Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 68

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194

USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 68

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

legal knowledge and wisdom of the English speaking race, are com- mentaries and text books without number, discussing all phases of jurisprudence and all forms of adjudication, so that it may be truth- fully said of the gift which these ladies make to you to-day, that no authority will ever be cited, no case will ever be referred to, no existing doctrine will ever be asserted, which cannot at once be verified in the library thus added to your treasures."

The Law School was first accommodated in the rooms on the fourth floor of Morrill Hall, but aside from the inconvenience and the difficulty of access to these rooms, they only partially met the needs of the school. In February, 1891, the trustees made a liberal appropriation for the erection of a special building for the school, which was completed in the summer of 1892. It is a large three-story structure of Cleveland stone, having the general architectural features of the Sage Library, and is practically fire-proof. On the first floor are three large lecture rooms and the necessary halls and cloak rooms. Seminary rooms and the offices of the several resident professors occupy the second floor, while the third is devoted to library purposes. Here are three large, well lighted and elegantly furnished library rooms, which have accom- modations for thirty thousand volumes, and for three hundred readers. The building is heated by steam and lighted by electricity, and is thoroughly well ventilated. The erection and furnishing of the build- ing, cost $110,000. At a meeting of the trustees held on September 14, 1892, it was resolved unanimously that, in view of the long and valuable services of the late Judge Douglass Boardman as a member of their body, and of his official connection with the School of Law, the home of the school should be designated as Boardman Hall. The library of the school contains 23,000 volumes. The building was first occupied for the purposes of a school at the opening of the fall term of 1892, and was formally dedicated and named on the 14th of February, 1893, with addresses by the Hon. Francis M. Finch, who presented the Moak Law Library in behalf of the donors, and President Schurman accepting the gift, and by the Hon. Chas. Andrews, chief judge of New York Court of Appeals. The able address by Judge Andrews traced the history of legal study in the formation of the Constitution of the United States and of the separate States, and deseribed the increasing demands which the future would make in settling problems which affect the rights of the people, and social order.

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LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.

The faculty of the Law School first appointed, consisted of the Hon. Douglass Boardman, dean. Judge Boardman had served on the Board of Trustees, first as alumni trustee from 1875-1885, and from that date as a regular trustee, elected by the board. He had served on the bench of the Supreme Court from 1866-1881, a portion of the time as a member of the General Term, when he voluntarily retired, bearing with him the respect of his colleagues on the bench and the members of the bar. He was an upright and industrious judge, who, while possessing positive views, was courteous and tolerant, while maintaining the dignity of his judicial office. The associate dean of the school, Professor Harry B. Hutchins, a graduate of the University of Michigan, and afterward Jay professor of law in that institution. He lectures on American constitutional law, the law of real property, common law pleading and practice, equity-jurisprudence and equity-pleading and procedure.

The Hon. Charles A. Collin graduated at Yale in 1866, and was later city attorney in Elmira. For several years Professor Collin has been one of the commissioners on statutory revision, where his work has been recognized as of the highest value to the State, and also legal adviser of the governor to report upon the constitutional and legal character of bills submitted for approval. He has also devoted much attention to sociology and to the amelioration of the condition of the dependent and criminal classes. He lectures in the Law School upon elementary law, criminal law and procedure, civil procedure under the codes, private and municipal corporations, and partnership.

Professor Francis M. Burdick, now of the Columbia Law School, came from Hamilton College, where he held a similar position. His instruction embraced elementary law, contracts including agency, evi- dence, bailments, mercantile law including bills, partnership, sales, suretyship, and Roman law. Upon Professor Burdick's resignation in 1891, his position was filled with brilliant ability by Professor Charles E. Hughes, who resigned after two years' service, and was succeeded by Professor Ernest Wilson Huffcut, a graduate of the university in the class of 1884, and at the Law School in 1888, who had filled the position of instructor in English, from 1885-88, and had later, after a period of practice at the bar, held a professorship of law in the University of Indiana, and in the Law School of the Northwestern University in Chicago. Professor Huffcut's instruction embraces the subjects for- merly taught by Professor Burdick, with the exception of elementary law, bailments and partnership.

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William A. Finch, esq., of the class of 1880, has been assistant- professor (1891-2) and later associate professor in the Law School. He lectures upon wills and administration, evidence, chattel mortgages, domestic relations, bailments and insurance. Professor Herbert Tuttle, L. H. D., lectures upon English constitutional history (1887-94), and Professor Moses Coit Tyler, LL.D., has lectured upon American con- stitutional history since the opening of the school.

