Corning - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CORNING, a city of Steuben county, New York, U.S.A., in the S. part of the state, on the Chemung river, io m. W.N.W. of Elmira. Pop. (1890) 8550; (1900) ii,06r, of whom 1410 were foreign-born; (1910) 13,730. Corning is served by the Erie, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the New York Central & Hudson River railways. Among the principal buildings and institutions are a fine city hall, a Federal building, a county court house, the Corning hospital, a free public library and St Mary's orphan asylum (Roman Catholic). Corning is one of the principal markets in New York state for tobacco, which is extensively produced in the surrounding country. The principal industry is the making of cut and flint glass, and, of the several extensive plants devoted to this industry, that of the Corning Glass Works is one of the largest in the world. The city also has railway car shops and foundries, and among its manufactures are pressed brick, tile and terra-cotta, papiermache and lumber. The total value of the factory products in 1905 was $3,083,515, 35.7% more than in 'goo. There were settlers on the site of Corning as early as 1789, but it was not until 1848 that it was incorporated as a village under its present name, given in honour of Erastus Corning, the railway builder. Corning was chartered as a city in 1890.

See C. H. M`Master, History of the Settlement of Steuben County (Bath, N.Y., 1853).