[Alonzo Barton]. American politician, son of Ezra Cornell; born in Ithaca, NY, on the 22nd of January 1832. He became a telegraph operator and manager, and in 1868 a director of the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1868 he was the Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York, but was defeated. The next year President Grant made him surveyor of customs at New York, and in 1873 he resigned to enter the state assembly, of which he was made speaker. From 1870 to 1878 he was chairman of the state central committee, and in this capacity influenced the New York delegation at Cincinnati in 1876 to vote for Rutherford B. Hayes. In January 1877, Mr. Cornell was appointed naval officer of the port of New York by General Grant. President Hayes, soon after taking office, demanded that Mr. Cornell should resign from the state and national committees, and as he refused, he was suspended in July 1878. The collector of the port, Chester A. Arthur, shared the same fate. In 1879 Mr. Cornell was elected governor of New York and served till December 31, 1882. He failed to obtain a renomination.