Notable lectures before the school have been delivered by the Hon. Francis M. Finch, LL. D., of the Court of Appeals, on the Statute of Frauds and Fraudulent Conveyances; by the Hon. Daniel H. Chamber- lain on Constitutional Law; by the Hon. Alfred C. Coxe of the United States District Court on Admirality ; by the Hon. Orlow W. Chapman on the Law of Life Insurance; by the Hon. Goodwin Brown on the Law of Extradition, and others.

XXI.

THE QUARTER-CENTENNIAL.

AT the meeting of the trustees of June 15, 1892, a committee was appointed to arrange for the appropriate observance of the twenty- fifth anniversary of the organization of Cornell University. It was decided to arrange for the celebration of the opening of the university on October 6, 7 and 8, 1893. Such an occasion afforded an opportunity to review the history, and to estimate the influence of the university as an educational force in the nation, in the twenty-five years of its exist- ence, and for a reunion of former students and friends, who were present in large numbers. The exercises began on Friday evening, October the sixth, with a reception in the University Library, at which delegates from other universities, and invited guests were present.

Among the attractions of the library many recent additions were exhibited, among them the Zarncke library, previously one of the finest collections for the study of German literature and philology among the private libraries of Germany, which had been recently presented to the university by Mr. William H. Sage; a rare Dante collection from Pro- fessor Willard Fiske: several richly illustrated volumes upon events in Russian history, from the Hon. Andrew D. White, minister to Russia; two portraits by the artist, Mr. J. Colin Forbes, one of the Hon. Ezra Cornell, painted in accordance with a resolution of the Legislature of

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the State of New York, for the State Library in Albany, and a replica of a foot-length portrait of Mr. Gladstone, painted for the Liberal Club in London. The literary exercises in connection with this event were held on Saturday, October 7, in the lecture room of the library. The oration upon this occasion was delivered by the Honorable Chauncey M. Depew. The address which the eloquent orator delivered upon this occasion was perhaps one of the most notable of his life; it glowed with the emotion which such an academic occasion suggests, and with the spirit of a scholar who is permeated with the thought of the glory of the history of universities in the past, and of their place in the world's progress, and who, at the same time, is full of memories of academic life which are at once tender and ennobling. The occasion, aside from politics and the fever of political life, was worthy of a celebration commemorating a university which has been representa- tive in the history of the new learning. At the same time it was a glorious prophecy of the future, and of the influence which the university should exert in the coming educational life of the nation. Seldom, possibly never, has the province of the university been por- traycd with more eloquence and beauty than was done by Mr. Depew on this occasion. One of the noblest passages of the address was, as was proper, a tribute to the memory of the founder, with whom Mr. Depew has been personally associated :

The life of Ezra Cornell is a lesson and an inspiration. The study of his strug- gles and success is a liberal education. Our meeting would lose much of its signifi- cance if it failed to enforce the lesson of the career and commemorate the character of the founder, Sixty-five years ago young Cornell, who had just attained his ma- jority and started out to seek his fortune, after a walk of forty miles rested upon one of the hills overlooking this beautiful lake. This reticent Quaker was passionately fond of nature, and he was entranced by the superb panorama spread out before him. Few places on earth possess so many scenic attractions. The only view I know which compares with this, is the view from the Acropolis, at Athens, with the plain in front, the Pentelic mountains behind, and the blue Ægean in the distance.

The young mechanic had neither friends nor acquaintances in the village which nestled at his feet, and his worldly possessions were all in a little bundle on the end of the stick which served for staff and baggage-wagon. He had no money, and only a spare suit of clothes; but with health, good habits, ambition, industry, and a perfect knowledge of what he intended to do, and an equal determination to do it, he entered Ithaca a conqueror. No delegation of citizens met him at the gates; no triumphal procession bore him in a chariot; no arches spanned the streets; but the man who was to make this then secluded hamlet known throughout the world had done for Ithaca the greatest service it could receive by deciding to become its citizen. Though poor, he was far removed from poverty. His situation illustrates one of the hopeful features of American conditions. Neither doubt nor despair was in his

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mind. He had found his place and he knew he could improve it. He saw his ladder and began to elimb it. It is the genius of our people to get on, and it is the pleasure of the community to help and applaud. Occasional failures test the metal of the as- pirant, and hard knocks develop grip or gelatin. There are, unhappily, suffering and helplessness incident to the practical workings of the doctrine of the survival of the fittest, but vigor and manhood win their rewards.

Faith and works were the principles of Ezra Cornell, and the carpenter's bench a platform and preparation for larger efforts. As a carpenter he improved the methods of his village master; as a mechanic he devised machines which overcame unexpected difficulties ; as an unprejudiced, practical man, he became familiar with the uses of electricity while the professor was still lecturing upon its dangers.

