Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt | |
---|---|
Born | May 27, 1794 Staten Island, New York, U.S. |
Died | January 4, 1877 Manhattan, New York, U.S. | (aged 82)
Burial place | Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum, Staten Island, New York, U.S. |
Occupation | Businessman |
Spouses | |
Children | 13 |
Relatives | Vanderbilt family |
Signature | |
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping.[1][2] After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the United States.
As one of the richest Americans in history and wealthiest figures overall, Vanderbilt was the patriarch of the wealthy and influential Vanderbilt family. He provided the initial gift to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. According to historian H. Roger Grant: "Contemporaries, too, often hated or feared Vanderbilt or at least considered him an unmannered brute. While Vanderbilt could be a rascal, combative and cunning, he was much more a builder than a wrecker [...] being honorable, shrewd, and hard-working."[3]
Ancestry
Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertson or Aertszoon ("Aert's son"), was a Dutch farmer from the village of
Early years
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in Staten Island, New York, on May 27, 1794, to Cornelius van Derbilt and Phebe Hand.[1] He began working on his father's ferry in New York Harbor as a boy, quitting school at the age of 11. At the age of 16, Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service. According to one version of events, he borrowed $100 (equivalent to $1,900 in 2023)[7] from his mother to purchase a periauger (a shallow draft, two-masted sailing vessel), which he christened the Swiftsure.[8] However, according to the first account of his life, published in 1853, the periauger belonged to his father and the younger Vanderbilt received half the profit. He began his business by ferrying freight and passengers on a ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan. Such was his energy and eagerness in his trade that other captains nearby took to calling him "The Commodore" in jest—a nickname that stuck with him all his life.[8]
While many
On December 19, 1813, at age 19 Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson. They moved into a boarding house on Broad Street in Manhattan.[citation needed]
They had 13 children together: Phebe in 1814, Ethelinda in 1817, Eliza in 1819, William in 1821, Emily in 1823, Sophia in 1825, Maria in 1827, Frances in 1828, Cornelius Jeremiah in 1830, George in 1832 (who died in 1836), Mary in 1834, Catherine in 1836, and another son named George in 1839.[13][14]
In addition to running his ferry, Vanderbilt bought his brother-in-law John De Forest's
When Vanderbilt entered his new position, Gibbons was fighting against a steamboat monopoly in New York waters, which had been granted by the
Working for Gibbons, Vanderbilt learned to operate a large and complicated business. He moved with his family to New Brunswick, New Jersey, a stop on Gibbons' line between New York and Philadelphia. There his wife Sophia operated a very profitable inn, using the proceeds to feed, clothe and educate their children. Vanderbilt also proved a quick study in legal matters, representing Gibbons in meetings with lawyers. He also went to Washington, D.C., to hire Daniel Webster to argue the case before the Supreme Court. Vanderbilt appealed his own case against the monopoly to the Supreme Court, which was next on the docket after Gibbons v. Ogden. The Court never heard Vanderbilt's case, because on March 2, 1824, it ruled in Gibbons' favor, saying that states had no power to interfere with interstate commerce. The case is still considered a landmark ruling. The protection of competitive interstate commerce is considered the basis for much of the prosperity which the United States has generated.[15]: 47–67
Steamboat entrepreneur
After Thomas Gibbons died in 1826, Vanderbilt worked for Gibbons' son William until 1829. Though he had always run his own businesses on the side, he now worked entirely for himself. Step by step, he started lines between New York and the surrounding region. First he took over Gibbons' ferry to New Jersey, then switched to western Long Island Sound. In 1831, he took over his brother Jacob's line to Peekskill, New York, on the lower Hudson River. That year he faced opposition by a steamboat operated by Daniel Drew, who forced Vanderbilt to buy him out. Impressed, Vanderbilt became a secret partner with Drew for the next thirty years, so that the two men would have an incentive to avoid competing with each other.[15]: 72, 84–87
On November 8, 1833, Vanderbilt was nearly killed in the
