Home > Ezra Cornell

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.

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.

With fellow senator Andrew Dickson White, Cornell, a life-long enthusiast in science and agricultureFarming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). Agriculture is also known as farming ., founded Cornell UniversityCornell University located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is a major research university and a member of the Ivy League. Cornell was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell, a businessman and a pioneer in the telegraph industry, and Andrew Dickson White, a respected s in 18651865 is a common year starting on Sunday. Events January 31 American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief. February 17 American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forc. 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 1873The Panic of 1873 was touched off on September 18, 1873, when the Philadelphia banking firm Jay Cooke and Company closed its doors and declared bankruptcy. It was one of a series of economic crises in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The others occurred. 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. CornellAlonzo Barton Cornell ( 22 January 1832 15 October 1904) was born in Ithaca in Tompkins County, New York. He was the eldest son of Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University. He was educated at the Ithaca Academy, and a the age of fifteen began a car 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

Sources for above information: The Builder, A Biography of Ezra Cornell by Philip Dorf, 1952. The Cornell Correspondence online.

Updated by Jeffrey Chace, 11 November 2004.