- Henry W. Sage
Henry W. Sage (
31 January ,1814 - 1897) was a wealthyNew York State businessman, philanthropist, and early benefactor and trustee ofCornell University . [ [http://www.jstor.org/view/00379808/ap030062/03a00030/0 "The Quad on the Hill: An Account of the First Buildings at Cornell"] by Kermit C Parsons "Journal of the Society of Architectual Historians" Vol 22 Num 4 pp. 214 (Dec 1963) ]Sage was born in
Middletown, Connecticut , and spent part of his early childhood inBristol, Connecticut before moving toIthaca, New York in 1827. Two uncles,Timothy S. Williams andJosiah B. Williams , were New York State Senators from the Ithaca area. After briefly studyingmedicine , he began work for his uncles' forwarding firm, with a line of barges on theErie Canal , which he took over by 1837. In 1847, he was elected to theNew York State Assembly as a Whig.In 1854, he purchased a tract of land at Bell Ewart on
Lake Simcoe , 51 miles north ofToronto ,Ontario ,Canada and was soon processingtimber on a large scale. From that point, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad (seeNorthern Railway of Canada ) carried the lumber to its wharves in Toronto, offering Sage a reduced rate for a specified number of carloads per month. The lumber was shipped across Lake Ontario to Sage's wholesale lumber yards at Albany, N.Y. He did not own the timber lands on Lake Simcoe, but rather purchased logs from farmers eager to clear their lands. Moving to Brooklyn in 1857, he became active in the Plymouth Congregational Church, where the Rev.Henry Ward Beecher (son ofLyman Beecher and sister ofHarriet Beecher Stowe ) waspastor . He would later endow the Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preaching atYale Divinity School .About this time he was also purchasing lumber in Michigan, as the Ontario supply began to wane. In 1863, he became business partners with John McGraw. The two founded the town of Wenona, Michigan (named for the mother of
Hiawatha and now part of Bay City) in 1864. The two earned a fortune inlumber and land inWisconsin ,Michigan , andNew York .In 1865 Sage purchased timber berths in Oakley township, Muskoka, necessary to keep the Bell Ewart mill running. The construction of a canal was required to run the logs from the Black River to Lake Couchiching. With previous experience on the
New York State Assembly and legislation involving improvements to the Eire Canal, he attracted the interest of other Lake Simcoe lumbermen to form theRama Timber Transport Company in 1868. The canal to divert the logs into Lake Couchiching opened in 1869, later that year Sage sold the Bell Ewart mill and associated timber berths to Messrs. Silliman and Beecher. Young Harry Beecher was a nephew of Sage's pastor, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.He funded construction of what is now the [http://www.baycountylibrary.org/sage_branch.html Sage Branch] of the Bay County Library in 1884. It was designed by Cornell
architecture professorCharles Babcock in the FrenchChâteau -style, and is today a historical landmark.Involvement with Cornell
In 1870 Sage was elected to the
Board of Trustees of Cornell University, and elected president of the Board in 1875. At his direction, the University resisted selling itsWisconsin land grants in the aftermath of thePanic of 1873 , earning millions of dollars for the university's endowment.An avowed supporter of equal access to higher education, he established Sage College for Women, Cornell's first residence for female students (today known as Sage Hall and home to the
S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management ). He also builtSage Chapel , the firstnon-denominational house of worship at a U.S.university (and later endowed by his sonDean Sage ); Sage House, now home to the Cornell University Press; the Sage Infirmary, now known asSchuyler House ; andStimson Hall , original home of theCornell Medical College in Ithaca. He endowed theSusan Linn Sage School of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, named after his wife.Sage's most notable contribution was the construction of the University Library (since 1962, Uris Library).
Jennie McGraw , who had inherited his partner John's fortune in 1877, and died oftuberculosis shortly after marrying UniversityLibrarian Daniel Willard Fiske . She bequeathed $1 million to build a library, but Fiske sued to break the will, sparking what became known asThe Great Will Case . The United States Supreme Court ruled in Fiske's favor in 1890.Infuriated by the decision, Sage donated funds for the construction of the Library himself, including a large plaque memorializing his indignation:
:"The good she tried to do shall stand as if 'twere done":"GOD finishes the work by noble souls begun.":"In loving memory of JENNIE MCGRAW FISKE whose purpose to":"found a great library for Cornell University has been defeated":"this house is built and endowed by her friend":"HENRY W. SAGE."
Trivia
* His son William H. Sage graduated from
Yale University in 1865 and would later fund the construction of Yale's Sage Hall, named for William's son DeWitt Linn Sage, in 1923. Himself later a Cornell trustee, William Sage also funded the construction ofPercy Field , Cornell's originalfootball field, as well as the stone arch bridge overCascadilla Gorge .
* His son Dean endowed the Sage Lecture, asermon series atSage Chapel .
* His grandson Dean, named after the son, became president of Presbyterian Hospital in 1922, which affiliated withColumbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1924. Presbyterian merged with New York Hospital, affiliated with what is now theWeill Cornell Medical College , in 1996.References
* "Bay Journal Monthly": [http://bay-journal.com/bay/1he/people/fp-sage-henry-w.html Henry William Sage] biography and photograph
* Rootsweb.com: [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nytompki/Landmarks/cornell_bio3.htm Tompkins County, New York - History of Cornell - 1894 Biographical Tribute to Henry W. Sage on his 80th birthday]
* Bay County Library System: [http://www.baycountylibrary.org/bsa_hist.htm Sage Branch History]
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