CORNELL, EZRA. 



245 



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in Connecticut during the year 1878 wai 

 1 1,087, or -Jv_> more tlmu in isT'J, ami -\'2\ \>, r 

 cent, in excess iif tin- liirtlis returned in 1868. 

 of tl< births, in which the sex was 



!. the |irn|iiirtiii!i was 110 males to 100 fo- 

 ales. 'I In- ill. -intimate births numbered 152. 

 Of ml,, rod children there were 247 births. 



Tho entire number of deaths in the State 

 wns 9.H-J-J, which is 148 less than in 1872. The 

 tlis in the colored population were 207, or 

 less than tho births. 

 The marriages contracted in 1878 were 4, 841, 

 <>r 1>-J less than in the preceding year. The 

 marriages, where both parties were of Amer- 



m 



ican birth, numbered 2,708 ; where both were 

 ners, 1,818 ; and where one party WM 

 American the other foreigner, 676. 



The marriages contracted among the colored 

 ulation were 141, including one mixed. 



The number of divorces granted in 1878 wag 

 457. The applications for divorce were made, 

 in 274 cases, by the wife, and in 188 by the 

 husband. 



Tho construction of the new State-House at 

 Hartford has been steadily progressing. 



At the election on October 5th the constitu- 

 tional amendment was approved by a large 

 majority. 



STATE-HOCSE, HARTFORD. 



CORNELL, EZRA, a philanthropist and ben- 

 efactor of education; born at Westchester 

 Landing, Westchester County, N. Y., January 

 11, 1807; died at his home in Ithaca, N. Y., 

 December 9, 1874. His father, who belonged 

 to the Society of Friends, was engaged in the 

 making of pottery, and the son worked at this 

 occupation at Tarrytown, and afterward in 

 Madison County, his laborious youth limiting 

 his educational opportunities. Ho had no more 

 than a common-school education, but in ad- 

 dition to native shrewdness and sound judg- 

 ment manifested at an early age a desire for 

 knowledge and a mind liberal in the reception 

 of new ideas. In 1826 he left home and ob- 

 tained employment at Homer, whence, two 

 years after, he removed to Ithaca, where he 

 obtained a place, at rather scanty wages, in the 

 machine-shop attached to the cotton-mill of 

 Otis Eddy, which stood on the site now oc- 

 cupied by one of the stately buildings of Cor- 



nell University. Mill - work and agriculture 

 took up his time by turns for fifteen years, 

 when in 1843 he became connected with the 

 construction of the first telegraphic line estab- 

 lished in this country. He formed the acquaint- 

 ance of F. O. J. Smith, Representative from 

 Maine, and chairman of the Committee of 

 Commerce of the House, who was owner of 

 one-fourth interest in the invention of Prof. 

 Morse ; and also of Prof. Morse himself. The 

 plan of laying the telegraphic wires in pipes 

 underground was determined upon for the 

 experimental line between Baltimore and Wash- 

 ington as this method had been used success- 

 fully in Englnn-1 and Mr. Cornell, who had an 

 inventive turn of mind, had devised a machine 

 for laying the pipes. He was engaged to su- 

 perintend the work at the modest salary of 

 $1,000 per year. The wires were covered with 

 cotton and imperfectly insulated with bitumen. 

 It soon became known to Prof. Morse that the 



