From the Library of Congress:
It is said that on July 23, 1904, Charles E. Menches of St. Louis, Missouri conceived the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby invented the ice cream cone. Yet there are other, perhaps stronger, claimants to that honor: Ernest Hamwi, Abe Doumar, Albert and Nick Kabbaz, Arnold Fornachou and David Avayou have all been touted as the inventor(s) of the first edible cone. Interestingly, these individuals have in common the fact that they all made or sold confections at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World’s Fair and it is from the time of the Fair that the edible “cornucopia,” a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity.