Ezra Cornell, co-founder of Cornell University

Ezra Cornell (January 11, 1807 – December 9, 1874) was an American businessman and, with Andrew Dickson White, was the founder of Cornell University. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (491x623, 68 KB) Summary Ezra Cornell, co-founder of Cornell University. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (491x623, 68 KB) Summary Ezra Cornell, co-founder of Cornell University. ... Cornell redirects here. ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1807 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Andrew Dickson White in 1885 Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American diplomat, author, and educator, most known as the co-founder of Cornell University. ... Cornell redirects here. ...

Birth and early life

He was born in Westchester County, New York, the son of a potter, Elijah Cornell. He was a first cousin, five times removed of Benjamin Franklin on his maternal grandmother's side. Having travelled extensively as a carpenter in New York State, Ezra, upon first setting eyes on Cayuga Lake and Ithaca, decided Ithaca would be his future home. Westchester County is a suburban county with about 940,000 residents located in the U.S. state of New York. ... Unfired green ware pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum. ... Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1777 Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most prominent of the Founders and early political figures and statesmen of the United States. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... Cayuga Lake is the longest of western New Yorks glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area. ... It has been suggested that Ithaca Commons be merged into this article or section. ...

Marriage and early career

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. A carpenter is a skilled craftsman who performs carpentry -- a wide range of woodworking that includes constructing buildings, furniture, and other large objects out of wood. ... Fall Creek is the name of several places in the United States: Fall Creek, Wisconsin, a town Fall Creek, a stream in New York Fall Creek, a stream in Indiana It is also the name of a Texas Winery. ...

Ezra Cornell was a birthright Quaker Religious Society of Friends, 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. The Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as Quakers or Friends) was founded in England in the 17th century by people who were dissatisfied with the existing denominations and sects of Christianity. ... The Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... Leopold I 1831 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Dryden is a village located in Tompkins County, 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: February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

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 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. Official language(s) None Capital Augusta Largest city Portland Area  - Total   - Width   - Length    - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 39th 33,414 sq mi  86,542 km² 190 miles  305 km 320 miles  515 km 13. ... For other senses of this word, see summer (disambiguation). ... Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ...

The telegraph

Happening into the offices of the Maine Farmer in 1842, Ezra saw an acquaintance 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. Later it was 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. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... Portrait of Samuel F. B. Morse by Mathew Brady, between 1855 and 1865 Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor, and painter of portraits and historic scenes; he is most famous for inventing the electric telegraph and Morse code. ... General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish white Atomic mass 207. ... // Definition An Insulator is a material or object which resists the flow of electric charge. ... Lightning strikes during a night-time thunderstorm. ...

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 the U.S. After joining with Morse, Cornell supervised the erection of many telegraph lines, earning a substantial fortune as a founder of the Western Union company. Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... Portrait of Samuel F. B. Morse by Mathew Brady, between 1855 and 1865 Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor, and painter of portraits and historic scenes; he is most famous for inventing the electric telegraph and Morse code. ... This article is the current U.S. Collaboration of the Week. ... A view of the Baltimore skyline from above. ... Western Union is an American financial services and communications company. ...

Cornell was a Republican member of both the New York State Senate and Assembly. The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... The New York Legislature is the legislative branch of the U.S. state of New York, seated at the states capital, Albany. ...

Cornell University

Cornell retired from Western Union and turned his attention to philanthropy. He endowed the Cornell Library, a public library for the citizens of Ithaca. A lifelong enthusiast of science and agriculture, he saw great opportunity in the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to found a university that would teach practical subjects, as opposed to the classics as favored by more traditional institutions. Andrew Dickson White helped secure the new institution's status as New York's land grant university, and Cornell University was granted a charter through their efforts in 1865. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Librarians and patrons in a typical larger urban public library A public library is a library which is accessible by the public and is often operated by civil servants and funded from public sources. ... The scope of this article is limited to the empirical sciences. ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are pieces of US legislation which allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges, which would be funded by the grant of federally-controlled land to each of the states which had stayed with the United States during the American Civil War. ... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctor) in a variety of subjects. ... Andrew Dickson White in 1885 Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American diplomat, author, and educator, most known as the co-founder of Cornell University. ... Land-grant universities (also called land-grant colleges or land grant institutions) are American institutions which have been designated by a Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. ...

Llenroc

Image File history File links Llenroc. ... Image File history File links Llenroc. ...

Later life

Ezra Cornell entered the railroad business, but fared poorly due to the Panic of 1873. He began construction of a palatial Ithaca mansion, Llenroc (Cornell spelled in reverse) to replace his farmhouse, Forest Home, but died before it was completed. Llenroc was maintained by Cornell's heirs for several decades until being sold to the local chapter of the Delta Phi fraternity, which occupies it to this day; Forest Home was sold to the Delta Tau Delta chapter and later demolished!! Cornell is interred in Sage Chapel on Cornell's campus, along with Daniel Willard Fiske and Jennie McGraw. This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Run on the Fourth National Bank, No. ... The Delta Phi (ΔΦ) fraternity was founded in 1827 at Union College in Schenectady, New York. ... While the terms fraternity and sorority (from the Latin words frater and soror, meaning brother and sister respectively) may be used to describe any number of social and charitable organizations, including the Lions Club, Epsilon Sigma Alpha, Rotary International, and the Shriners, in the United States and Canada fraternities and... Delta Tau Delta (ΔΤΔ, DTD, Delts) is a U.S.-based international college fraternity. ... Cornell redirects here. ... Jennie McGraw was born in Dryden, NY in 1840 and died in Ithaca, New York on September 30, 1881. ...

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. Cornell University has made the approximately 30,000 letters in the Cornell Correspondence available online.

His eldest son, Alonzo B. Cornell was later governor of New York. The eldest lineal descendent of Cornell is granted a life seat on Cornell University's Board of Trustees, currently Ezra Cornell IV. Alonzo Barton Cornell (22 January 1832–15 October 1904) was Governor of New York from 1880 to 1883. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Largest city Albany New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi  (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ...

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[1]. The Space Shuttle Columbia seconds after engine ignition, 1981 (NASA). ... Silk weaver Silk is a natural protein fiber that can be woven into textiles. ...

See also

• Cornell University
• Ithaca, New York
• Mary Morrill - Ezra's 4th great-grandmother and Benjamin Franklin's grandmother

Other Sites Cornell redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Ithaca Commons be merged into this article or section. ... Mary Morrill/Morrel/Morrills/Morill (Circa 1620 – 1704) was the grandmother of Benjamin Franklin who was an American printer, journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. ...

Further reading

• Dorf, Philip (1952). The Builder, A Biography of Ezra Cornell. New York: The Macmillan Co.
• Geneaology of Ezra Cornell