[Phil_the_Author]

I would like to introduce you to Mr. H.H. Cornish, otherwise known as “Far and Sure.”

In the February 1919 issue of the American Golfer, p.374-376, in his column “Eastern Department” writing as “Hazard” A.W. Tillinghast wrote:

“It is with deep regret that I have to announce the death of Mr. H.H. Cornish. For a number of years Mr. Cornish was a familiar figure at all local golf tournaments and he supplied the Philadelphia newspapers with the summaries of golf events in the district. A fair player himself, he took a keen interest in the game as well as tennis, cricket and soccer. Frequently he assisted the officials of the Golf Association of Philadelphia in clerical work incidental to the many annual tournaments. He came to this country from England a number of years ago and for a time he was the editor of The American Cricketer. In those days… all of the Sunday [cricket] scores were sent to Mr. Cornish, who distributed them among the newspapers… Afterwards, turning to golf, he gleaned the summaries of events for publication. For a period he assisted in the preparation of editorial matter for magazines and publications affiliated with the games he loved so well…” 

It has been established with a certainty that whoever was Far and Sure” was the “Sporting Editor” for two Philadelphia journals. H.H. Cornish was the editor at both the American Cricketer and Country Club Life. Both of these were dedicated to sports and, in fact, Tilly also wrote for them.

That Tilly and Cornish knew each other well is a given; for if they hadn’t Tilly wouldn’t have written so long a part of his column about his death. What few people know is that Tilly himself was a fabulous cricket player and played on nationally recognized teams well into his twenties. It is for this reason that Tilly was probably invited to write about golf for the American Cricketer.

In Cornish’s obituary it also mentioned that, in addition to being editor of the two journals above, that he also worked for several Philadelphia newspapers. In the Inquirer it stated that, “Later when golf and soccer football became firmly established here Mr. Cornish turned his attention to those sports as well as lawn tennis. He reported on all the leading tournaments and games, and was considered an authority in his time.” 

Cornish was a pretty good golfer as well. In fact, as noted from the earlier mention of his work with the Golf Association of Philadelphia, they too recognized his value to the game of golf in the region. Tilly wrote in the American golfer in February 1919 that, “As mentioned before in this magazine the Association has paid a fine tribute to the late Mr. H.H. Cornish, the newspaper man, and the first playing of the Cornish Memorial will be over Aronomink, the home course of the lamented golfer an journalist.”

In his columns in the American Golfer, especially in 1912, “Far and Sure” wrote a good many times about Tilly’s Shawnee golf course. He was able to do so because he was a good friend of Tilly’s and had himself competed in tournaments at the course.

To summarize then, AMONG the reasons for concluding that H.H. Cornish was the man who wrote for the American Golfer magazine under the pseudonym of “Far and Sure” are:

1- He was the Sporting Editor for two Philadelphia Journals, the American cricketer and Country Club Life.
2- He wrote for several Philadelphia newspapers at various times about many different sports including golf at which he reported on local events and tournaments.
3- He worked with the Golf Association of Philadelphia assisting in gathering together scores and results of annual tournaments.
4- He was honored by the GAP at his death with their naming a local tournament in his honor.
5- He was a fine player in his own right and competed locally.
6- He knew all the Philly area men of golf and associated with them regularly.
7- He regularly played at all of the clubs.
8- He was a member of Aronomink.
9- He was recognized as a “newspaper man” and a journalist at his death by both Tilly and the local newspapers in their obituaries of him.
10- He was a good friend of Tilly’s and was very aware of Shawnee from before it was opened and on until he died.

Guys, I think the puzzle is solved…

[Joe Bausch]

Hmm, maybe the puzzle is solved.

However, wasn't it in that Far and Sure article  the writer said he was a sporting editor at two newspapers, or was it journals.  I can't seem to find that article.  The American Cricketer and Country Club Life were not newspapers, were they?

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil,

Interesting theory...

