Ezra Cornell

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Ezra Cornell (January 11, 1807 – December 9, 1874) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist.

He was the founder of Western Union, founder of Ithaca's first library, and a co-founder of Cornell University.

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 Rd, in what would become the Bronx, New York, to Elijah Cornell and Eunice (Barnard), a potter. He was raised near DeRuyter, New York. He was a cousin of Paul Cornell, the founder of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. Cornell was also a distant relative of William Cornell, who was an early settler (originally from Rhode Island) of Scarborough, Ontario, whose name was used for the planned community of Cornell, Ontario after a suggestion by lawyer and member of the Cornell family Paul Mingay. Cornell traveled extensively as a carpenter in New York State. Upon first setting eyes on Cayuga Lake and Ithaca, he decided that it would be his future home.

Cornell's earliest American patrilineal ancestor, Thomas Cornell (1595–1655), was probably Puritan at first; then a follower of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson; drifting into Quakerism, which seems to have been the religion of Thomas Cornell's descendants. Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is noteworthy in American history for the 1638 Portsmouth Compact, declaring a separation of church and state, rivaling the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 declaring religious tolerance in New Amsterdam, of Quakers in particular. Ezekiel Cornell, a Revolutionary War general, represented Rhode Island in the U.S. Continental Congress from 1780 to 1782.

Personal life

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,” Mary Ann Wood, a Methodist, on March 19, 1831.

On February 24, 1832, he wrote the following response to his expulsion from The Society of Friends due to his marriage:

Cornell is interred in Sage Chapel on Cornell's campus, along with Daniel Willard Fiske and Jennie McGraw. Cornell was originally laid to rest in Ithaca City Cemetery, Ithaca N.Y., 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 astronaut, took with him into outer space a pair of tan silk socks worn by Ezra Cornell on his wedding day in 1831.

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Early career

Cornell first started working as a carpenter in Ithaca, NY, in 1828, before being hired as a mechanic by Otis Eddy to work at his cotton mill on Cascadilla Creek. Jeremiah S. Beebe hired Cornell to repair and rebuild his plaster and flour mills on Fall Creek on Eddy's suggestion. During Cornell's long association with Beebe, he conceived and constructed a tunnel for a new mill race on Fall Creek; a stone dam on Fall Creek, which created Beebe Lake; and a new flour mill. He was in charge of all Beebe's problems at Fall Creek by 1832. Perhaps it is interesting that Ezra Cornell was never educated at a college or university.

In 1831 in Dryden, New York, he married Mary Ann Wood. The young and growing family needed more income than he could earn as the head of Beebe's mills. Cornell also started traveling away from Ithaca after receiving rights in a new form of plow. The states of Maine and Georgia were the plow's territories for purchase. His aim was to sell in Maine in the summer and the winter in Georgia.

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