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guise, and thus it certainly happened in this case. To be suddenly thrown out of a position to which one had long been accustomed, and particularly where a young and helpless family was dependent on the daily earnings of its head, the situation was serious. When, added to all this, was the fact that other employment could not be found, and the question of daily bread threatened soon to present itself for solution, the gravity of the case was largely enhanced.

Such were the circumstances in which Mr. Cornell found himself placed in 1841. Fortunately for him and his family, and especially fortunate for the future growth and prosperity of Ithaca, he was forced to seek elsewhere opportunity for business; and, by a curious combination of circumstances, he was thrown into contact with the men who were just then casting about with the infant telegraph in their keeping, quite at a loss to know how to utilize the grand instrumentality, which was destined to revolutionize the social and commercial customs of the entire civilized world. Mr. Cornell's quick practical comprehension enabled him to solve the question which was puzzling these wise men as to the proper mode of constructing the telegraph lines, and he speedily made himself indispensable to the development of the new enterprise. At the age of thirty-six,

he thus stepped forth from the narrow path he had previously trod, and with but little delay entered upon a career, which was not only a grand success for himself, but equally beneficial to the country at large.

CHAPTER V.

MARRIAGE.

Elijah Cornell and Benjamin Wood.-A prolonged Friendship.Notable Visit." Woodlawn."-Mary Ann Wood Born, 1811. -Marriage Engagement.--Married, March 19, 1831.--Housekeeping.-Early Home.-Nine Children, of whom five Survive. Quaker Discipline.-Telegraph Enterprise.--Absence from Home.-Success in Business." Forest Park."-Domestic Felicity.

DURING the period of his first residence in De Ruyter, Elijah Cornell was engaged during the winter seasons in teaching the district school in Quaker Basin. Among the older boys in attendance at the school in 1808, was one who, by manly qualities and respectful deportment, as well as by earnest efforts to improve the educational advantages thus offered, won the especial regard and confidence of his teacher. This favorite pupil was Benjamin Wood, whose parents had, a few years earlier, emigrated from the State of Rhode Island. The acquaintance then begun between the teacher and scholar, ripened into a mutual friendship which was continued without interrup

tion throughout the remainder of their lives, and it became in after years their custom to visit each other, whenever circumstances brought either of them within the vicinity of the other's place of residence.

On one occasion, when at Ithaca on a business trip, Mr. Cornell invited his son Ezra to accompany him on a visit to the home of his friend Mr. Wood, who had some years previously located in the town of Dryden, Tompkins County, distant some six miles from Ithaca. This chance visit, which occurred in the third year of his employment at Ithaca, was destined to exert an important influence in all of the future course of the young man, as it was the beginning of his acquaintance with the young lady, who was to become the partner of his domestic life. Mr. Wood's second daughter, Mary Ann, was then nineteen years of age, and it was by no means strange that an attachment of more than passing interest was soon formed between her and the son of her father's friend, which, ere long, resulted in a marriage engagement. Both families were gratified with the proposed alliance, and the old-time friendship was rendered still more cordial and intimate.

Benjamin Wood was a native of Scituate, Providence County, R. I., where he was born October

BENJAMIN WOOD.

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14, 1789. He was a son of Nathan Wood, and the maiden name of his mother was Amy Hammond. In youth he had been bred to the trade of reed making, and was an expert mechanic. In those days-before the advent of the great woollen and cotton factories-the weaver's reed was in demand in almost every well-regulated farmer's household, where the home-grown wool was converted into cloth and blankets for domestic use. Mr. Wood was united in marriage at De Ruyter, June 12, 1808, to Mary, daughter of Philip Bonesteel and Elizabeth Ray. She was born at Florida, Montgomery County, N. Y., October 2, 1790. The young couple continued to reside in De Ruyter some five years after their marriage, when they removed to the husband's native place in Rhode Island, and there remained two or three years.

Finding the change unsatisfactory, the family returned to the State of New York, and after spending two years in the town of Sherburne, Chenango County, they located at Willow Glen, near Dryden Village, in Tompkins County, where they also resided about two years. In 1819 Mr. Wood contracted for the purchase of a tract of land in the western portion of the town of Dryden, and determined to make it his permanent home. This land was then covered with a heavy