American philanthropist, born at Westchester Landing, NY, on the 11th of January 1807 He settled in Ithaca in 1828, and conceived and developed the water-power tunnel at Fall Creek. He superintended the establishment of the first telegraph line in America, opened between Baltimore and Washington in 1844. Thereafter he devoted himself to the erection of telegraph lines through the United States, and was the founder of the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1865 Mr. Cornell founded the University at Ithaca, NY, which bears his name. He died at Ithaca, NY, on the 9th of December 1874.
