered the business in association with his father. In 1895, he was made treasurer of the Standard Sewing Machine Company at 6402 Cedar Avenue. He was elected president in 1914 and served in that capacity until he retired in 1920. After that, he engaged in real estate and personal financial activities.

Henry Wick Corning was born in Cleveland on January 13, 1869, to Warren and Mary Helen (Wick) Corning. He attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1891.

Henry married Edith Warden on November 2, 1897, in Philadelphia. She was born on February 25, 1902. They had three children: Mary Murfey (Hyatt), born on August 30, 1898; Warren Holmes, born on February 25, 1902; and a daughter born in 1913 and died during her first year.

Edith was prominent in the social life in Cleveland and a leader in civic and charitable work.

Five months after being married, Corning was one of the first to respond to the call in April 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.  He was captain of Cleveland’s famed “Black Horse Troop” pressed into federal service as Troop B of the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.

Henry was a director of First National Bank, the Guardian Savings and Trust Company, the Union Trust Company, and the Adams-Bagnall Electric Company.

Social memberships included the Cleveland Athletic, The Country, Mayfield Country, Roadside, Tavern clubs, and the Knickerbocker Club of New York. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and

On November 8, 1917, Henry Wick Corning acquired a large sublot on the northeast corner of the Corning Place development along Lake Erie on November 8, 1917.  Known as sublot 24, the property consisted of 8.5 acres and ran south along the western shore of Dugway Creek.  Henry and Edith had big plans for their new estate. They built a 13,000 square foot Jacobean Revival home designed by Meade & Hamilton on grounds planned by the noted landscape architect A. D. Taylor with the address today of 281 Corning Drive.

Henry died on January 31, 1946, in Lakeside Hospital after a short illness. His estate was valued at over $1.5 million.  Edith retained a life interest in the Corning Place home until her death on April 7, 1953, when the property passed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She was buried alongside Henry in Lake View Cemetery.