Ezra Cornell
In the winter of 1819 might have been seen travelling from New Jersey to
De Ruyter in New York, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, some
covered emigrant wagons, containing a wife and six children in the
first, and household goods and farming utensils in the others. Sometimes
the occupants slept in a farmhouse, but usually in their vehicles by a
camp-fire in the woods.
For two weeks they journeyed,
wilderness and over wellnigh impassable roads. The mother, with a baby
in her arms,--her oldest child, Ezra, a boy of twelve,--must have been
worn with this toilsome journey; but patient and cheerful, no word of
repining escaped her lips. Elijah Cornell, a frank, noble-hearted
Quaker, was going West to make his living as a potter and farmer
combined.
Like other pioneers, they made ready their little home among the sterile
hills; and there, for twenty years, they struggled to rear a family that
grew to eleven children, instead of six. The boys of the family were
taught the simple mysteries of pottery-making early in life, and thus
formed habits of industry, while their limited income necessarily made
them economical.
(From his Biography, by Gov. A. B. Cornell.)]
The eldest boy, Ezra,--now sixteen,--was growing anxious to be something
more than a potter. He was nearly six feet tall, thin, muscular, and
full of energy. He was studious, reading every book within his reach,
and desirous of an education, which there was no money to procure.
Determined, if possible, to go to the common school one more winter, he
and his brother, fifteen years of age, chopped and cleared four acres of
heavy beech and maple woodland, plowed, and planted it to corn, and thus
made themselves able to finish their education.
Soon after the father engaged a carpenter to build a large pottery. Ezra
assisted, and began to think he should like the trade of a carpenter.
When the structure was completed, taking his younger brother to the
forest, they cut timber, and erected for their father's family a
two-story dwelling, the best in the town. Without any supervision, Ezra
had made the frame so that every part fitted in its exact place. This,
for a boy of seventeen, became the wonder of the neighborhood.
Master-builders prophesied a rare carpenter for posterity.
It was evident that the quiet town of De Ruyter could not satisfy such a
lad, and at eighteen he started away from his affectionate mother to try
the world. She could trust him because he used neither liquor nor
tobacco; was truthful, honest, and willing to work hard. If a young man
desires to get his living easily, or is very particular as to the kind
of work he undertakes, his future success may well be doubted. Ezra
found no carpentering, as he had hoped; but in the vicinity of Syracuse,
then a small village, he engaged himself for two years, to get out
timber for shipment to New York by canal. The following year he worked
in a shop making wool-carding machinery, and being now only twenty miles
from De Ruyter, he walked home every Saturday evening and back Monday
morning. Twenty miles before a day's work would have been too long for
most boys. There was no danger that Ezra would grow tender, either of
foot or hand, through luxury.
Hearing that there was a good outlook for business at Ithaca, he walked
forty miles thither, with a spare suit of clothes, and a few dollars in
his pocket. Who would have said then that this unknown lad, with no
capital save courage and ambition, would make the name of Ithaca, joined
with that of Cornell, known round the world?
He obtained work as a carpenter, and was soon offered the position of
keeping a cotton-mill in repair. This he gladly accepted, using what
knowledge he had gained in the machine-shop. A year later, Colonel
Beebe, proprietor of a flouring and plaster mill, asked young Cornell to
repair his works; and so pleased was he with the mechanic that he kept
him for twelve years, making him his confidential agent and general
manager. When a tunnel was needed to bring water from Fall Creek,
Cornell was made engineer-in-chief of the enterprise; when labor-saving
machinery was required, the head of the enterprising young man invented
it.
Meantime he had married, at the age of twenty-four, an intelligent girl,
Mary Ann Wood, four years his junior, the second in a family of eleven
children. As the young lady was not a Quaker, Cornell was formally
excommunicated from his church for taking a person outside the fold. He
was offered forgiveness and re-instatement if he would apologize and
show proper regret, which he refused to do, feeling that the church had
no right to decide upon the religious convictions of the person he
loved.
He soon purchased a few acres of land near the mill, and erected a
simple home for his bride. Here they lived for twenty years, and here
their nine children were born, four of whom died early. It was happiness
to go daily to his work, receive his comfortable salary, and see his
children grow up around him with their needed wants supplied. But the
comfortable salary came to an end. Colonel Beebe withdrew from active
business, the mill was turned into a woollen factory, and Cornell was
thrown out of work. Business depression was great all over the country.
