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80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and committed many other similar scandalous acts. They even went so far as to pull down the school house where he preached, and thus compelled him to cause a barn to be fitted up on his own premises in which to hold his meetings. < These indignities he bore with the utmost meekness, literally obeying the injunction, "love your enemies, bless them that curse do good to them that hate and for them which de- you, you, pray t you." spitefully use you and persecute His kindness and faithfulness were so uniform and unremitting, that in a short time his bitterest enemies became his warmest friends. His influence over the people constantly increased, and was exerted to the utmost for the moral and religious improvement of the place. He set himself against vice in every form, with a boldness and consistency which challenged the admiration of all. He ever manifested a tender conscientiousness and an unselfish re gard for the welfare of others, which to a large extent disarmed op position, and prepared those to whom he ministered, to receive his instructions and exhortations as from one sent of God. The de lightful transforming results of his self-denying labors upon the in habitants of the place and the surrounding country, were wonder ful indeed. We hazard nothing in saying, that this whole region of country is more indebted to him for its present moral and religious elevation, than to any other man. His success as a pastor was such, that his Church, which, in 1816, consisted of but thirteen members, in 1830, besides having furnished a nucleus for several other religi ous organizations, had increased to a membership of eight hun dred, and there were in his congregation but eighteen or twenty adults who did not belong to it. About this time, Dr. Wisner, hoping to increase his usefulness, accepted a call to the Brick Church, in Rochester, New York, where, for four years, he ministered with great acceptance and success ; after which, owing to failing health, he accepted a call to the First Presbyterian Church of St. Louis, Missouri, with the hope that he might be benefited and restored by the change of climate. In this he was and after with disappointed, remaining that people for two . years, he found himself so enfeebled and debilitated, as to make it necessary to resign his charge and return North. He supposed that his pastoral work was finished, and very naturally selected Ithaca as the place in which to spend his last days. Here, among his old friends and former people, with some months of entire rest from labor and responsibility, he was so far restored, as to feel that he might with safety return to the duties of his profession. Yielding to the earnest solicitations of his former flock, he was re-installed as their pastor. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 81 In this capacity he continued to serve them until declininghealth, and the infirmities of age, made it necessary for him to retire from the active duties of the ministry. Dr. Wisner still lives, and is enjoying a delightful old age. It is the earnest desire of his numerous friends that many years still may be added to so useful a life. HON. EZRA CORNELL. Hon. Ezra Coritkll was born Jan. 11, 1807, at Westchester Landing, in Westchester Co., State of New York. His father was poor and inured to hard labor, but a man of some culture, and for many winters taught district schools. He was a potter by trade, and lived to the age ofninety-one years, having reared a family of eleven children, of whom Ezra was the eldest. The advantages Ezra en joyed for an early education, were confined to those winter schools taught by his father ; nor were those always open to him, except by purchase. In 1819, his father removed to De Ruyter, Madison Co., N. Y. Here he established a small pottery, and with the assistance of Ezra and a younger brother, conducted a farm. Here his father also taught school during the winter, and Ezra and his younger brother, wishing to attend it, obtained their father's consent, on condition that they should clear four acres cf heavily timbered land, by planting time in the Spring. This task was ac complished ky the 10th of May following. About this time the mechanical talent of young Cornell was first developed. His father employed a man to build a small pottery shop. Ezra worked with him, and so far became master of the trade, that the next year he cut from the woods with his own hands, planned and built, a neat two story house for his father. In 1826, being then nineteen years old, he commenced life for himself, and worked two years as a carpenter and joiner, in Syracuse and Homer, in this State. In 1829 he came to Ithaca, and engaged with Otis Eddy to work one year in the machine shop attached to his cotton factory, at eight dollars per month and board. After working six months, Mr. Eddy informed him that he thought he was not get ting wages enough, and that for the balance of the year he should a legal pay him twelve dollars. At the end of the year, although day's work was then twelve hours, he had credit for six months at gained eight dollars, and seven months at twelve dollars ; having 'one month by overwork. 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. In 1830, he was put in charge of the flouring mill of J. S. Beebe at Fall, Creek, at an annual salary of four hundred dollars, where he remained for ten years. In 1840, Mr. Beebe having failed, he purchased the right for a patent plow, for the States of Maine and Georgia, and traveled in thoseStates to sell it. While thus engaged, he became acquainted with Francis O. J. Smith, editor of the Maine Farmer, and a member of Congress. This acquaintance with Mr. Smith, led to his first connection with the Magnetic Telegraph, through which he subsequently acquired his large fortune. Mr. Smith owned one^fourth of Prof. Morse's patent, and Con gress had appropriated thirty-thousand dollars to build an experi mental line between Washington and Baltimore. Prof. Morse's plan then was to encase the wires in a lead pipe, and bury it two feet in the ground. Mr. Smith had taken the contract to lay this pipe, at the rate of one hundred dollars per mile, but after a care ful estimate of the cost he was satisfied that he would lose money by the contract. Mr. Cornell extricated him from his difficulties, by inventing a machine something like a plow, with a drum near the middle Of the beam, around which the pipe was coiled, by means of which, with the aid of a strong team, the trench eould be cut, the pipe laid and covered, as the plow passed along at the speed of or dinary plowing. The pipe-layer was taken to Baltimore, and with the aid of a six mule team, under the direction ofMr. Cornell, ten miles ofthe pipe was successfully laid at a cost of ten dollars per mile, instead of one hundred. But it was soon discovered that the insulation was so imperfect that it would not work. After spending the winter of 1843 and '44 in vain attempts to secure perfect insulation, the pro ject of an underground telegraph was abandoned, and the present method of stringing on poles adopted. Mr. Cornell was put in charge of the work, and pushed it with such vigor, that he got the line in operation in May 1844, in time to telegraph the nomination ofJames K. Polk. In 1845, a company was organized and a telegraph line built between New York and Baltimore, and Mr. Cornell superintended the construction of the section between the former city and Phila delphia. He received $1^000 a year for his services, and demon strated his faith in the financial success of the scheme by subscrib ing for $500 of the Stock, Which he paid out of his salary. Before the close of that year a company was organized to build the New York and Buffalo line, and Mr. Cornell took the contract to build that part ofit between New York and Albany; Oh this con-, tract he cleared six thousand dollars. In 1847, he organized the BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 83 Company, and built the line between Troy and Montreal, by which he made thirty thousand dollars, and again manifested his faith in telegraphs, by investing it in the Erie and Michigan line, running from Buffalo to Milwaukee. For seven long years Mr. Cornell was deprived of the benefits of this investment, owing to conflicting claims between the grantees of Morse, Gale & Vail, who owned three-fourths of the patent, and the grantees of Smith, who owned the remaining one-fourth, grow ing out of a misunderstanding as to the division of this Western territory. But largely through the efforts of Mr. Cornell, these rival interests were united, and the competing lines consolidated in 1855, under the name of the Western Union Line, in which he is .one of the largest shareholders. Mr. Cornell has always taken a lively interest in Agriculture, and has freely devoted his time and money for its advancement In 1862 he was elected President of the State Agricultural Society, and by it selected as a delegate to the Royal Agricultural Exhibi tion in London, where he made himself thoroughly conversant with the farming methods of England.

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