Ezra Cornell

Ezra Cornell (1807-1874), American philanthropist and industrialist, who launched telecommunications in the United States. Cornell built, developed, and promoted telegraph lines, which were wire links between cities that allowed users to send and receive messages through the use of an electrical apparatus. As a result of the success of electronic telegraphy, Cornell and other industrialists founded the Western Union Telegraph Company. He also endowed and was a principal founder of Cornell University.

Cornell was born in Westchester Landing, New York. He worked as a carpenter and millwright, but after the mills for which he worked were sold in 1841, Cornell became fascinated with electronic telegraphy and met Samuel Morse, one of the technology’s early innovators. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, prototype telegraph systems had entered use in Europe, and there was considerable pressure to develop such systems in the United States. Cornell’s first contribution to telegraphy was to develop a method for insulating telegraph wires and stringing them to wooden poles. In 1844, using this method, he directed the installation of the first telegraph line in the United States, between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Cornell then organized and promoted several telegraph companies in the eastern and midwestern United States. As a result of his close involvement in telegraphy in the ensuing years, Cornell became founder, director, and largest stockholder of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which was formed in 1855.

Telegraph systems spread quickly across Europe and the United States, and this growth soon resulted in many mergers and associations. By the end of the 19th century, thanks in large part to Cornell’s Western Union company, the world was crisscrossed by telegraph lines, including numerous cables across the Atlantic Ocean. The Western Union Telegraph Company (now known simply as Western Union) and its direct-communication system still exists today, although much of its communication function has been supplanted by information carried over phone and fax lines.

With the considerable wealth he obtained from the Western Union Telegraph Company, Cornell became a public philanthropist and promoted his interests in agriculture and education. He served in the New York state legislature, built a free public library in Ithaca, New York, and established a model farm there in 1863. Cornell’s interest in agricultural education also led him to secure legislation for the establishment of Cornell University in 1865. Responsible for the financial success of the land grant university, he gave $500,000 toward its creation. When the university opened in 1868, its charter embraced many of his interests in arts, sciences, and commerce.