The inventor needed an undaunted and indomitable man of affairs to demonstrate to capitalists its possibilities and to the public its beneficence, and he found him in Ezra Cornell, who saw its future, and upon his judgment staked the accumulations of his life and the almost superhuman labors of a decade. He owned electric shares of the face value of millions and went hungry to bed because he had not the means to pay for a meal, and his family suffered because they could not be trusted for a barrel of flour. But neither want, nor debt, nor the sheriff, could wrest from him his telegraph stock. I know of no more dramatic scene in the lives of any of our successful men than the spectacle of this potential millionaire tramping through the highways and byways of penury, suffering, and sickness, upheld by his sublime faith in his work and the certainty of its recognition. Suddenly the dark- ness was dispelled and the day dawned. People woke up to the necessity of the tel- egraph for the government and for commerce, and Cornell's faith had coined for him a fortune.

A most noble and brilliant representative of this class was the founder of this university. Prosperity made him neither an idler nor a voluptuary. It added fresh vigor to his work, enlarged his vision and broadened his sympathies. No mawkish sentimentality nor theatrical surprises were in his character. He deter- mined to devote a portion of his fortune to the welfare of his countrymen and coun- trywomen, and decided that the best way was to give them the education and train- ing with which to help themselves. He had the self-made man's belief that a suc- cessful career is possible to every one who tries, but he knew from sore experience how difficult is progress for the poorly equipped in the sharp competition of life. He did not give up money-making. On the contrary, the more beneficent the purpose to which he found it could be applied, the harder he worked to gain more. His was the ideal of the divine injunction to be "diligent in business, serving the Lord."

It was my privilege as a young man, and the youngest member of the Legislature, to sit beside Ezra Cornell. I learned to love and revere him. In those days, so full of the strife and passions of the civil war, it was a wonder and inspiration to listen to the peaceful plans of this practical philanthropist for the benefit of his fellow men. The times were big with gigantic schemes for the acquisition of sudden fortuncs, and his colleagues could not understand this most earnest and unselfish worker. To most of them he was a schemer whose purposes they could not fathom, and to the rest of us he seemed a dreamer whose visions would never materialize. These doubters of a quarter of a century ago estcem it a high privilege to stand in this

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presence, and an honor to have the opportunity to contribute a chaplet to the wreaths which crown the statue of Ezra Cornell.

Other addresses were delivered by the Hon. Stewart L. Woodford, LL.D., who, as lieutenant-governor, had responded on behalf of the State at the opening of the university; by Chancellor Upson of the University of the State of New York; by Professor G. C. Caldwell in behalf of the original faculty; and by the Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix, member of Congress from Brooklyn, one of the early students. An interesting feature of the occasion was the presentation to Dr. Burt G. Wildes, by Dr. Theobald Smith, of a Festschrift, a volume containing contributions in science from his former pupils, designed to express their gratitude for his instruction and services to the cause of science; also of a manuscript history of the university, prepared by Professor Ernest W. Huffcut.

General regret was felt that President Cleveland, who, as governor, and at other times, has always manifested his interest in the university, was unable to be present, owing to the demand of important legislation in Congress.

At the dinner which followed congratulations were received from ex- President White in St. Petersburg, to which a grateful response was sent, from General Meredith Read in Paris, the only survivor of the ten trustees named in the charter of the university; and a letter was read from Professor Goldwin Smith in Toronto, who regretted his inability to be present. Speeches were made in behalf of the trustees by the Hon. S. D. Halliday; the faculty, by Professor Crane; the Common- wealth, by the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew; sister institutions of the east, by President Seth Low of Columbia College; the earlier students, by Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix; theosophy and education, by General A. C. Barnes; practical education, by Andrew Carnegie; sister institutions of the west, by President Cyrus Northrup of the University of Minnesota; the university and the press, by St. Clair McKelway; the education of women, by President James M. Taylor of Vassar College; the college graduate and the men of affairs, by Hon. Oscar A. Straus, late United States minister to Turkey ; the later alumni, by Seward A. Simons, A. B., '79.

On Sunday, the 8th of October, an impressive anniversary sermon was delivered in the Armory by the Right Reverend William Croswell Doane, D. D., bishop of Albany and vice-chancellor of the University of the State of New York, thus closing this academic festival.

