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members of his religious society he has ever been active in his opposition to legalized 'killing', and untiring in his advocacy of the abolition of capital punishment. He has labored faithfully in the cause of ameliorating the condition of the Indians of our country, and all measures for dealing with them justly, and with loving kindness, have had his warmest sympathy and support. Long identified with every humane movement, it was eminently fitting that he should be chosen by the yearly meeting of Friends in New York to present an address at Washington expressive of the feelings of Friends with regard to the violent death of the lamented Abraham Lincoln. The great cause of peace and universal brotherhood has ever found in Samuel Willets an earnest and most efficient advocate. In brief, every measure for the amelioration of the sufferings of the human race, without regard to sex, color, or condition, has ever received from him not only warm sympathy, but most substantial support.

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE.

For many years it was a cause of deep concern with members of the Society of Friends in this country, that they had under their control no college, or higher institution of learning. It was not till 1865 that the enterprise was begun in earnest; an eligible site was selected near the city of Philadelphia, and the corner-stone of a substantial college edifice was laid.* For more than three years the building slowly progressed; Friends, with their characteristic care and prudence, proceeding no faster than the means were furnished. In 1869, the building was so nearly completed that the college and preparatory school were organized, and now (1873), after four years of successful labor, the lowest academic degree is about to be conferred upon the first graduating class. During the seven years which have passed since the laying of the corner-stone, the sum of nearly half a million dollars has been expended in the erection of the buildings, supplying them with the needed furniture and apparatus, and in thoroughly organizing all the various departments of study, that the institution may eventually take rank among the

* The college is in Delaware County, on the Philadelphia and Westchester Railroad, ten miles from the depot at Thirty-first and Chestnut streets. The college station is Swarthmore, and a post-office has been established there.

The building is 348 feet in length, with return wings of 92 feet each. It consists of a center building 60 feet wide by 110 feet 8 inches deep, on either side of which are fire-proof alcoves containing iron stairs, and wings extending from either side of these, each 100 feet by 44 feet wide; the return wings are also 44 feet wide, with towers on the inner flanks 11 feet in the clear. The kitchen building in the rear is 60 feet deep by 44 feet wide. And disconnected is an ample laundry building. The entire structure is heated by steam from boilers located in the basement of the laundry, and is lighted by gas from a reservoir located 150 feet from the nearest point of the building.

leading colleges of the country. This result may reasonably be anticipated, for under the wide and liberal administration of a board of managers who have felt a deep interest in this movement from its first inception, the principle is fully recognized that the college is not the massive pile of stone and mortar, nor any of the merely material accessories which are necessary to its existence, but the men and women who are intrusted with the management, and who fill its professorial chairs. They fully recognize the fact that a college properly officered and equipped, and truly worthy of the name, is in this age of the world, one of the most expensive of all human institutions.

It was natural that Friends interested in the cause of education, and desirous of establishing a college for the thorough education of both sexes together, and alike, should look to such a man for encouragement and that substantial aid upon which such an enterprise so largely depends. Nor did they look in vain. From the very beginning of the movement to the present time, to establish a well endowed institution of higher culture in the Society of Friends, Samuel Willets' wise counsels have directed, and his liberal contributions have aided the work. He is one of the few men who really understand how to enjoy wealth to the utmost, by making it subserve the best ends. Unlike many successful business men, who continue to amass and hoard up money to the very last, with an ever increasing greed which grows by what it feeds upon, he desires to see his wealth, the well earned fruit of his long and successful labors, properly bestowed in his lifetime. That he may himself so direct his own benefactions as to secure the greatest possible good attainable with the amount of means expended. It is a rare secret which he, and a few noble spirits like himself, have discovered, and a new and inexhaustible source of enjoyment which they have opened to wealthy men, compared with which the pleasures of accumulation fade into insignificance. He has not only given liberally of his own substance to every good and noble work, but he has so wisely conditioned his benefactions that he has made them the means of drawing out large contributions from others for the same or similar ends. His power to do good with the large resources at his command is thus increased many fold; directly, by the sums of money which his contributions call forth from other wealthy men; and indirectly, through the influence of his example.

The fourth annual catalogue gives the names of 260 pupils-of both sexes, nearly equal in number-70 in the collegiate department, and 190 in the preparatory department,

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EZRA CORNELL AND CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

MEMOIR.

