Henry Williams Sage (January 31, 1814 – September 18, 1897) was a wealthy New York State businessman, philanthropist, and early benefactor and trustee of Cornell University.
Early life
Sage was born in Middletown, Connecticut on January 31, 1814. He was the son of Charles and Sally (née Williams) Sage. He spent part of his early childhood in Bristol, Connecticut before moving to Ithaca, New York in 1827.
Two uncles, Timothy S. Williams and Josiah B. Williams, were New York State Senators from the Ithaca area.
Career
thumb|Dedication cornerstone on [[Sage Chapel at Cornell University]]
After briefly studying medicine at Ithaca under Austin Church, he began work for his uncles' forwarding firm, with a line of barges on the Erie Canal, which he took over by 1837. In 1847, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Whig.
In 1854, he purchased a tract of land at Bell Ewart on Lake Simcoe, 51 miles north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was soon processing timber on a large scale. From that point, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad 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, New York. He did not own the timber lands on Lake Simcoe, but rather purchased logs from farmers eager to clear their lands. Within a year, White had admitted Cornell's first female student, but since the university had only all-male dormitories, she was forced to rent a room in downtown Ithaca.
Personal life
thumb|right|upright=.85|Henry Sage's mansion at 512 East State Street in Ithaca, later home to [[Cornell University Press]]
thumb|right|upright=.85|The [[Sage Library in Bay City, Michigan]]
On September 1, 1840, Sage was married to Susan Elizabeth Linn, the daughter of William Linn and granddaughter of Rev. William Linn who served as the first Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives in 1789. Together, they were the parents of:
- Dean Sage (1841–1902), who endowed the Sage Lecture, a sermon series at Sage Chapel.
- William Henry Sage (1844–1924), who 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 of Percy Field, Cornell's original football field, as well as the stone arch bridge over Cascadilla Gorge.
His wife was killed in 1885 when she was thrown from her carriage in Ithaca. Sage died in Ithaca, New York on September 18, 1897. Sage is one of only fifteen people whose remains are interred in the chapel named for him, a list which includes founders Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White.
Descendants
His grandson Dean, named after the son, became president of Presbyterian Hospital in 1922, which affiliated with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1924. Presbyterian merged with New York Hospital, affiliated with what is now the Weill Cornell Medical College, in 1996.
Another grandson, Henry M. Sage (1868–1933), was a New York State senator and owned an estate in Menands, New York.