Biography of Ezra Cornell

Hon. Ezra Cornell.

THERE is a pleasure in tracing the career of men who have marched steadily onward from obscure positions in boyhood, to those of influence in later life. There is something grand in the course of a man who has chosen the undeviating line of rectitude, and always kept it; neither to the right nor left - but straightforward. Such a man is Ezra Cornell, whose life is being crowned with pecuniary success, political honor, and deeds of benevolence. Mr. Cornell was born at Westchester Landing, Westchester county, New York, on the 11th day of January, in the year 1807. His parents were both natives of New England, and both members of the Society of Friends. His mother died eight years ago, at about seventy years of age, and his father died a few years later, in the ninety-first year of his age.

The early boyhood of Mr. Cornell was spent in aiding in the pottery which his father conducted successively at Tarrytown, New York, English Neighborhood, New Jersey, and De Ruyter, New York. The educational advantages which he enjoyed were very limited. He had no preparatory training for a collegiate course; he did not pass through the curriculum of a university; he had no parchment in Latin, showing that he was a graduate of college, for his advantages for gaining an education were confined to the district school as it was forty or fifty years ago. At the age of seventeen, his scholastic training was completed; and, for a short period, he was employed in farming, a pursuit for which he still exhibits great fondness. But agriculture had not the scope which such a mind as his required. There are some natures which cannot be confined to small circles. There energies are ever on the alert to find room for expansion, and work which will bring into play their most active faculties. Mr. Cornell's mind was one of this peculiar cast; acute, vigorous, and inventive, it looked beyond the mere formalities of toil, to cause and effect. He possessed great mechanical genius. At one time we discover him exposing the blunders of a head carpenter who was at work for his father, though, as yet, he had had neither experience nor instruction in architecture; and soon after a house arises under his unpracticed hand. In the year 1827 he went to Homer, N. Y., and engaged in building wool-carding machines. Thence, during the succeeding year, he moved to Ithaca, where he was employed in a machine-shop, building and repairing cotton machinery. Such was his zeal and real worth, his employer, without solicitation, increased his wages before the time for which he was engaged had half expired. This may seem a trifling incident, but it is an index of a strong practical intellect. He next took charge of a flourishing mill at Ithaca, and held the position for ten years, at what was then considered a large salary. During this engagement he evinced a great deal of skill and enterprise in making mechanical improvements, and in building a large mill for his employer, in such a manner as to be able to run the establishment with but little manual labor, so nicely adapted was the machinery.

When the term of his engagement expired, which was in 1840, he entered into agricultural pursuits on an extended scale, which he has never since entirely abandoned. He spent a couple of years in Maine and Georgia, interesting himself in agricultural improvements, which proved successful in themselves as well as in the other results which grew out of them. While pursing this avocation his attention was directed to the project of building the telegraph. His convictions told him that the plan would be feasible, and he soon entered into an engagement with Mr. F. O. J. Smith, who had taken the Government contract for laying the telegraph from Baltimore to Washington, in insulated pipes placed underground. Mr. Cornell set his inventive faculties at work to construct a machine for laying the pipes, by which he could very considerably lessen the expense of the labor. In this effort he was successful. But Prof. Morse's mode of insulation was so imperfect as to cause an abandonment of an underground telegraph. Mr. Cornell, who was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Telegraph Company, now changed the design, and in the place of underground pipes, substituted upright poles. This plan was practicable, and the air-line from Baltimore to Washington was completed by him in the spring of 1844. But public prejudice was strong against the practicability of telegraphs. It was altogether too wonderful an undertaking for old ideas. But, notwithstanding opposition, the determined vigor of Mr. Cornell and kindred spirits carried the enterprise through all obstacles to a most satisfactory termination.

At different times he has been superintendent in the erection of various lines, and generally with pecuniary success. His investments in telegraph stock have been heavy; and they have been so enhanced in value as to increase his wealth to a princely sum. Thus his far reaching foresight, his unyielding perseverance and his honesty of intentions have elevated him from comparative poverty to wealth. Money is very paltry in the hands of men who are narrow in their views and illiberal in their natures. Mr. Cornell, fortunately, is a gentleman of a broad and liberal spirit. His benevolence has become proverbial; and the people have learned to esteem him as one of the philanthropists of this State. We can never forget that, while in London, in 1862, he generously paid from his own private means the expenses of several soldiers to this country, in order that they might join our army then engaged in putting down the rebellion.

On his return from Europe he commenced the erection of the Cornell Library, which has since been completed, at a cost of $100,000, and which he donated to the village of Ithaca as a public library, lecture and reading rooms, with an endowment adequate to render it self-sustaining and perpetual.

And when the plan of an agricultural college at Ovid failed, Mr. Cornell proposed to the trustees that if they would organize upon a broader basis, and locate it at Ithaca, he would contribute the sum of $500,000 toward the endowment of their institution. This proposition resulted in the founding of the Cornell University, now in progress of erection at Ithaca, to which Mr. Cornell has given a valuable farm, the Jewett Cabinet, which cost $10,000, and cash to the amount of $500,000. He is also devoting his personal energies and time, and loaning his means to this institution for the purpose of purchasing from the State the college land scrip, and locating the lands, a work which promises to add millions of dollars to the endowment of a college for the liberal education of the industrial classes. This deed needs no comment, except the hearty response of the people cooperating with the donor in making the plan beneficial to our agricultural and mechanical interests.

In the year 1862-3, Mr. Cornell was a member of the Assembly. He there distinguished himself for his comprehensive abilities. In the year 1863, his constituents recognized the fact by electing him to the State Senate; and they reiterated their satisfaction by a reelection in 1865.

On the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Cornell, who had previously been a Whig, attached himself to it; he has ever since been one of its most zealous adherents.

In appearance, he is firm and self-reliant. There is a determination around his month [sic] mouth and a keenness in his eye which forbid the approach of corruption; and at the same time the sunshine of benevolence emanating from the heart within, is reflected from every feature of his face.