Ezra Cornell - Definition


Ezra Cornell - Definition

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.

Ezra Cornell

Contents

Early life

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 acquaintance 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