William M. Cornell

Quick Facts

Significance:

Abolitionist, physician, minister, author, and member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Berkeley, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

October 16, 1802

Place of Death:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

April 14, 1895

Abolitionist minister and physician William Mason Cornell served in the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization that assisted freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.

Born in Berkeley, Massachusetts in 1802, William Mason Cornell graduated from Brown University in 1827. He served as a minister in Woodstock, Connecticut before accepting another position in Quincy, Massachusetts. When his voice began to fail him, he left the ministry and turned his attention to medicine, receiving his medical degree at age forty two. He established his medical practice in Boston in the 1840s.¹

According to Cornell's obituary, "During the anti-slavery agitation his sympathies were actively with the abolitionists, and he became widely known in this connection."² Another tribute claimed, that he "entered with great energy into the antislavery discussions of his time, and became widely known as an abolitionist."³ With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, Cornell joined the Boston Vigilance Committee. Other than appearing on the official Vigilance Committee broadside that listed members and their addresses, his contributions to the organization and the larger Underground Railroad remain unknown.⁴

In addition to supporting the abolition movement and Vigilance Committee, Cornell involved himself in other reform movements and political organizations. For example, he worked in the temperance movement, a cause he shared with many of his fellow abolitionists and committee members.⁵ He also participated locally in the American Party, also known as the Know-Nothing Party, which dominated Massachusetts politics in the mid-1850s.⁶ Though strongly anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic, this coalition party in Massachusetts included many progressive members with regards to the antislavery movement.

Cornell also served as the editor of several medical publications including The Journal of Health, Pastor and People and The Guardian of Health. He authored and edited numerous books on subjects such as medicine and history, as well as biographies of prominent leaders including abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner. He took his expertise into the classroom, teaching at both the New England Female Medical College and Western University. After a long career, he died in Boston on April 14, 1895.⁷

If you are a researcher or descendant of William M. Cornell and provide any further information on his involvement in the Boston Vigilance Committee or the Underground Railroad at large, please reach out to us at [e-mail].

Footnotes

1. "Rev. William Cornell, D.D., LL.D," Boston Evening Transcript, April 16, 1895, page 3., New England Historic Genealogical Society, Memorial Biographies of New England Historic Genealogical Society, Volume IX, (NEHGS: Boston,1908), 252, Google Books. NPS maps geolocate Cornell at the approximate location of his address, 496 Washington Street.
2. "Rev. William Cornell, D.D., LL.D," Boston Evening Transcript. April 16, 1895, page 3.
3. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Memorial Biographies of New England Historic Genealogical Society, Volume IX, (NEHGS: Boston,1908), 252.  
4. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside by printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society. 
5. "Temperance Representatives," Boston Daily Atlas, November 10, 1855, page 2.
6. Boston Courier, February 8, 1855, page 2.
7. For a list of Mason's books please see, Cornell, William Mason, 1802-1895 | The Online Books Page (upenn.edu), "N.E. Female Medical College," Boston Evening Transcript, January 12, 1852, page 2, "Rev. William Cornell, D.D., LL.D." Boston Evening Transcript. April 16, 1895, page 3.