DAVID CORBETT owns and conducts a farm of 150 acres in Zone township that is regarded and justly, as a model throughout the County of Kent.  Mr. Corbett has cultivated the place since 1884, and during that time has proved himself to be an up-to-date agriculturist in every sense.

James Corbett, his father, was born in Nova Scotia, son of James Corbett, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and engaged in farming in his native Province throughout his active life.  He also served 20 years as government commissioner, for drainage, etc.  In 1884 he came with his son David to Zone township, where he remained until death, four years later, at the age of 83.  He fell and broke his hip, the injury proving fatal.  James Corbett first married Mary Kuver, who died at the age of 32 years, the mother of children as follows:  William, who died in Nova Scotia when a young man (he was preparing to enter the medical profession); David; Jane, who died young; and Miss Mary, who makes her home with her brother David.  The mother was a member of the Presbyterian Church, with which the father also united.  He subsequently married Rosanna Forrest, by whom he had one child, Thomas S., who is a farmer in Nova Scotia.

David Corbett was born June 25, 1836, in the County of Colchester, Nova Scotia, and grew to manhood in his native Province, remaining at home up to the age of 20 years.  He then set out for California, to engage in gold mining, which he followed successfully for six years, at the end of that period returning to Nova Scotia, where he purchased a farm of 75 acres at Amherst, County of Cumberland.  There he engaged in agricultural pursuits from 1863 to 1884, in which latter year he came to County of Kent, and settled on the tract in Lot 15, 1st Concession, Zone Township, which has since been his home.  Here he has engaged in general farming, and he has been constantly improving his land until the place is one of the best in all the County of Kent, as a result of his industry and progressive methods.  Mr. Corbett has five miles of tiling under his land, put in for drainage, and the other improvements are on a corresponding scale -- practical and efficient.  The handsome income he derives from the place is sufficient justification for the work he has expended upon it.  The brick dwelling-house is substantial and comfortable. 

Mr. Corbett is a self-made man in the best meaning of that term, having become prosperous and won good standing by his own efforts, never sparing himself when the question of work was uppermost.  In his younger manhood he had several years of adventure, visiting various parts of the world, was in Cuba twice, in Mexico, and in Nicaragua, crossing that country on mules.  When he arrived in California, on his search for gold, he had only enough to pay for a bed, and retired supperless the first night, but there, as elsewhere, he won success by his pluck and determination.  In 1883 Mr. Corbett was sent to Glasgow on private business, and remained eight weeks, enjoying a very pleasant trip.

In September, 1867, in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Mr. Corbett was married to Alice Keever, who was born in that Province in 1848, daughter of William and Nancy (Jenks) Keever, who were engaged in farming there.  Six children have blessed this union:  Mary I., Caroline, Ida J. (a telegraph operator), Alice Margaret (a telegraph operator), and Frank A. all of whom are unmarried and living at home.  Their religious connection is with the Presbyterian Church.  Socially Mr. Corbett affiliates with the Independent Order of Foresters, and in political faith he is a Protectionist. 

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