Bolivar man has sold roadside corn for 3 decades

One could be forgiven for thinking the nickname “Corny” was given to a man because he sold roadside corn for 32 years. However, the moniker was bestowed upon Gary Cornell by one of his junior high coaches at Tusky Valley in the 1970s.

For more than three decades, Cornell’s corn, tomatoes and other crops have drawn families to his stand in Wilkshire Hills. The last day for sales this year was July 30.

“Our motto is if people don’t like what they got here, all they have to do is come back. We’ll replace it or give them their money back,” Cornell said.

Sowing the seeds

“How it all started was we had built our house, and then I had to have open heart surgery,” Cornell said. “I was working at Nickles Bakery, and I was running out of breath. I could hardly work.”

The late Dr. Dan McDonnell of Bolivar pinpointed the cause: a birth defect that left Cornell with a half-developed aortic valve. Valve-replacement surgery was performed, and soon, Cornell was back in business.

There was just one little problem. “My insurance didn’t pay all the medical bills,” Cornell said. “So my uncle said, ‘Well, come down here and do what your dad and granddad did —raise produce and sell it alongside the road.’ So that’s what we did.”

Initially, Cornell would finish his shift at the bakery, come home and eat dinner, then hit the highway, traveling to Meigs County in Southern Ohio, where his family’s fields were.

“I would be gone by 7:30 in the evening, drive all the way down there after being up all day, load up and get out of there, hopefully by six in the morning, to get back up here and start selling. Over time it just got bigger and bigger as more people came to buy corn,” Cornell said.

Adventures along the way

Cornell has plenty of stories to tell of his 32 years on the road. One story involves being pulled over by an Ohio State Highway Patrol officer when returning to Bolivar, towing his harvest in a trailer.

“I was tired, and I thought he was going to get me for weaving because I was falling asleep,” Cornell said.

It turned out the officer just wanted to alert Cornell to the fact his taillights were out on the trailer.

After fixing the lights, the officer asked what Cornell had in the trailer. “I showed it to him, and he said, ‘Where are you located?’ I told him, and this guy was out of the Cambridge post, but he said, ‘I’ll be up tomorrow to buy some corn,’ and by God he came up,” Cornell said.

Further road warrior tales include selling corn to people at gas stations and on exit ramps along the way.

“Back when the truck drivers and other people used CB radios, the truckers would ask, ‘What do you got on there?’ I’d tell them, and they’d say ‘pull over at the next exit. I want some.’ I didn’t even have bags to put it in, so they’d carry it off in their arms and put it down on the front floorboards. I don’t know how many times that happened,” Cornell said.

All in the family

Taking a lesson from his father and grandfather, Cornell has made his produce stand a family business. His wife Janet has been there from the beginning, and his brother Don helps out now.

“I owe a lot to Jan because there aren’t too many women that would work the way she does with me because it’s hard work with a lot of lifting,” Cornell said. “And our anniversary is July 14, and what do we do on July 14? Sell corn.”

Cornell’s children, Kevin and Rachel, were raised selling corn. “My kids learned a work ethic, they learned how to count money and make change, and they’d count it back to the customers, which is unheard of these days,” he said.

After paying off those surgery bills, Cornell’s produce sales paid for both children to go to college and for family vacations, home improvements and other projects.

“I couldn’t have done this without them,” Cornell said. “I’m proud of them, and I think deep down inside the kids are proud. They saw that we were doing this for them.”

Recently, the Cornell’s stand had to change locations after the new baseball field complex opened on Arrowhead Road, not because the owners asked him to move, but out of concern all the traffic, combined with the cars lining both sides of the road, may cause an accident.

After a few days selling at the site of a burned-down car wash on Edgebrook Road, Terri Davis, owner of Ohio Billing, invited the Cornells to set up in her parking lot.

“Terri buys a lot every year,” Cornell said. “When she saw where we were set up, she moved us over there and even put my name up on her sign. We owe her a lot.”

Although retired from the bakery, Cornell now drives a bus for Tusky Valley, has served as a statistician for several school sports and volunteers time for many school events. It’s a practice that has earned him yet another nickname: Mr. Tusky Valley.

“Volunteering for the school is just like selling corn,” Cornell said. “It’s in my blood.”

When asked about future plans for the produce stand, Cornell said, “My health the last couple of years has not been good, and one of these years, I’m going to have to stop doing it. I’ve had some close calls, and I’ve had some times I probably shouldn’t have been out there. But Lord willing, I’ll be there next year.”