In vain for months he sought for employment. The helpless family must be
supported; at the age of thirty-six matters began to look serious.
Finally, he went to Maine in the endeavor to sell the patent right of a
new plow, recently invented. He visited the "Maine Farmer," and met the
editor, Hon. F. O. J. Smith, a member of Congress, who became much
interested. He tried also to sell the patent in the State of Georgia,
walking usually forty miles a day, but with little success. Again he
started for Maine, walking from Ithaca to Albany, one hundred and sixty
miles in four days, then, going by rail to Boston, and once more on foot
to Portland. He was fond of walking, and used to say, "Nature can in no
way be so rationally enjoyed, as through the opportunities afforded the
pedestrian."
Entering the office of the "Maine Farmer" again, he found "Mr. Smith on
his knees in the middle of his office floor, with a piece of chalk in
his hand, the mould-board of a plow lying by his side, and with various
chalk-marks on the floor before him."
Mr. Smith arose and grasped him cordially by the hand, saying, "Cornell,
you are the very man I want to see. I have been trying to explain to
neighbor Robertson a machine that I want made, but I cannot make him
understand it. I want a kind of scraper, or machine for digging a ditch
for laying our telegraph pipe under ground. Congress has appropriated
thirty thousand dollars to enable Professor Morse to test the
practicability of his telegraph on a line between Washington and
Baltimore. I have taken the contract to lay the pipe at one hundred
dollars a mile."
Mr. Cornell's ready brain soon saw what kind of a machine was needed,
and he sketched a rough diagram of it.
Without much hope of success, Smith said, "You make a machine, and I
will pay the expense whether successful or not; if successful, I will
pay you fifty dollars, or one hundred, or any price you may name."
Mr. Cornell at once went to a machine shop, made the patterns for the
necessary castings, and then the wood-work for the frame. The trial of
the new machine was made at Mr. Smith's homestead, four yoke of oxen
being attached to the strange-looking plow, which cut a furrow two and
one-half feet deep, and one and one-fourth inches wide, and laid the
pipe in the bottom at the same time. It worked successfully, and Mr.
Cornell was asked to take charge of the laying of the pipe between
Baltimore and Washington. He accepted, for he believed the telegraph
would become a vast instrument in civilization. The loss of a position
at the Beebe mill proved the opening to a broader world; his energy had
found a field as wide as the universe.
It was decided to put the first pipe between the double tracks of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad. With an eight-mule team, horses being
afraid of the engines, nearly a mile of pipe was laid each day. Soon
Professor Morse came hurriedly, and calling Mr. Cornell aside, said,
"Can you not contrive to stop this work for a few days in some manner,
so the papers will not know that it has been purposely interrupted? I
want to make some experiments before any more pipe is laid."
Cornell had been expecting this, for he knew that the pipes were
defective, though other officials would not permit Morse to be told of
it. Replying that he would do as requested, he stepped back to his plow,
and said, "Hurrah, boys, whip up your mules; we must lay another length
of pipe before we quit to-night." Then he purposely let the machine
catch against a point of rock, making it a perfect wreck.
Mr. Cornell began now, at Professor Morse's request, to experiment in
the basement of the Patent Office at Washington, studying what books he
could obtain on electrical science. It was soon found to be wise to put
the wires upon poles, as Cooke and Wheatstone had done in England. The
line between Baltimore and Washington proved successful despite its
crudities; but what should be done with it? Government did not wish to
buy it, and private capital was afraid to touch it.
How could the world be made interested? Mr. Cornell, who had now put his
heart into the telegraph, built a line from Milk Street, Boston, to
School Street, that the people might see for themselves this new agent
which was to enable nations to talk with each other; but nobody cared to
waste a moment in looking at it. They were more interested in selling a
piece of cloth, or discovering the merits of a dead philosopher. Not
delighted with the indifference of Boston, he moved his apparatus to New
York in 1844, and constructed a line from opposite Trinity Church on
Broadway, to near the site of the present Metropolitan Hotel; but New
York was even more indifferent than Boston.
The "Tribune," "Express," and some other newspapers gave cordial notices
of the new enterprise, but the "Herald" said plainly that it was opposed
to the telegraph, because now it could beat its rivals by special
couriers; but if the telegraph came into use, then all would have an
equal opportunity to obtain news! During the whole winter Mr. Cornell
labored seemingly to no purpose, to introduce what Morse had so grandly
discovered. A man of less will and less self-reliance would have become
discouraged. He met the fate of all reformers or inventors. Nobody wants
a thing till it is a great success, and then everybody wants it at the
same moment.
