Cornel was born in Westchester Landing, New York, on January 11th, 1807, the eldest son of Elijah and Eunice Cornell. He grew up in rural DeRuyter, and lived in Ithaca from 1828 until his death in 1874.
His father was a trade porter and carried on the business extensively, at one time, in Tarrytown, afterward at English Neighborhood, New Jersey.
As a teenager, Cornell could only attend school three months each winter.
As lifelong resident of Upstate New York, he saw many opportunities become available to him, and he grabbed very one of them.
He was a successful farmer, businessman, and financier although much of his fame and fortune came after his fiftieth birthday.
He made his fortune improving upon the work of Samuel B. Morse. Cornell devised a method of stringing insulated wires along telephone poles.
Cornell constructed the first telegraph line in the United States in 1844, running between Baltimore and Washington. This made the telegraph practical providing telegraph service to the northeastern United States.
His work on the telegraph made Ezra Cornell a wealth man, with an annual income of $140,000.
Biography of Ezra Cornell
Abdus Salam: Nobel Prize Winner
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