City Directories and History: 1908 – J.B. Lyles (Druggist), 1940 – William A. Corkill, 1958 – William A. Corkill, 1978 – John B. Corkill
Originally the home of one of John L. Albright’s daughters, Mary Margaret Albright Stewart, this delightful
Queen Anne, one story house, is a landmark in downtown Chester. John L. Albright was a carpenter or in mid 19th century terms a “mechanic” living in Chester as early as the 1830’s. The Albright family were involved in construction as well as the sash and door manufacturing business. The house features a lovely wide porch, bay window, and set of graceful front doors this house would be complete if the eve and porch brackets were intact, that is if they were ever in use. For additional information on this house see the link below.
W. A. Corkill, the long-term Pres. of Chester’s Peoples National Bank resided here.
Informative link: Queen Anne Architecture
“Mr. Corkill attended Chester’s first graded school founded in 1879. The school was located on Academy Street, the present home of the Walker family. W.H. Witherow was principal and teachers were Mrs. M.A. Bland, Miss Bettie Killian and Miss Lizzie Cornwell, music teacher. The cost per pupil was $2.50 a month for the 125 children who attended. The cost of operating the school was less than $3,000 for the nine month session. In 1982 the new school building on College Street was formally opened and all the cildren went there.
Mr. Corkill as a young man fell in love with the daughter of the publisher of The Chester Reporter. On December 6, 1900, he and the late Moultrie Buchanan Corkill eloped by train and were married at the home of a friend, Minnie Miller, in Lancaster. They were married almost 60 years and had reared two sons when she died in 1960. Mr. Corkill organized The Peoples Bank in 1905 and successfully operated it as president until his retirement.
Mr. W.A. (Will) Corkill founder of The Peoples Bank and one of Chester’s outstanding citizens, Sunday, August 27, 1967, observed his 90th birthday. The day was highlighted with a birthday dinner complete with an embossed birthday cake bearing three candles, — “one for the past, one for the present, and one for the future.”
Surrounded by his sons, McCoy of Asheville, N.C. and John of Chester, his sister Miss Ocey Corkill, daughter-in-law Mrs. McCoy (Ina) Corkill and a group of neighbors and friends, Mr. Corkill pro-nounced the day a happy occasion. A special treat was the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Wheeler, Lois and Julia, of Aiken who were former neighbors and special friends.
After a rich, useful and active life, Mr. Corkill spends his days quietly at his home, 129 York Street, where he has lived a long, long time. He keeps up with current events both worldwide and local, and has refreshing and penetrating comments about what’s going on. His memory is keen as he recalls people and happenings almost all the way back to 1879 when he came to Chester as a three-year old boy. His parents William M. and Julia McCoy Corkill, his four sisters and one brother lived in a house that stood on the site now occupied by the new Post Office on Saluda Street. He has seen Chester grow from a small hamlet to a good size town.”
(Information in part from: Chester County Heritage Book, Vol. I, Edt. by Collins – Knox, Published by the Chester Co Hist. Society – Jostens Printing, 1982)
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