FOR speeial co-operation in the foregoing work the author is indebted to the Hon. Andrew D. White, LL. D., Hon. Henry W. Sage, Hon. Alonzo B. Cornell, Hon. Justin S. Morrill, U. S. Senator from Ver- mont, Col. Charles H. Blair, Professor William H. Brewer, of Yale University, whose valuable contribution relating to the efforts for agri- cultural education in this State was received too late to be used in this volume; and among his colleagues, to Professors Caldwell, Wilder, Low, Prentiss, Crane, Corson, Oliver, Fuertes. Comstoek, Williams, M. C. Tyler, Thurston, Wheeler, Nichols, Bailey, Hart, Jenks, Burr, Bennett, Gage and Harris, and to many others for minor suggestions. He is also indebted to the Hon. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, to the Hon. Melvil Dewey, Secretary of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, to Dr. Herbert B. Adams, whose monograph on the Study of History in American Col- leges and Universities has been used; to President James B. Angell, LL. D., of the University of Michigan, Professor J. H. Gilmore, of the University of Rochester, Professor J. W. Chickering, of the National Dcaf-Mute College, and to others whose aid he would not fail to acknowledge.

BIOGRAPHICAL

THE HONORABLE EZRA CORNELL.

"A stature somewhat above the average, a form slender and rigid, a thin face of the well-known Puritan type, with lips which expressed in their compression an un- wonted firmness of character, the slow, steady, stiff gait, a demeanor of unusual gravity, but which was sometimes a little too brusque to be dignified, a sharp eye with a straightforward look in it, a voice tending a little to shrillness and harshness, but in its more quiet modulations not unpleasant, an utterance slow and precise as if every word was carefully if not painfully thought out, such was the founder of Cor- nell University as he walked among us during the first six years of the institution's history. In whatever community, or in the midst of whatever surroundings his lot had been cast, he would have been a man of mark. A stranger, meeting him in the crowded railway car, would strightway see that he was not a mere individual of the ordinary type, that he possessed strong characteristics which made him noticeably different from other men. He had a good memory and a quick eye, and was a close and careful observer of men and things. His most predominant trait, over- looking all others, was his complete self-abnegation. He was an utterly intensely unselfish man; no human being, with similar qualificatons in other respects, could be more thoroughly uninfluenced by any considerations of his own comfort, of his own aggrandizement, or of his own fame. He was generous alike of his time, his labor and his wealth, and no thought of his own interest ever limited the flow of this generosity."

In such words as these the death of Mr. Cornell was announced to the university world. They characterize his outward bearing and many of the predominant charac- teristics of a stern, silent, warm-hearted nature.

Mr. Ezra Cornell was of Puritan descent, his family having settled in Swansea, Massachusetts. His ancestors on both sides had been members of the Society of Friends. Like most of the early residents of New England, the family was of limited resources, and industry, simplicity and economy were prevailing traits in the family life of the time. Mr. Cornell's father learned the potter's trade, but he was besides, a mechanic both practical and skillful. He early removed to Westchester Landing, New York, and engaged for a time, in ship building. After a residence in Bergen county, New Jersey, near the site of the present beautiful village of Englewood, where he resumed his original craft as a potter, he removed to De Ruyter, New York. Here he established himself upon a farm, and, at the same time, carried on

Agrazed by Somnol Sartar Phil"

EZRA CORNELL.

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profitably the manufacture of earthenware. This was the early home of his son, Ezra Cornell, where, in a community of Friends, he grew up in the simple and healthy life which characterizes the members of this communion. Even as a boy, amid the re- stricted advantages of a new country, his education was limited; and once, when but sixteen years of age, in order to carn the privilege of attending a winter school, in company with a younger brother, he cut down and cleared the timber upon four acres of forest, transforming it into tillable land. A year or two later, he cut timber in a forest, and with the aid of the same brother erected a two-story dwelling house for his father, at that time the largest residence in the town. Having thus tested his capacity for work, he went forth, and was engaged for the next three years in the work of cutting timber for shipment to New York, and later as a machinist. Ithaca was at this time a village of two thousand inhabitants, and enjoyed the benefit of a thriving trade with the large territory which depended upon it for communication with the markets of the external world. "With a spare suit of clothes and a few dollars in his pocket, the earnings of his previous labors, Ezra Cornell entered Ithaca on foot, having walked from his father's house in De Ruyter, a distance of forty miles. He had chosen to make the journey thus, not only for the purpose of saving the expense of riding, but also for the pleasure he enjoyed in walking. He could travel forty miles per day with perfect ease. Without a single acquaintance in the village, and with no introduction or certificate of character in any form, except such as he could offer in his own behalf, he arrived in Ithaca with youth, courage and ambition as capital stock, determined by his own exertions to earn a living and es- tablish himself on a permanent and prosperous basis." It was in April, 1828, soon after his arrival, that Mr. Cornell secured work as a carpenter, and erected at the corner of Geneva and Clinton streets a residence which is still standing, and which has for many years been the home of the Bloodgood family. Mr. Cornell's experi- ence for a year as a mill-wright secured employment for him in certain flouring and plaster mills at Fall Creek, and for the next twelve years he was a manager of ex- tensive interests, which often involved the disbursement of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, in a letter written thirty years after- wards, said that he used to see sitting on the counter of his uncle's store (Mr. John James Speed) "a shrewd managing chap unfolding schemes for carrying the town- ship for the Whig ticket. That obscure but keen-witted man is now the Ezra Cor- nell who has founded the most promising university in New York." Mr. Cornell's carly interest in politics is manifest from this statement. His ability as a mechanic of a high order was shown still further, not merely in erecting mills, but also in de- vising and executing a feat of engineering of very great difficulty, viz., in cutting a tunnel above the falls, through several hundred feet of solid rock, thus securing an abundant supply of water for numerous manufactories below, which has remained in constant use up to the present time. This important work was finished in 1831. The tunnel was cut through a cliff and work was begun at both extremities. When the two galleries met in the center, a variation of less than two inches from an exact line was found.