EZRA CORNELL, the founder and munificent benefactor of the University at Ithaca which bears his name, was born at Westchester Landing, Westchester County, New York, January 11, 1807. His parents were members of the Society of Friends; and his father by trade a potter, removed to De Ruyter, Madison County, in 1819, managed a farm in summer, and taught a district school in. the winter. In the diversified labors of the pottery, the farm, and the school, young Cornell gained that varied practical skill, as well as a general sharpening of the faculties which has proved with so many American youths more useful, in the work which the necessities of the country require to be done, than the highest and widest college culture. In 1826, he assisted the carpenters employed by his father to build a shop, and in so doing gained such insight into the business that he was permitted soon after to construct a substantial and comfortable house, into which the family removed and continued to reside.

In 1826, Ezra Cornell left his father's house to seek his fortune, and in the year following found employment at Homer, Cortland County, in building wool-carding machines. In the spring of 1828 he went to Ithaca, to work in the machine shop of a cotton factory, at eight dollars a month and his board; and here he worked so satisfactorily twelve hours a day, and usefully to his employer, that his wages at the end of six months were advaneed to twelve dollars per month. In 1829 he took charge of a flouring mill at Fall Creek (Ithaca), in which he continued for eight years. During this engagement he reconstructed and enlarged the mill, with such additional mechanical facilities for moving the grain and flour as to require the services of only one man to attend to the eight run of stone, which could turn out four hundred barrels of flour per day, in the busiest season. In this, as in every other position he has occupied, he strove to make his services valuable, both to his employer and to himself.

In 1839, Mr. Cornell engaged with his brother in the lumbering and farming business, located in Maine and Georgia-points so widely separated as almost necessitated the invention of the magnetic telegraph, which Prof. Morse was at that time making available for the purpose of communication between distant places, and in whose plans Mr. Cornell became associated, greatly to his own pecuniary advantage-as is thus narrated by Dr. Brockett in the Men of Our Day:

During the winter of 1842 and 1843, while in Georgia, he conceived a plan for employing the State prison convicts of Georgia in the manufacture of agricultural implements; and after thoroughly examining its feasibility, went to Maine for the purpose of settling some unfinished business, preparatory to entering upon the execution of his project. While in Maine, he called upon Mr. F. O. J. Smith, then editor of the Portland Farmer.' He was informed by Mr. Smith, that Congress had appropriated thirty thousand dollars toward building a telegraph, under the direction of Professor Morse, between Baltimore and Washington, and that he (Smith) had taken the contract to lay the pipe in which the telegraph cable was to be inclosed, and he was to receive one hundred dollars a mile for the work. Mr. Smith also informed Mr. Cornell, that, after a careful examination, he had found that he would lose money by the job, and, at the same time, showed him a piece of the pipe, and explained the manner of its construction, the depth to which it was to be laid, and the difficulties which he expected to encounter in carrying out the design. Mr. Cornell, at this same interview, after the brief explanation which Mr. Smith had given, told him that, in his opinion, the pipe could be laid by machinery at a much less expense than one hundred dollars a mile, and it would be, in the main, a profitable operation. At the same time, he sketched on paper the plan of a machine which he thought practicable. This led to the engagement of Mr. Cornell by Mr. Smith, to make such a machine. And he immediately went to work and made patterns for its construction. While the machine was being made, Mr. Cornell went to Augusta, Maine, and settled up his business, and then returned to Portland and completed the pipe machine. Professor Morse was notified by Mr. Smith, in regard to the machine, and went to Portland to see it tried. The trial proved a success. Mr. Cornell was employed to take charge of laying the pipe. Under his hands the work advanced rapidly, and he had laid ten miles or more of the pipe, when Professor Morse discovered that his insulation was so imperfect that the telegraph would not operate. He did not, however, stop the work until he had received orders, which orders came in the following singular manner. When the evening train came out from Baltimore, Professor Morse was observed to step from the car; he walked up to Mr. Cornell and took him aside, and said, 'Mr. Cornell, can not you contrive to stop the work for a few days without its being known that it is done on purpose? If it is known that I ordered the stoppage, the papers will find it out, and have all kinds of stories about it.' Mr. Cornell saw the condition of affairs with his usual quickness of discernment, and told the professor that he would make it all right. So he ordered the drivers to start the team of eight mules, which set the machine in motion, and, while driving along at a lively pace, in order to reach the Relay House, a distance of about twenty rods, before it was time to 'turn out,' managed to tilt the machine so as to catch it under the point of a projecting rock. This apparent accident so damaged the machine as to render it useless. The professor retired in a state of perfect contentment, and the Baltimore papers, on the following morning, had an interesting subject for a paragraph. The work thus being suspended of necessity, Professor Morse convened a grand council at the Relay House, composed of himself, Professor Gale, Dr. Fisher, Mr. Vaile, and F. O. J. Smith, the persons especially concerned in the undertaking. After discussing the matter, they determined upon further efforts for perfecting the insulation. These failed, and orders were given to remove every thing to Washington. Up to this time,

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