Finally, by the hardest struggle, the Magnetic Telegraph Company was
formed for erecting a line between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Washington, and Mr. Cornell for superintending it was to receive one
thousand dollars per annum. So earnest was he for the matter that he
subscribed five hundred dollars to the stock of the company, paying for
it out of his meagre salary! Such men,--willing to live on the merest
pittance that a measure of great practical good may succeed,--such men
deserve to win.
The next line was between New York and Albany, and Mr. Cornell, being
the contractor, received his first return for these years of labor six
thousand dollars in profits. The tide had turned; and though afterward
various obstacles had to be met and overcome, the poor mechanic had
started on the high-road to fame and fortune. He next organized the Erie
and Michigan Telegraph Company, supposing that the Western cities thus
benefited would subscribe to the stock; but even in Chicago, which now
pays three thousand dollars daily for telegraphic service, it was
impossible to raise a dollar.
A year later, the New York and Erie telegraph line was constructed
through the southern part of New York State. Mr. Cornell, believing most
heartily in the project, obligated himself heavily, and the result
proved his far-sightedness. But now ruinous competition set in. Those
who had been unwilling to help at first were anxious to share profits.
To save all from bankruptcy in the cutting of rates, Mr. Cornell and a
few others consolidated the various interests in the Western Union
Telegraph Company, now grown so large that it has nearly five hundred
thousand miles of wire, employs twenty thousand persons, sends over
forty-one million messages yearly, and makes over seven and one-half
million dollars profits.
For more than fifteen years he was the largest stockholder in the
company; it was not strange therefore, that middle life found Ezra
Cornell a millionnaire. This was better than making pottery in the
little town of De Ruyter. It had taken work, however, to make this
fortune. While others sauntered and enjoyed life at leisure, he was
working early and late, away from his family most of the time for twelve
years.
In 1857, when fifty years of age, he purchased three hundred acres near
Ithaca, planted orchards, bought fine cattle and horses, and moved his
family thither. He was made president of the County Agricultural
Society, and in 1862 was chosen to represent the State Agricultural
Society at the International Exposition in London. Taking his wife with
him, they travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent, enjoying a
few months of recreation, for the first time since, when a youth, thirty
years before, he had walked into Ithaca.
During the war he gave money and sympathy freely, being often at the
front, in hospitals, and on battle-fields, caring for the wounded and
their families, and aiding those whom the war had left maimed or
impoverished. For six years he served acceptably in the State
Legislature. Self-reliant, calm, unselfish, simple in dress and manner,
he was, alike the companion of distinguished scholars, and the advocate
of the people.
The great question now before his mind was how to spend his fortune most
wisely. He recalled the days when he cleared four acres of timber land,
that he might have three months of schooling. He had regretted all his
life his lack of a college education. He determined therefore to build
"an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."
Preparatory to this he built Cornell Library, costing sixty-one thousand
dollars. A workman, losing one of his horses by accident in the
construction of the edifice, was called upon by the philanthropist, who,
after inquiring the value of the animal, drew a check and handed it to
the man, remarking, with a kind smile, "I presume I can better than you
afford to lose the horse." A man with money enough to build libraries
does not always remember a laborer!
Mr. Cornell's first gift toward his university was two hundred acres of
his cherished farm, and five hundred thousand dollars in money. The
institution was formally opened in 1868, Hon. Andrew D. White, a
distinguished graduate of Yale and of the University of Berlin, being
chosen president. Soon over four hundred students gathered from over
twenty-seven States. Mr. Cornell's gifts afterward, including his saving
the Land Grant Fund from depreciation, amounted to over three million
dollars. A wonderful present from a self-made mechanic! Other men have
followed his illustrious example. Henry W. Sage has given three hundred
thousand dollars for the building of Sage College for women, and the
extensive conservatories of the Botanical Department. Hiram Sibley, of
Rochester, has given fifty thousand dollars for the College of Mechanic
Arts, and John McGraw, one hundred thousand for the library and museum.
Cornell University is now one of the most liberally endowed institutions
in the country, and has already sent out over one thousand graduates.
