Maine to Georgia and Beyond

The prosperity that Ithaca had experienced in the 1830s declined severely after 1837. Reckless speculation in commodities, securities, and land prompted the Panic of 1837 throughout the nation. Debtors defaulted on loans, businesses failed, banks closed, construction projects stopped, and employers laid off workers—one of whom was Ezra Cornell.

When Colonel Beebe sold his milling concerns in 1839 and 1840, Ezra Cornell had to find other ways to make a living. He turned his attention to raising sheep and to agricultural experimentation. He tried setting up a grocery store, and built houses on land he had bought earlier. In 1842, he purchased the patent for the states of Maine and Georgia for Barnaby & Mooers’ side-hill and level-land plow, a new plow designed in Ithaca. He hoped to make a profit by selling the patent rights to machinists or merchants who would manufacture and sell the plows locally. In the spring of 1842 he left for Maine, and, after several months of traveling and selling there, went on to Georgia. He did not meet with a great deal of success in this business, but made the most of his travels as he passed—often on foot—throughout Maine and Georgia.

He recorded keen observations of the land, the people, and the industries he encountered. In his letters home during and after his trips through Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, he frequently commented on slavery, the plantation system, and the general backwardness of the area.

During the 1840s, like many other Americans, various other members of the Cornell family went west, traveling by steamship to Michigan. They were also tempted by the prospect of gold, which had been discovered in California in 1848.

	Henry Bibb. Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave. Written by Himself with an Introduction by Lucius C. Matlack. New York: the Author, 1849. [zoom] | Additional images: While not an abolitionist, Ezra Cornell held very strong feelings against slavery, described in his letters home to Mary Ann.
	Ezra Cornell. Letter to Mary Ann Cornell. Baltimore, Maryland, August 18, 1844. [zoom] | View/download a PDF of this item And is there aught but happyness, you will inquire in a land whose prases are sung by so many? Ah! Would to God that it were so. Hark! Methinks I hear at this moment the shreaks of human misery. Yes it is the slave dealer who has just sold yonder wretched being and is tearing her from her offspring, to deliver her to the inhuman purchaser to be taken to a strange land where home and children are no more seen for ever. Yes,—this “Sunny South” this land of praise, is cursed with human slavery. The Soul of man is made an article of merchandize by his fellow man and can such a land be happy? No! Happyness does not dwell in any land that is scard by the blighting curse of Slavery.
	Jane Cornell. Letter to Mary Ann Cornell. Albion, Michigan. January 20, 1849. [zoom] | View/download a PDF of this item On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered on land owned by Johann Augustus Sutter, on a branch of the American River in the lower Sacramento Valley of California. The news soon spread, stimulating the great California gold rush. Adventurers came from all over the United States and as far away as Australia and China. By the end of 1849, the population of California had been swelled by 100,000. The influx of the “Forty-niners” continued for the next two years. The Cornell family was not immune to the “gold fever.” Jane Cornell wrote to Mary Ann Cornell: I suppose that Father thinks about starting for California in search of Gold, tell him not to do so untill Spring and I will go with him. Mart is very strongly attracted with the Feaver but has not started for there yet . . . The people of Albion hold California meetings here two or three times a week, and there is a large company going from here early in the Spring. Do you know where Daniel is at present. I should not wonder if he was in California by this time.
	Phebe Cornell. Letter to Elijah and Eunice Cornell. Pitsfield, Michigan, April 30, 1844. [zoom] | View/download a PDF of this item As early as 1833, members of the Cornell family became interested in moving west to the Michigan Territory. Along with Mary Ann’s father and brother, Ezra invested in 340 acres in Calhoun County. The 1830s were prosperous times in Ithaca, and Ezra and Mary Ann decided to remain there. Michigan was admitted to the Union in 1837, and Cornell family members continued to move there: Martin Wood (married to Ezra’s sister Phebe), another sister Mary, Ezra’s younger brothers, Edward, Daniel, and John, and finally, in 1855, his father, mother, and youngest sister Jane. The two first days was very pleasant but after that it was rainy and cold till we got to Buffalow and the boat was so crowded it made it rather unpleasant as they had to all crowd in to the cabin to keep out of the storm. There was 85 passengers and John can tell you how large the cabin was which was filled with men women and children all the time and musick a plenty I ashure you, We got at Buffalow 7 day morning ten o’clock and there took the steamboat Nile for Detroit which started out at 6 in the evening.
	An Account of California and the Wonderful Gold Regions. Boston: J. B. Hall, ca. 1849. [zoom] One of a set of pamphlets collected by Ansel James McCall, a lawyer from Bath, New York, who went to California during the gold rush.
	Traveller’s Map of the Middle, Northern, Eastern States and Canada Showing All the Railroad, Steamboat, Canal, and Principal Stage Routes. New-York: J. Disturnell, 1849. [zoom] One of a set of pamphlets collected by Ansel James McCall, a lawyer from Bath, New York, who went to California during the gold rush.

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