The Panic of 1819 -- the country's first major financial crisis, with widespread foreclosures, bank failures, unemployment and a slump in agriculture and manufacturing -- marked the end of the economic expansion that followed the War of 1812. The pottery market suffered, and so did pottery owner Elijah Cornell.

Once again he moved his family, this time back to the De Ruyter Quaker community, north of Cortland, where he began farming. Conditions for pioneer farmers were difficult. Ezra, now age 12, and his younger brother Elijah had to clear land for corn. But there were also opportunities for hunting and fishing, quilting, apple bees, barn and house raisings and Quaker meetings. In the winter months, the children attended the local school, which for Ezra, now an adolescent, meant only three months a year in the classroom.

At age 17, Ezra learned carpentry skills to help his father erect a new building for the pottery. And a year later he was able to build a two-story house for his parents and family. The following spring -- 1826 -- Ezra struck out on his own and walked the 33 miles to Syracuse, where he found work as a journeyman carpenter.

On Sept. 23, 1826, Ezra wrote his name in the first book he owned, "Memoirs of Andrew Jackson." Much later, in 1866, he added a note in the book:

"Price one dollar. This is the first book I ever owned. It was offered by a pedler (sic) at my Fathers house in De Ruyter Madison Co NY. I persuaded my Mother to buy it for me. She had no money, and to oblige me she picked up paper rags about the house to make up the price of it. I read the book with interest, but when Jackson was a candidate in 1828 for the Presidency, I opposed him and voted for Adams. I favored a protective tariff."

Cornell presented the book in 1859 to the Ithaca Farmers Club library. It eventually was given to Cornell and is now in the Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

Adapted by Susan S. Lang from Invention and Enterprise: Ezra Cornell, a Nineteenth-Century Life.