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Death of Notices of Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Sage

1897 Henry W. Sage. (Added Oct. 2007)

1885 Mrs. Henry Sage. (Added Jan. 2008)

Transcribed October 2007.

The New York Times - Wednesday, September 19, 1897

DEATH OF HENRY W. SAGE

Benefactor of Cornell Unversity Passes Away
After a Lingering Illness in Ithaca.
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LARGE GIFTS TO EDUCATION

Gave About $1,250,000 in Cash to His Favorite Institution – Studied Medicine in His Your – Most of His Money Made in Timber.
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ITHACA, N.Y., Sep. 18. – The death of Henry W. Sage occurred last night about 12 o’clock at this residence on East Hill. Mr. Sage had been ill for many months, resulting from rheumatism, feeble circulation, and weak heart action. Once or twice within the past year his condition has been critical, but in each instance his wonderful vitality was sufficient to enable him to rally.

During the past Summer he regained strength sufficient to enable him to enjoy exercise in his carriage. Within two or three days, however, he again began to fall, and the end came suddenly. Two sons, Dean Sage of Albany and William H. Sage of Ithaca, survive him. The latter was with his father, but the former did not arrive in the city until this morning. Mrs. Sage lost her life ten years ago in a carriage accident.

Henry W. Sage was born Jan. 31, 1814, at Middletown, Conn. His father, Charles Sage, married a sister of Timothy S. Williams and Josiah B. Williams, both of whom were Senators in the New York Legislature from the district in which Ithaca was situated. His father removed from Bristol, Conn., in 1827. Henry W., the oldest son had desired to enter Yale College, but this desire was frustrated by the change of residence. Soon after his arrival at Ithaca Henry began the study of medicine, but was compelled, on account of failing health, to abandon all thought of this profession.

He became a clerk in the store of his uncle, Williams & Brothers, merchants, and shipping agents. Five years later he purchased the business and greatly enlarged the sphere of operations. Early impressed with the importance of the great lumber interests in Canada and the West, in 1854 he purchased large tracts of timber around Lake Simcoe, and was very successful in the enterprise. Soon after, in partnership with John McGraw, he built the largest sawmill in the world at Winona, Mich. In the year 1817 he was elected a member of the Assembly from the Second District of Tompkins County on the Whig ticket. In 1857 he removed to Brooklyn, and remained there until 1880. While in Brooklyn he was a communicant in Plymouth Church, and warm friend of the pastor the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.

Mr. Sage was elected a Trustee of Cornell University in 1870, and since 1875 had been President of the Board of Trustees. Early recognizing the importance of advanced female education, he erected and endowed Sage College and built Sage Chapel, liberally endowed by his son, Dean Sage. It is not too much to say that without the pecuniary assistance rendered and the wise for-thought exhibited by him, the dream of Mr. Cornell of the success of a great university were “any person can find instruction in any study” would never have been realized. On the occasion of Mr. Sage’s eightieth birthday, Jan. 31, 1894, the Museum of Classical Archaeology was dedicated, then his latest donation to the university.

The pass of the fourscore line in his age did not dim his keen foresight, weaken his energy, or for an instant detract from his absorbing interest in Cornell University, and, with Mr. Cornell, his name is inseparably connected with that institution. In direct cash gifts to the university Mr. Sage has furnished quite $1,250,000.

The large gifts may be enumerated as follows: Sage College, $266,000; Susan E. Linn Sage Chair of Philosophy, which, with the Home for the Sage Professors of Philosophy, amounted to $61,000; for the establishment and endowment of Sage School of Philosophy, $200,000; University Library Building, $260,000, and an endowment of $300,000; cast for the Archaeological Museum, $8,000, and the floating indebtedness of the university, $30,000.

The New York Times - July 12, 1885.

MRS. HENRY W. SAGE KILLED.
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Ithaca, N.Y. Jul 11. -- Mrs. Sage, wife of Mr Henry W. Sage, of this city, founder of Sage College, Cornell University, was violently thrown from her carriage at 6:30 o'clock this evening, striking on her head, killing her almost instantly. The accident was caused by the lines breaking, the horses suddenly turning and running away. Mr. Sage and his wife, Miss Julia Uhlhorn, of New York City, and Miss Kate Linn, a sister of the deceased lady, were returning from Slaterville Springs, and were about four miles east of here, when the accident occurred. Mr. Sage Leaped from the carriage to grasp the horses by the head, but failed. Misses Uhlhorn and Linn jumped to the ground at the same time without serious injury, leaving Mrs. Sage alone in the carriage. The frightened horse ran a few rods into a ditch, throwing Mrs. Sage out on the hard roadbed. The deceased lady was for some time President of the Broolyn Maternity, a charitable institution for training nurses. She leaves two sons, Dean Sage, of Brooklyn, and W. H. Sage, of Ithaca.