However, I don't see Mr. Cornish listed among the attendees at the 1912 GAP Annual Dinner, which "Far and Sure" gave a very personal eyewitness account of.   

This also doesn't explain about another 4,790 amazing coincidences between Tillinghast and "Far and Sure" including the most recent I posted where "Far and Sure" told about the work ongoing at Philly CC and how he would be doing a review soon, only to be followed by "Hazard" writing exactly the same thing shortly thereafter and then doing the review.

However, I'll keep looking to see what I can find that might tie him to "Far and Sure", as well.   

[Joe Bausch]

Also, Far and Sure's article where he says he was the "sporting editor of two of the largest papers, in point of circulation" would not obviously be The American Cricketer and Country Club Life, neither of which are newspapers, nor had large circulations!

Plus, that Far and Sure article was written in 1912, and Country Club Life did not start until 1914.

Back to the drawing board, Phil? 

[Joe Bausch]

H. H. Cornish died in October of 1918.  His obituary mentions he wrote for various newspapers, but was not a sports editor.  Here it is:

[Phil_the_Author]

Joe,

You commented and asked, "However, wasn't it in that Far and Sure article  the writer said he was a sporting editor at two newspapers, or was it journals.  I can't seem to find that article.  The American Cricketer and Country Club Life were not newspapers, were they?"

Well yes, they were, but then again when the argument was being raised that Tilly was F&S and the point about being editor at two papers was mentioned, it was pointed out that Tilly was the Golf Editor at the American Cricketer.

So if this eliminates Mr. Cornish it most certainly eliminates tilly for the very same reason. In addition, we don't know if Cornish was Sports Editor at any of the newspapers in philly, though we do know that he wrote for a number of them.

Mike, you noted, "However, I don't see Mr. Cornish listed among the attendees at the 1912 GAP Annual Dinner, which "Far and Sure" gave a very personal eyewitness account of..."

I am well aware of this, but take another look at the article. Where in it does "Far and Sure" state that HE WAS PRESENT? He doesn't. Now that doesn't mean that he wasn't either. He might have decided not to include his name as an attendee, or he may not have even been presentT

Up till now you have concluded that whoever wrote that article MUST have attended. Knowing H.H. Cornish's background relationships shows that it wouldn't necessarily be so. He knew everyone who was present. In fact, because of the WORK THAT HE DID for GAP he would surely have been an invitee. if he hadn't gone then he surely would have inquired about the goings on. The reports of what occurred at the dinner would have been quite easy for him to obtain in his normal course of things; this includes hearing about and getting copies of the poems that Tilly entertained one and all with.

You mentioned, "This also doesn't explain about another 4,790 amazing coincidences between Tillinghast and "Far and Sure" including the most recent I posted where "Far and Sure" told about the work ongoing at Philly CC and how he would be doing a review soon, only to be followed by "Hazard" writing exactly the same thing shortly thereafter and then doing the review..."

I'm sorry Mike, but these "coincidences" are merely that and, in my opinion, what you perceive to be near identical reporting by these two really isn't. Take a long look again and you will see where the items and facts mentioned are often quite different from each other and the only thing that is the same is either the course or the people involved. That he would write on similar topics at the same time as Tilly did is no mystery or even coincidence but the natural order of things. Writers write about what interest them and especially golf writers do. When they are local to the same region and even city, especially one that had few great courses and tournaments during the years 1908-1912 when "Far and Sure" wrote for AG then it should come as no surprise when big news about clubs such as Merion, Pine Valley, Shawnee and yes, the Philadelphia Country Club are written by more than one person at the same time. That similar articles share similar information is to be expected and is not a coincidence...

In addition, Cornish hathered the information about clubs, tournament results and people for the GAP, local Philadelphia area newspapers, etc... and regularly SHARED this information with others including Tilly...
  

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil,

It would not surprise me at all to find that Mr. Cornish contributed all of the tournament summaries and detailed minutae of competitions that appeared in both "Far and Sure"'s and "Hazard"'s articles over the years because if Tillinghast was indeed compiling that level of detail under either or both pen names he truly never slept!   