During these years Mr. Cornell was active in local politics, advocating with great energy the principles of the Whig party. At the age of thirty-five, an interruption in the industrial prosperity of Ithaca threw Mr. Cornell out of employment, and his

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life now began upon a wider sphere. He purchased the patent rights for an improved plow and journeyed to Maine mostly on foot to effect its sale, and later, he made a tour through the Southern States, going as far as Georgia. During this journey he walked a distance of one thousand five hundred miles. A second journey to Maine was undertaken in the year 1843. On his previous visit Mr. Cornell had met the Hon. Francis O. J. Smith, a Democratic congressman from Maine, the editor of the Maine Farmer. Mr. Smithi was a politician of great ability, and though greatly defamed for his skill and adroitness by political enemies, a man of unusual ability. He had become interested in the electric telegraph. This enterprise in its initial steps was involved in great difficulty. Many important facts necessary for its practical use were as yet undiscovered, and it was only slowly that experience called attention to the necessity of essential improvements, before its inventor's dream of success could be realized, and the public share in the advantages of this brilliant in- vention. It was supposed that two wires were necessary in order to form a complete metallic circuit. No mode had then been devised for the treatment of India rubber to make it available for the purposes of insulation, and gutta-percha was wholly un- known as an article of use or commerce in this country. It was not yet determined how the wires could be extended between cities. It was thought at first that the wires should be enclosed in an underground tube. Upon the occasion of Mr. Cornell's second visit to Portland, he found Mr. Smith upon the floor of his office, with designs around him for the manufacture of a plow which should excavate the furrow for the underground telegraph pipe. It was proposed also to cover the pipe by means of a second machine. Mr. Smith had taken the contract to lay the pipe at one hundred dollars per mile, and it was necessary to invent some machine capable of executing his purpose successfully. He hailed the arrival of Mr. Cornell as the person to solve his difficulties. Mr. Cornell after examining the plan was convinced that a single machine would suffice for the purpose. He thus describes the event: "I, therefore, with my pencil sketched a rough diagram of a machine that seemed to me adapted to his necessities. It provided that the pipe with the wires enclosed therein was to be coiled around a drum or reel, from whence it was to pass over and through a hollow standard protected by shives directly in the rear of the coulter or cutter, which was so arranged as to cut a furrow two and one-half feet deep and one and one-fourth inches wide. Arranged something like a plow, it was to be drawn by a powerful team, and to deposit the pipe in the bottom of the furrow as it moved along; the furrow, being so narrow, would soon close itself and conceal the pipe from view." Overcoming his scepticism, Mr. Smith authorized Mr. Cornell to make the pattern for the necessary castings, who also, in the mean time, constructed the wood- work for the frame. On the 17th of August, 1843, a successful trial of Mr. Cornell's invention was made on Mr. Smith's farm in Westbrook, a few miles north of Portland. " The complete success of my machine, and the prompt manner of making the in- vention, the moment that circumstances demanded its use, inspired Mr. Smith with great confidence in my ability both as a mechanic and a practical man. He therefore urged me to go to Baltimore with the machine, and take charge of laying the pipe between that city and Washington. As this proposition involved the abandonment of the business which I came to Maine to look after, it was with some hesitation that I entertained it. A little reflection, however, convinced me that the telegraph was to become a grand enterprise, and this seemed a particularly advantageous opportunity

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Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 68

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194