Cornelius Corneliusen Schoonmaker

Cornelius Corneliusen Schoonmaker (June 1745 – February 1796) was a United States Representative from New York. He was born in June 1745 in Shawangunk, Ulster County, in the Province of New York, an area now within the hamlet of Wallkill. He received a limited formal schooling in his youth, typical of many rural New Yorkers of the colonial period. As a young man he became a surveyor and was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Ulster County. Like many landowners of his time and region, he owned slaves, reflecting the social and economic practices of late colonial and early national New York.

Schoonmaker emerged as a local leader during the American Revolutionary War. He served on the committees of vigilance and safety, bodies established in many New York communities to oversee security, maintain order, and support the Patriot cause during the conflict and the disruption of regular civil government. Through this service he became closely involved in the political and civic life of Ulster County at a time when New York was transitioning from a British colony to an independent state.

Following independence, Schoonmaker continued his public career in the New York State Assembly. He represented Ulster County in the Assembly from 1777 to 1790, participating in the formative years of New York’s state government under its first constitution. During this long legislative tenure he took part in shaping state policies in the immediate post-Revolutionary era. In 1788 he was a member of the New York State Convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States, contributing to the debates over whether New York would join the new federal union and helping to secure its eventual ratification.

In April 1790, Schoonmaker was elected as a member of the Unknown Party representing New York to the 2nd United States Congress. He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, holding office from March 4, 1791, to March 3, 1793. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, when the new federal government under the Constitution was being established and early national policies on finance, commerce, and foreign affairs were being defined. As a representative, he participated in the legislative process and in the democratic governance of the new republic, representing the interests of his New York constituents in the national legislature.

After completing his term in Congress, Schoonmaker returned to state politics. He was again a member of the New York State Assembly in 1795, resuming his role in state legislative affairs near the end of his life. Throughout his career he remained closely tied to his native Ulster County, balancing his public duties with his work as a surveyor and farmer.

Cornelius Corneliusen Schoonmaker died in Shawangunk, Ulster County, New York, in February 1796. He was interred in the Old Shawangunk Churchyard at Bruynswick, in Shawangunk. His family remained active in public life; his grandson, Marius Schoonmaker (1811–1894), later served as a United States Representative from New York, extending the family’s involvement in congressional service into the nineteenth century.