However, the editorial commentary...the course reviews and particularly architectural news...I have no doubt whatsoever that "Hazard" and "Far and Sure" were the same person.

However, based on all of the "Hazard" articles I've read, I'm only about 90% sure that it was Tillinghast.

Can you point me to some defiinitive proof of that?

[Phil_the_Author]

Joe,

I was well aware that he died in 1918... in fact I quoted from that exact obituary in my original post.

The fact that the obituary doesn't state that he was an editor doesn't mean that he wasn't at one any of the newspapers. The fact is that we've clearly established that Tilly wasn't the Sports Editor for ANY publication whatsoever. He was only a Golf Editor. Cornish WAS a full Sports Editor!

Mike, see the above. That Country Club Life didn't start until 1914 has no bearing on whether or not he was a sports editor at two Philly papers. Again, we know that tilly wasn't and that Cornish's experience as being one would make his being one for the papers far more likely as well. Indeed, Tilly himself refered to himas a "Newspaper man."

By the way... time for you to do a few ancestry.com searches. You will find that Cornish was born in the U.K., came here when he was young and travelled there a number of times...

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil,

Do we know what H. H. stood for, or when he was born?

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike,

You wrote, "It would not surprise me at all to find that Mr. Cornish contributed all of the tournament summaries and detailed minutae of competitions that appeared in both "Far and Sure"'s and "Hazard"'s articles over the years because if Tillinghast was indeed compiling that level of detail under either or both pen names he truly never slept!"

So in one breath you claim that the amount of work to compile the info was too much for Tilly for even one of the columns yet at the same time he wrote as both? Please Mike, now you're sounding ridiculas. Especially as Much of what tilly wrote about local events was gathered by his father, B.C.

Then you write, "However, the editorial commentary...the course reviews and particularly architectural news...I have no doubt whatsoever that "Hazard" and "Far and Sure" were the same person... However, based on all of the "Hazard" articles I've read, I'm only about 90% sure that it was Tillinghast."

Again, similarity is merely that! So who does the other 10% of your mind believe them to be?
 

  

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike,

You asked, "Do we know what H. H. stood for, or when he was born?"

No I don't, though I'm still endeavoring to find the answers to that and several other questions. I believe that he was at least in his late '40's and possibly early '50's based upon his cricket experience. But that is only a guestimate.

[Joe Bausch]

Joe,

You commented and asked, "However, wasn't it in that Far and Sure article  the writer said he was a sporting editor at two newspapers, or was it journals.  I can't seem to find that article.  The American Cricketer and Country Club Life were not newspapers, were they?"

Well yes, they were, but then again when the argument was being raised that Tilly was F&S and the point about being editor at two papers was mentioned, it was pointed out that Tilly was the Golf Editor at the American Cricketer.

Phil, I've looked at The American Cricketer.  Had just about every issue in my paws at the Haverfold College Cricket Library.  And that was no newspaper.  It was a magazine.

And on the topic of Far and Sure and being sporting editor at two papers, I mentioned him being an assistant sports editor at the Public Ledger and then perhaps being the same thing at the Record.  Nowhere did I try to use him being an editor at AC as being one of these two editing jobs.  That would just be silly.

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil,

I am baffled how you can present this as "proof"?   You decry and deny the unbelieveable number of almost word-for-word coincidences and parallel lives in the accounts of "Far and Sure" and Tilly, yet list what amounts to a very small handful of vague similarities between "Far and Sure" and Cornish and somehow claim it's conclusive.

HH Cornish was born around 1871, and came to the US around 1901-02.

That would have made him roughly 47 when he died.


In any case, I don't understand your contention that only Tilly's father could have compiled the tournament scores and minutae for his articles?   If Tilly was also writing for American Cricketer at the time, which he was, why wouldn't he have taken Cornish's box scores, as well?

