Adeila Cornwell Ramp, 1917-2015

A member of Malverne’s historical Cornwell family

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Malverne lost the last member of the village’s historical Cornwell family — Adeila Cornwell Ramp — to heart failure on Feb. 5. She was 97, and had lived in the village all her life.

The Cornwell family was among the first families to take up residence in Malverne, said Ramp’s son, George Wolffe. “They date back to the Civil War or more, as far as we can tell,” said Wolffe, who is still a resident.

Ramp, born Dec. 7, 1917, was a homemaker for many years, but also worked at the A&S department store in Hempstead for a brief time, and for Belwyn Mills, a music publishing company in Rockville Centre. Among her biggest passions were her arts and crafts, including dried flower arrangements and antiques that she sold at the Community Presbyterian Church on Nottingham Road, at the Malverne country fair and elsewhere.

Ramp was a granddaughter of Foster Cornwell, for whom Malverne’s Foster Avenue was named — as well as Foster Meadows, which became the Westwood section of the village. Foster Cornwell had two sons, George and Isaac, and Ramp was George’s daughter.

George and Isaac Cornwell were gentleman farmers — they hired others to do the work. George married Elizabeth Rasweiler, a descendant of another historical Malverne farming family, and they had two children, Adeila and Rufus. Adeila lived in the family home, at 293 Hempstead Ave., until her death. The home, according to mynassauproperty.com, was built in 1908, and is among the oldest homes in Malverne.

The Malverne Public Library and the Maurice W. Downing School are among the buildings that now sit on what was once George Cornwell’s farm.

Isaac Cornwell, who married but had no children, lived in a home at the corner of Bond and Franklin avenues until his death. The home has also been owned by Malverne chiropractor Penny Schwartz.

Funeral services for Ramp were held last week at the Community Presbyterian Church in Malverne.