CORNELL, EZRA (1807-74). An American capitalist and philanthropist. the founder of Cornell University. He was born in Westchester County, N. Y., of Quaker parentage; removed with his father, a potter by trade, to De Ruyter, N. V., in 1819; received a scant education, and for some time taught a district school, besides assisting his father in fanning and the making of pottery. Ile also learned the carpenter's trade, spent a year as a mechanic at Homer, N. Y., and in 1826 removed to Ithaca. where for eight years he managed a Hour-mill. in 1839 he joined his brother in the lumbering and farming business, but his attention being turned acci dentally in 1842 to the project of constructing a telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington. he invented a machine for laying the wires under ground and was subsequently put in charge of the work. The insulation being poor, however, the plan had to be abandoned, and on Cornell's suggestion the wires were strung on poles, and the line was thus speedily completed. Subsequently Cornell devoted his attention almost wholly to the construction of telegraph lines and the organiza tion of telegraph companies, and was instrnmental in forming the Western Union Telegraph Com pany in 1855. In 1858, having accumulated a
large fortune, he settled on a farm at Ithaca, N. Y. He was a member of the first Republican Na tional Convention in 1856, was president of the New York State Agricultural Society in 1862, and was a member of the State Assembly in 1862-63, and of the State Senate in 1864-67. After the passage of the 'Morrill Land-Grant Act' in 18(32, he succeeded in getting a bill through the Legislature assigning the whole of New York's land scrip to one institution, and in addition contributed an endowment of $500.000 toward building such an institution at Ithaca, N. V. He subsequently (in 1866) bought up the scrip then remaining unsold. located it with great care. and by his skillful management enormously increased the income accruing there from to the university. In 1868 'The Cornell University,' so founded, was formally opened. Sir. Cornell also built a public library at Ithaca. Consult The Life of Ezra Cornell, by his son A. B. Cornell (New York, 1884).