Those accounts provided lots of filler around the good parts, which are some of Tilly at his best.

[Mike_Cirba]

Also, none of what we've learned about Cornish in any way explains how he was in northeast PA on a regular basis and knew the goings-on at all of those clubs (certainly not a chance of any Cricketing or Lawn Tennis up in those parts, unless you wanted to have the snot beaten out of you), nor in Atlantic City during the winter, or out in Pittsburgh for the summer events of 1913.   

A google search of "H. H. Cornish golf" turned up a single article where he shot a 125 in a tournament at Shawnee in 1915.

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike,

You stated, "Also, none of what we've learned about Cornish in any way explains how he was in northeast PA on a regular basis and knew the goings-on at all of those clubs (certainly not a chance of any Cricketing or Lawn Tennis up in those parts, unless you wanted to have the snot beaten out of you), nor in Atlantic City during the winter, or out in Pittsburgh for the summer events of 1913.   

He lived in BALA. He had every opportunity to get around the Philadelphia and pennsylvania area as Tilly did... in fact even more so as he wasn't traveling around the country during these years designing and working on golf courses. In addition, you forget that he was working for GAP gathering information, tournament results, etc... He was definitely at courses all over the state...

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil,

A fairly extensive search of Ancestry indicates that his first name was Henry, and he was born in either 1871 or 1872.

None of his entries into the US in the manifest records were from St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Incidentally, if you want to read about a harrowing overseas adventure that somewhat paralleled "Far and Sure"'s account of the stranded ship that eventually found safe harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland, search on the ship "Anchoria", in 1886.

Unfortunately, once it was there for a few days awaiting parts, quite a number of the more well-heeled families among the 700-plus passengers took trains home to the states, so their arrival records are not searchable.   The others came back to NYC on the "Ethiopia", and one other ship whose name is evading me right now.

btw...what year was Tillinghast born again?   I've seen varying accounts from 1865 to a decade or more later.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tilly was born on May 7th, 1876... Of course all who've read the prologue to my Tilly bio would know that! 

As impressed as I am with his father, B.C., I'd be even more so if Tilly had been born in 1865 as B.C. would have been 14 at the time of his conception! As it was, his entering the U.S. Naval Academy on July 3rd, 1866 was most impressive. Unfortunately, he had to resign from the Academy on January 28th, 1861, due to illness. It was after this that he met Lavinia Worrel Davis, married her (against her parents wishes), and began the Tillinghast Rubber Goods Company...

[Mike_Cirba]

So he would have been a bit over 10 years old had he been on the Anchoria in 1886?   

We already know that no one was aware (including Tillinghast's living ancestors) prior to a few weeks ago that Tillinghast had travelled with his parents overseas 4 years later in 1890.   

Is it inconceivable that he could have either travelled on the Anchoria in 1886 or on another troubled liner during the next 10-15 years, at times we know he was overseas from other accounts?...yet no written manifest records of the ships he travelled on remains available on Ancestry.com as we proved earlier.

A few weeks ago you told us that Tillinghast couldn't be Far & Sure because he was never on a ship in trouble, yet tonight you tell us that you're certain that Cornish was Far & Sure without any additional evidence whatsoever that Cornish was ever in dire straits at sea.

Why the double standard? 

[Jim Nugent]

When did Far & Sure write his articles?  i.e. what year did he start and what year did he finish? 

What about Hazard? 

[Phil_the_Author]

Jim,

"Far and Sure" wrote for the American Golfer for a short period of time. Without looking it up I believe it was from June 1911 to August 1913.

"Hazard" wrote from the very first issue of the magazine in November 1908 until May 1919.

They both had columns that appeared in the same issue of the magazine. For example, in the July 1913 issue "Far and Sure" wrote a column titled "Western Pennsylvania Notes" and "Hazard" wrote "Eastern Pennsylvania Notes."

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike,

Sorry, but you are the one with the double-standard on this point. It is you who claim that Tilly must have been aboard some ship at some time that had the severe problems that F&S wrote about despite there being no proof to this whatsoever.

I have accepted that Tilly travelled overseas on at least one occasion, the one that you discovered, and that there may have been another occasion if not more that there are no records of.

It is YOU who proved that the records are poor and highly incomplete. I accept that. So why should you now argue that I have a double-standard because I offer no proof that "Cornish was ever in dire straights at sea?"

Mike, you stated, "A few weeks ago you told us that Tillinghast couldn't be Far & Sure because he was never on a ship in trouble..." That is just not so. I stated that he wasn't F&S for a good many reasons ONE OF WHICH was that he was never on a ship at sea that was in trouble. I still maintain that.

I can't state that Cornish was ever at sea on a ship in trouble either... because there is a very incomplete record and you know this. Therefor I take it out of the mix until the day arrives when there is a complete set of all ship manifests fro the Atlantic crossings available for historians to search through and refer to.

Because "Far and Sure" had this experience, and I believe that Cornish was F&S, I believe that Cornish DID have this experience.

By the way, isn't that exactly what you claim with Tilly? Yet I'm the one with the double-standard... 

[TEPaul]

"They both had columns that appeared in the same issue of the magazine. For example, in the July 1913 issue "Far and Sure" wrote a column titled "Western Pennsylvania Notes" and "Hazard" wrote "Eastern Pennsylvania Notes."


Phil:

I just can't understand why you think that indicates "Far and Sure" couldn't have been Tillinghast. "Far and Sure" wrote for two months, I believe, for the "Western Pennsylvania Notes" section of AG (July and Aug, 1913). As far as I can tell that is the only time in the magazine's history two different pen names were used in the same section in the same month (the regular "Western Pennsylvania Notes" pen name ("William Pitt) also wrote in the "Western Pennsylvania Notes" section in those two months. Just because the pen name "Hazard" happened to be used in the "Eastern Pennsylvania Section" in those two months, I can't see it's indicative of who wrote under those pen names at that time. There is no particular reason to believe it could not have been the same person, in my opinion.

MikeC:

You said H.H. Cornish first came to this country in 1901-02. Are you fairly sure about that and if so, how so?


That "Far and Sure" article on the GAP annual meeting is probably the most best indication to me of who "Far and Sure" might have been. First of all, there is no way someone who was not at that dinner could have  written an article that was written like that. That article was a first hand account if I've ever read one---eg he talked about not just what people said but the way they said things. And that dinner list is also indicative. H.H. Cornish's name is not on it but Tillinghast's is. I just don't see a pen name writer removing his name from a dinner list just because he's a pseudonym writer. Those guys weren't exactly trying to act like foreign spies you know! 

I don't see that there is any real proof of who "Far and Sure" really was. There seems to be a couple of possiblities but it still looks to me like the most likely is Tillinghast for a whole lot of reasons.

[Kyle Harris]

John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton all shared the pen name "Publius" for the Federalist Papers.

Has anyone considered that, MAYBE, just MAYBE a whole load of people contributed under these names and that copy was bounced back and forth between them? Since they obviously didn't care to get credit for the writing, how isn't the most reasonable and simple explanation?

[Mike_Cirba]

If Cornish was an expert golf writer at the time of the F+S articles in 1911-13, then why did Cornish have to hire Tilly to write the golf articles in "American Cricketer" AT THE EXACT SAME TIME?!?!

Phil...this is beyond belief. 

[Joe Bausch]

John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton all shared the pen name "Publius" for the Federalist Papers.

Has anyone considered that, MAYBE, just MAYBE a whole load of people contributed under these names and that copy was bounced back and forth between them? Since they obviously didn't care to get credit for the writing, how isn't the most reasonable and simple explanation?

Obviously you have not been following this topic closely Kyle!  But I can't say I blame you. 

Yes, we have talked about the possibility that multiple persons could have written under that pen name.

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