Cor·nell  (kôr-něl')  American businessman and philanthropist who helped develop and unify telegraph systems in the United States and founded Cornell University (1868) with Andrew D. White. |
Cornell, Ezra
businessman, a founder of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and a guiding force in the establishment of Cornell University. Settling at Ithaca (1828), he became associated with Samuel F.B. Morse (1842) and superintended the construction of the first telegraph line in America, opened between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. (1844). In establishing telegraph lines throughout the U.S. he accumulated a substantial fortune and, for a time, was the largest stockholder of Western Union (organized 1855).
Learn more about Cornell, Ezra with a free trial on Britannica.com.