Ezra Cornell (; January 11, 1807 – December 9, 1874) was an American businessman, politician, academic, and philanthropist. He was the founder of

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...

and a co-founder of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. He also served as president of the New York Agriculture Society and as a New York State Senator.

Early life

Cornell was born in Westchester Landing at what is now 1515 Williamsbridge Road in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to Elijah Cornell and Eunice (Barnard), a

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US *Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska *Potters, New Jerse ...

. He was raised near DeRuyter, New York. He was a cousin of

Paul Cornell Paul Douglas Cornell (born 18 July 1967) is a British writer. He has worked in television drama and ''Doctor Who'' fiction, being the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield. Other British television dramas f ...

, the founder of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He was also related to

Ezekiel Cornell Ezekiel Cornell (27 March, 1733 – April 25, 1800) was a Revolutionary War general who represented Rhode Island in the U.S. Continental Congress from 1780 to 1782. Early life Ezekiel Cornell was born on March 27, 1733 in Dartmouth, Massac ...

, a Revolutionary War general who represented

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

in the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, which established American independence ...

from 1780 to 1782, and was a distant relative of William Cornell, who was an early settler from Rhode Island. Cornell's earliest American patrilineal ancestor, Thomas Cornell (1595–1655), was a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

and a follower of

Roger Williams Roger Williams (March 1683) was an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Pl ...

and

Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (; July 1591 – August 1643) was an English-born religious figure who was an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious formal d ...

before finally embracing Quakerism, the faith of his descendants.

Career

Cornell initially pursued a career in carpentry and traveled extensively throughout

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

in the profession. Upon first setting eyes on

Cayuga Lake Cayuga Lake (, or ) is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area (marginally smaller than Seneca Lake) and second largest in volume. It is just under long. Its average width is , and i ...

and

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

in the spring of 1828, he decided that Ithaca would be his future home. Cornell was hired as a mechanic by Otis Eddy to work at his cotton mill on

Cascadilla Creek Cascadilla Creek is a river located in Tompkins County, New York. It flows into Cayuga Inlet by Ithaca, New York. Gallery File:CascadillaCreekSign.jpg File:CascadillaGlenTrail.jpg File:CascadillaCreekFalls1.jpg File:CascadillaCreekFalls2.j ...

. On Eddy's recommendation, Jeremiah S. Beebe then hired Cornell to repair and overhaul his plaster and flour mills on Fall Creek. During Cornell's long association with Beebe, he designed and built a tunnel for a new mill race on Fall Creek, a stone dam on Fall Creek (which formed Beebe Lake), and a new flour mill. By 1832, Cornell was placed in charge of all Beebe's concerns at Fall Creek. In 1831, Cornell married Mary Ann Wood in

Dryden, New York Dryden is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 14,435 at the 2010 census. The town administers an area that includes two villages, one also named Dryden and one named Freeville, as well as a number of hamlets ...

. The young and growing family needed more income than he could earn as manager of Beebe's mills, so Cornell purchased rights in a patent for a new type of plow and began decades of traveling away from Ithaca. His territories for sales of the plow included the states of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He sold in Maine in the summer and the milder Georgia in the winter.

Telegraph

In 1842, Cornell happened into the offices of the ''Maine Farmer'', where he saw an acquaintance, F.O.J. Smith, bent over some plans for a "scraper" as Smith called it. For services rendered, Smith had been granted a one-quarter share of the telegraph patent held by

Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a Electrical telegraph#Morse ...

, and was attempting to devise a way of burying the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

lines in the ground in lead pipe. Cornell devised a special kind of plow that would dig a ditch, lay the pipe and telegraph wire in the ditch, and cover it back up. It was later learned that condensation in the pipes and poor insulation of the wires impeded the

electric current An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is defined as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface. The moving particles are called charge c ...

on the wires, so hanging the wire from telegraph poles became the accepted method. Cornell made his fortune in the telegraph business as an associate of Samuel Morse. Cornell constructed and strung the poles for the

Baltimore–Washington telegraph line The Baltimore–Washington telegraph line was the first long-distance telegraph system set up to run overland in the United States. Building of line In March 1843, the US Congress appropriated to Samuel Morse to lay a telegraph line between Washi ...

, the first telegraph line of substance in the U.S. To address the problem of telegraph lines shorting out, Cornell invented using glass insulators at the point where telegraph lines are connected to supporting poles. After joining with Morse, Cornell supervised the development of many telegraph lines, including a portion of the New York, Albany & Buffalo line in 1846 and the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company, which connected Buffalo to

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

along with his partners John James Speed and Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith. Cornell, Speed, and Smith also built the New York and Erie line, which competed with and paralleled the New York, Albany and Buffalo line in which Morse had a major share. The line was completed in 1849 and Cornell was made president of the company. In 1848, Cornell's sister, Phoebe, married Martin B. Wood and moved to

Albion, Michigan Albion is a city in Calhoun County in the south central region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 7,700 at the 2020 census. Albion is part of the Battle Creek Metropolitan Statistical Area. The earliest ...

. Cornell gave Wood a job constructing new lines and made Phoebe his telegraph operator, the first woman operator in the U.S.
Cornell earned a substantial fortune when the Erie and Michigan line was consolidated with

Hiram Sibley Hiram W. Sibley (February 6, 1807 – July 12, 1888), was an American industrialist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who was a pioneer of the telegraph in the United States. Early life Sibley was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Februar ...

and his New York and Mississippi Company formed the

company. Cornell received $2 million in Western Union stock.

New York State Assembly

Cornell was a Republican member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

representing Tompkins County in

1862 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos Island, in modern-day Nigeria. * January 6 – Second French intervention in Mexico, French intervention in Mexico: Second French Empire, French, Spanish and British ...

and

1863 Events January * January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate States of America an official war goal. The signing ...

and a member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

from 1864 to 1867, where he served in the 87th, 88th, 89th, and

90th New York State Legislature The 90th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 1 to April 20, 1867, during the third year of Reuben E. Fenton's governorship, in Albany. Background Under the ...

Cornell Free Library

Cornell retired from

and turned his attention to philanthropy. He endowed the Cornell Free Library, the first

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

for the citizens of Ithaca. The library was incorporated on April 5, 1864, and was formally presented to the town on December 20, 1866. The original library building stood at the corner of Tioga and Seneca street until it was demolished in 1960. The library evolved over time to serve the county as the Tompkins County Public Library. To honor the 150th anniversary of his gift, a mural of Ezra Cornell was hung on the exterior wall of the current Tompkins County Public Library in October, 2016.

Cornell University founder

A lifelong enthusiast of science and agriculture, he saw great opportunity in the 1862

Morrill Land-Grant Acts The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally owned land, often obtained from Native American tribes through treaty, cessi ...

to found a university that would teach practical subjects on an equal basis with the classics favored by more traditional institutions.

Andrew Dickson White Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who co-founded Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States, and served as its first president for nearly two de ...

helped secure the new institution's status as New York's

land-grant university A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, Morrill Acts of 1862 and ...

, and

was founded and granted a charter through their efforts in 1865. Cornell University derived far greater revenues than earlier land grant colleges, largely from real estate transactions directed by Ezra Cornell. Under the land-grant program, the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

issued the colleges scrip, documents granting the right to select a parcel of land. These colleges generally promptly sold their scrip. Ezra Cornell, however, held most of the scrip, anticipating it would increase in price. He also redeemed some scrip for promising land or for rights in timber, including pine forest in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. While the first land-grant colleges received around half a dollar per acre, Cornell netted an average of over $5 per acre in 1905. Because of these timber holdings, the town of Cornell, Wisconsin, is named for Cornell.

Railroad business and letter writing

Cornell entered the railroad business, but fared poorly due to the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "L ...

. He began construction of a palatial Ithaca mansion,

Llenroc Llenroc is a Gothic revival architecture, Gothic revival villa built for Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University. It is located at 100 Cornell Avenue in Ithaca, New York, just below the Cornell University campus. Since 1911, it has been ...

, whose name was Cornell spelled in reverse, to replace his farmhouse, but died before it was completed. Llenroc was maintained by Cornell's heirs for several decades until being sold to

's chapter of the

Delta Phi Delta Phi () is a fraternal society established in Schenectady, New York, on November 17, 1827. Its first chapter was founded at Union College, and was the third and final member of the Union Triad. In 1879, William Raimond Baird's '' America ...

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

, which occupies it to this day; Forest Park, Cornell's farmhouse, was sold to Cornell University's

Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States–based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapt ...

fraternity chapter but was later demolished. A prolific letter writer, Cornell corresponded with a great many people and would write dozens of letters each week. This was due partly to his wide traveling and also to the many business associates he maintained during his years as an entrepreneur and later as a politician and university founder. Cornell University has made the approximately 30,000 letters in the Cornell Correspondence available online.

Personal life

Ezra Cornell was a birthright

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

, but was later disowned by the Society of Friends for marrying outside the faith to a "world's woman", Mary Ann Wood, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

, on March 19, 1831. On February 24, 1832, Cornell wrote the following response to his expulsion from The Society of Friends due to his marriage: "I have always considered that choosing a companion for life was a very important affair and that my happiness or misery in this life depended on the choice." He died in 1874. Cornell is interred in Sage Chapel on Cornell's campus along with

Daniel Willard Fiske Daniel Willard Fiske (November 11, 1831 – September 17, 1904) was an American librarian and scholar, born on November 11, 1831, at Ellisburg, New York. He was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership in 1895. Biography Fiske ...

and Jennie McGraw. Cornell was originally laid to rest in Ithaca City Cemetery in Ithaca and later then moved to Sage Chapel. His eldest son, Alonzo B. Cornell, was later governor of New York. Since its founding, the university's charter specified that the eldest lineal descendant of Cornell is granted a life seat on Cornell University's board of trustees, currently Charles Ezra Cornell. (Charles Ezra Cornell took the post on November 17, 1969.) In 1990, G. David Low, graduate of Cornell University and

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

astronaut, took with him into outer space a pair of tan silk socks worn by Ezra Cornell on his wedding day in 1831.

Sources

''The New York Times'' op-ed "A Colony With a Conscience"
December 27, 2007

References

External links

* ttp://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra/index.html "I Would Found an Institution": The Ezra Cornell Bicentennial
The Ezra Cornell Papers
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library * Alonzo Barton Cornell
“True and Firm”: Biography of Ezra Cornell, Founder of the Cornell University.
New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1884 * John Cornell
''Genealogy of the Cornell Family. Being an Account of the Descendants of Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, R. I.''
New York: Press of T. A. Wright, 1902
''The Ezra Files – story archive''.
Cornell University Chronicle Online
The Story of Telecommunications
George P. Oslin, 1992; ch. 5 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornell, Ezra 1807 births 1874 deaths American telecommunications industry businesspeople American people of English descent American Quakers Burials at Sage Chapel Cornell family Cornell University people People from Madison County, New York Philanthropists from New York (state) Politicians from Ithaca, New York Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly Republican Party New York (state) state senators University and college founders Western Union people 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature