Ezra Cornell (1807 - 1874)

Born 11 Jan 1807 in Westchester Landing, Westchester, New York, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann (Wood) Cornell — married 19 Mar 1831 in Dryden, NY

Descendants

Died 9 Dec 1874 at age 67 in Ithaca, Tompkins, New York, United States

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Biography

"Ezra Cornell was a birthright Quaker, but was later disowned by the Society of Friends for marrying outside the faith to a "world's woman", Mary Ann Wood, a Methodist, on 19 March 1831".

Member of New York State Assembly, 1861; Member of New York State Senate 24th District, 1864-67; Founder of Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. Died December 9, 1874. Entombed at Sage Chapel, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Burial: Sage Chapel Crypt in Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Find A Grave: Memorial #233 Ezra Cornell

Children:

Alonzo Barton Cornell 1832–1904

Charles Carrol Cornell 1833–1837

Elizabeth Percival Cornell 1835–1849

Franklin Cuthbert Cornell 1837–1908

Charles Carrol Cornell 1839–1841

Oliver Hazard Perry Cornell 1842–1911

Mary Emily Cornell 1847–1935

Ezra Clayton Cornell 1849–1851

Emma Pettit Cornell Blair 1852–1914

Biography From: rmc.library.cornell.edu/.../EC-life-2.html Ezra Cornell was born on January 11, 1807 at Westchester Landing in the town and county of Westchester, New York, the eldest son of Elijah and Eunice Cornell. During his childhood, Cornell and his ten younger siblings lived in Westchester, Tarrytown, and Westfarms in Westchester County, and in English Neighborhood, Bergen County, New Jersey before the family settled in De Ruyter, New York. Opportunities for formal education were limited. As an adolescent, Cornell could only attend school three months each winter. From the time he was six years old, Cornell helped in whatever way he could in his father's pottery business. He began to work on the family farm in De Ruyter at age twelve, and at seventeen learned carpentry skills when his father erected a new building for the pottery. In 1825 Cornell constructed a two-story house for his parents and family. Cornell left home in the spring of 1826, and found work in Syracuse as a journeyman carpenter. He helped build sawmills and worked as a contractor getting out timber for shipment by canal. From Syracuse, he moved on to Homer, New York, where he worked in a shop that produced wool-carding machinery. In his free time he studied mechanics handbooks. Throughout his life, he retained his interest in mechanical subjects which would include millwork, the telegraph, railroads, coal oil, agricultural machinery, and photolithography.

Biography (from: http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Ezra_Cornell

Ezra Cornell (11 January 1807 - 9 December 1874) was an American businessman and founder of Cornell University. He was born in Westchester County, New York, the son of a potter, Elijah Cornell. Having travelled extensively as a carpenter in New York State, Ezra, upon first setting eyes upon Lake Cayuga and Ithaca, decided Ithaca would be his future home.

After settling in at Ithaca, Ezra quickly went to work proving himself as a carpenter. Colonel Beebe took notice of the industrious young man and made him the manager of his mill at Fall Creek.

Ezra Cornell was a birthright Quaker, but was later disowned by the Society of Friends for marrying outside of the faith to a "world's woman," a Methodist by the name of Mary Ann Wood. Ezra and Mary Ann were married March 19, 1831, in Dryden, New York.

On February 24, 1832, Ezra Cornell wrote the following response to his expulsion from The Society of Friends due to his marriage to Mary Ann Wood: "I have always considered that choosing a companion for life was a very important affair and that my happyness or misery in this life depended on the choice?"

The young and growing family needed more income than could be earned as manager of Beebe's Mills. So, having purchased rights in a patent for a new type of plow, Ezra began what would be his decades of travelling away from Ithaca. His territories for sales of the plow were the states of Maine and Georgia. His plan was to sell in Maine in the summer and the milder Georgia in the winter. With limited means, what transported Ezra between the two States were his own two feet.

THE TELEGRAPH Happening into the offices of the Maine Farmer in 1842, Ezra saw an acquaintence of his, one F.O.J. Smith, bent over some plans for a "scraper" as Smith called it. Smith had purchased a share of the telegraph patent held by Samuel F.B. Morse, and was attempting to devise a way of burying the telegraph lines in the ground in lead pipe. Ezra's knowledge of plows was put to the test and Ezra devised a special kind of plow that would dig a 2 1/2 foot ditch, lay the pipe and telegraph wire in the ditch and cover it back up as it went. It was later found that condensation in the pipes and poor insulation of the wires impeded the electrical current on the wires and so hanging the wire from telegraph poles became the accepted method.

Ezra made his fortune in the telegraph business as an associate of Samuel Morse having gained his trust by constructing and stringing the telegraph poles between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, as the first ever telegraph line of substance in America. After joining with Morse, Cornell supervised the erection of many telegraph lines, earning a substantial fortune as a founder of the Western Union company.

Cornell was a Republican member of both the New York State Senate and Assembly.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY With fellow senator Andrew Dickson White, Cornell, a life-long enthusiast in science and agriculture, founded Cornell University in 1865. He also endowed the Cornell Library, a public library for the citizens of Ithaca.

Ezra Cornell entered the railroad business, but fared poorly due to the Panic of 1873. He died in Ithaca, New York.

A prolific letter writer, Ezra corresponded with a great many people and would write dozens of letters each week. This was due partly to his wide travelling, and also to the many business associates he maintained during his years as an entrepreneur and later as a politician and university founder. The approximately 30,000 letters in the Cornell Correspondence can be found online at http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/cornell/guide.htm

His eldest son, Alonzo B. Cornell was later governor of New York. As a strange side-note to history, In 1990, G. David Lowe, graduate of Cornell University and Space Shuttle astronaut, took with him into outer space a pair of tan silk socks worn by Ezra Cornell on his wedding day in 1831. See http://www.airspacemag.com/ASM/Mag/Index/1995/DJ/prfx.html

"Life of Ezra Cornell" by his son Alonzo B. Cornell [from Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography"]

"Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, was born at Westchester, New York, January 11, 1807. In childhood he removed with his parents to DeRuyter, Madison County, New York, where his youth was passed. He located at Ithaca, Tompkins County, in 1828, where he was employed many years as superintendent of Colonel Beebe's mills. While thus engaged in 1831, he projected and excavated the Ithaca water power tunnel, and some years later he constructed the Beebe dam, thus greatly enlarging the capacity of the Fall Creek water power.

"In 1843, Mr. Cornell was employed by the Secretary of the Treasury to superintend the erection of the experimental line of telegraph between Washington and Baltimore, for which Congress had made an appropriation of $30,000, to demonstrate the utility of Professor S. F. B. Morse's telegraph invention as a means of practical communication between distant points. Although completely successful for the purpose, the Postmaster - General, to whom the proposition had been referred to acquire the invention at a valuation of $100,000, as an adjunct to the postal establishment, reported to Congress that in his opinion no rate of tariff could be adopted which would enable the telegraph to become self-supporting, and therefore he recommended the declination of the proposition.

"Contrary to the opinion of the Postmaster - General, Mr. Cornell was fully convinced that the telegraph possessed elements of commercial success if once fairly presented for public favor, and he determined to devote himself to its development. After many months of laborious effort the requisite means were finally enlisted, and the line was, in 1845, extended from Baltimore to Jersey City. By that time public appreciation was fully demonstrated and the telegraph lines were rapidly extended in every direction over the United States. Mr. Cornell was one of the most active and enterprising telegraph pioneers, and was one of the principal founders of the Western Union Telegraph Company, of which, for twenty years, he was a director, and the largest individual stockholder.

"From 1861 to 1867 Mr. Cornell served two years in the State Assembly, and four years as a State Senator, devoting himself assiduously to public affairs. Foreseeing danger of wasteful loss in the pending State policy of disposing of the great Federal Land Grant of 1862 for educational purposes, Mr. Cornell contributed a personal endowment of about $1,000,000 for an institution which should also receive for its support the entire income of the Land Grant Fund. As the State was compelled by the Federal law to sell the 990,000 acres of land, Mr. Cornell purchased the land scrip and located it upon the public domain, contracting with the State to pay to Cornell University every dollar of profit to be realized from the lands when sold. Up to present date the University has already realized from Mr. Cornell's direct and indirect endowment about $5,000,000, while lands yet unsold are expected to increase the aggregate of his benefactions by at least another $1,000,000. "Inheriting a vigorous constitution from his father, who had lived to the mature age of 91, Mr. Cornell with his temperate and orderly habits, had good prospects of long life which was brought to a premature and painful ending December 9, 1874, at the early age of 67 years and 10 months, from a six month's siege of pneumonia which he contracted in traveling at night in the interest of the University."

Sources

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/c/i/Dianne-N-Mcintyre/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-1692.html

Cornell University website with an large Ezra Cornell exhibition found here: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ezra/exhibition/introduction/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Cornell

http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/social/transportation/telecommunication/cornell.htm

• Cornell, Rev. John. Genealogy of the Cornell Family. New York: Press of T. A. Wright, 1902.

• "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24CZ-4SC : 20 March 2015), Ezra Cornel in entry for Alonzo Cornell and Esther Hastings, 08 Jun 1894; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,493,119.