Mr. Cornell did everything to enrich and develop his own town. He
brought manufactories of glass and iron into her midst, held the
presidency of the First National Bank for a dozen years, made her as far
as possible a railroad centre, and gave generously to her churches of
whatever denomination. The first question asked in any project was,
"Have you seen Ezra Cornell? He will take hold of the work; and if he is
for you, no one will be against you, and success is assured, if success
be possible."
Dec. 9, 1874, at the age of sixty-seven, scarcely able to stand, he
arose from his bed and was dressed that he might attend to some
unfinished business. Shortly after noon, it was finished by an unseen
hand. His body was carried to Library Hall, and there, the Cornell
Cadets standing as guard of honor, thousands looked upon the renowned
giver. The day of the funeral, public and private buildings were draped,
shops were closed, and the streets filled by a saddened throng. The
casket was borne into the cemetery between lines of students, who owed
to his generosity their royal opportunities for scholarship. Various
societies in various cities passed resolutions of respect and honor for
the dead.
Froude, the English historian, well said of him, "There is something I
admire even more than the university, and that is the quiet,
unpretending man by whom the university was founded. We have had such
men in old times, and there are men in England who make great fortunes
and who make claim to great munificence, but who manifest their
greatness in buying great estates and building castles for the founding
of peerages to be handed down from father to son. Mr. Cornell has sought
for immortality, and the perpetuity of his name among the people of a
free nation. There stands his great university, built upon a rock, built
of stone, as solid as a rock, to endure while the American nation
endures. When the herald's parchment shall have crumbled into dust, and
the antiquarians are searching among the tombstones for the records of
these departed families, Mr. Cornell's name will be still fresh and
green through generation after generation."
Overlooking Ithaca and Cayuga Lake stands his home, a beautiful Gothic
villa in stone, finished a year after his death. His motto, the motto of
his life, is carved over the principal entrance, "TRUE AND FIRM."
More
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The history of inventors is generally the same old struggle with poverty. Sir Richard Arkwright, the youngest of thirteen children, with no education, a barber, shaving in a cellar for a penny to each customer, dies worth two and one-half million ... Jean Paul Richter
Vasari, who wrote the lives of the Italian painters, truly said, "It is not by sleeping, but by working, waking, and laboring continually, that proficiency is attained and reputation acquired." This was emphatically true of Richter, as it is of ev... Joan of Arc
Lived from 1412-1431 In the long wars between the French and English not even the Black Prince or King Henry V gained such fame as did a young French peasant girl, Joan of Arc. She was born in the little village of Domrémy (dom-re-me'). ... John James Audubon
The problem why certain men and women come to eminence, and why others, with apparently as much ability, remain forever in obscurity, is an interesting one to solve. Most persons desire fame; most persons desire wealth; but, for one reason or a... John Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750) THE CHILD MUSICIAN Long ago, in a little German town, lived a jolly old miller. From morning till night he sang about his work, for he loved music dearly. He had learned to play upon the lute, which is an instrument with string... Joseph Henry Lld
On Thursday evening, January 16, 1879, a large company gathered in the hall of the House of Representatives at Washington. They came to honor the memory of one of our greatest in science, since Franklin,--Joseph Henry, the Secretary of the Smit... Joseph Marie Jacquard
The small world which lives in elegant houses knows little of the great world in dingy apartments with bare walls and empty cupboards. Those who walk or ride in the sunshine often forget the darkness of the mines, or the tiresome treadmill of the ... Justinian the Great
Emperor from 527-565 A.D. In the time of Clovis the country now called Bulgaria was inhabited by Goths. One day a poor shepherd boy, about sixteen years of age, left his mountain home in that country to go to the city of Constantinople, wh... KING CHARLES II. AND NELL GWYN
One might classify the kings of England in many ways. John was undoubtedly the most unpopular. The impetuous yet far-seeing Henry II., with the other two great warriors, Edward I. and Edward III., and William of Orange, did most for the foundation... LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY
Often there has arisen some man who, either by his natural gifts or by his impudence or by the combination of both, has made himself a recognized leader in the English fashionable world. One of the first of these men was Richard Nash, usually know... Leon Gambetta
On January 6, 1883, Paris presented a sad and imposing spectacle. Her shops were closed; her public buildings and her homes were draped in black. Her streets were solid with hundreds of thousands, all dispirited, and many in tears. A large catafal... LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON
The present French Republic has endured for over forty years. Within that time it has produced just one man of extraordinary power and parts. This was Leon Gambetta. Other men as remarkable as he were conspicuous in French political life during th...