Lenny Cornwell leaving as Greenfield Historical Society president to focus on lineage research

After 16 years as president of the Greenfield Historical Society, Lenny Cornwell will be stepping away from the leadership role.

Having joined the organization in the late 1980s, Cornwell has affected the lives of many through his lineage research and active presence in the town. He said he is leaving the president’s post to focus on helping families research their history.

Cornwell’s own history began in Greenfield, where he was born in the old 1890s farmhouse of his family dairy farm. He went on to work for the Department of Transportation for 30 years, maintaining the roads of Greenfield and the Monadnock region. It was during this time that his father and proprietor of the family farm, Floyd Cornwell, died of ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Eventually, the 25 dairy cows had to be sold, and the farm was, as well. The land has since been converted to a horse farm.

Before the abrupt end to his career as a dairy farmer, Cornwell fully expected to take over for his father. However, he said growing up with a background and intended future in agriculture carried a stigma in his youth.

“Being a farm kid in school, you weren’t the most-popular person,” said Cornwell. “[People saying], ‘the farmers, the dumb farmers,’ that’s what I grew up with.”

Because of the preconceptions held by many of his peers about his upbringing, Cornwell began to socialize primarily with the older members of the community. It was through these friendships that he found his affinity for local history.

“I could get along with them, and I was considered a peer,” said Cornwell. “That was kind of neat, to hear all these wonderful stories of Greenfield; the characters and different things that went on.”

Cornwell’s interest carried into adulthood and was reignited when Jerry Adams, a former president of the society, approached Cornwell with pictures of his childhood home. It was that photograph that got him interested in joining the organization. He started attended meetings and events, then served on the nominating committee for years. After his retirement in 2007, he decided to step into the leadership role of president.

Despite the nature of his position, Cornwell has remained cautious to not let nostalgia cloud his judgment. He has promoted improvements across Greenfield for decades, and supported the new emergency management sign.

“It’s emergency management; if you’re without power for five days, wouldn’t you like to know you can come here and get a shower and hot food?” said Cornwell. “It’s progress.”

Cornwell works closely with families across the country to answer questions of heritage. He scours the basement archive of the society to get information to any family with history in the area. His work has provided a new sense of purpose to the position.

“This woman last year said her father was almost dead; [her ancestor] died in the Civil War, but he lived right on Main Street,” said Cornwell. “So I went down and I found in one of the file boxes, 40 pages on the genealogy and Civil War letters.”

Cornwell then went on to find hundreds of pages of records, including many more letters written by the family’s ancestors. He shared everything he could find in hopes of bringing solace in a difficult time. 

“I’d find little newspaper clippings about the family and stuff and I sent that, too,” said Cornwell. “And by fall, she said, ‘You know, you have no idea what you’ve done for my family.’ She said, ‘My father’s up and back around. She says he’s fine. She said that ‘you’ve revived him.’ That blew my mind. To think that I did that just through research.”