In 1834, Vanderbilt competed on the Hudson River against the Hudson River Steamboat Association, a steamboat monopoly between New York City and Albany. Using the name "The People's Line", he used the populist language associated with Democratic president Andrew Jackson to get popular support for his business. At the end of the year, the monopoly paid him a large amount to stop competing, and he switched his operations to Long Island Sound.[15]: 99–104
During the 1830s, textile mills were built in large numbers in New England as the United States developed its manufacturing base. Some of the first railroads in the United States were built from Boston to Long Island Sound, to connect with steamboats that ran to New York. By the end of the decade, Vanderbilt dominated the steamboat business on the Sound, and began to take over management of the connecting railroads. In the 1840s, he launched a campaign to take over the most attractive of these lines, the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, popularly known as the Stonington. By cutting fares on competing lines, Vanderbilt drove down the Stonington stock price, and took over the presidency of the company in 1847. It was the first of the many railroads he would head.[15]: 119–46
During these years, Vanderbilt also operated many other businesses. He bought large amounts of real estate in Manhattan and Staten Island, and took over the Staten Island Ferry in 1838. It was in the 1830s when he was first referred to as "commodore", then the highest rank in the United States Navy. A common nickname for important steamboat entrepreneurs, by the end of the 1840s it was applied only to Vanderbilt.[15]: 124–27
Oceangoing steamship lines
When the
In 1852, a dispute with Joseph L. White, a partner in the Accessory Transit Company, led to a business battle in which Vanderbilt forced the company to buy his ships for an inflated price. In early 1853, he took his family on a grand tour of Europe in his steamship yacht, the North Star. While he was away, White conspired with Charles Morgan, Vanderbilt's erstwhile ally, to betray him, and deny him money he was owed by the Accessory Transit Company. When Vanderbilt returned from Europe, he retaliated by developing a rival steamship line to California, cutting prices until he forced Morgan and White to pay him off.
He then turned to transatlantic steamship lines, running in opposition to the heavily subsidized Collins Line, headed by Edward K. Collins. Vanderbilt eventually drove the Collins Line into extinction.[16] During the 1850s, Vanderbilt also bought control of a major shipyard and the Allaire Iron Works, a leading manufacturer of marine steam engines, in Manhattan.[15]: 217–264
In November 1855, Vanderbilt began to buy control of Accessory Transit once again. That same year, the American
American Civil War
When the
Railroad empire
New York and Harlem Railroad
Though Vanderbilt had relinquished his presidency of the Stonington Railroad during the California gold rush, he took an interest in several railroads during the 1850s, serving on the boards of directors of the
Vanderbilt brought his eldest son, Billy, in as vice-president of the Harlem. Billy had had a nervous breakdown early in life, and his father had sent him to a farm on Staten Island. But he proved himself a good businessman, and eventually became the head of the Staten Island Railway. Though the Commodore had once scorned Billy, he was impressed by his son's success. Eventually he promoted him to operational manager of all his railroad lines. In 1864, the Commodore sold his last ships, in order to concentrate on the railroads.[15]: 387–90
New York Central and Hudson River Railroad
Once in charge of the Harlem, Vanderbilt encountered conflicts with connecting lines. In each case, the strife ended in a battle that Vanderbilt won. He bought control of the
Grand Central Depot
In 1869, Vanderbilt directed the Harlem to begin construction of the
Rivalry with Jay Gould and James Fisk
In 1868, Vanderbilt fell into a dispute with Daniel Drew, who had become treasurer of the
Gould never got the better of Vanderbilt in any other important business matter, but he often embarrassed Vanderbilt, who uncharacteristically lashed out at Gould in public. By contrast, Vanderbilt befriended his other foes after their fights ended, including Drew and Cornelius Garrison.
Later years and philanthropy
Following his wife Sophia's death in 1868, Vanderbilt went to Canada. On August 21, 1869, in London, Ontario,[20] he married a cousin from Mobile, Alabama, with the name — unusual for a woman — of Frank Armstrong Crawford.[21] Vanderbilt's second wife convinced him to give $1 million ($22,890,000 in 2023 dollars [7]), the largest charitable gift in American history to that date, to Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire, the husband of her cousin, Amelia Townsend, to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, named in his honor. He also paid $50,000 for a church for his second wife's congregation, the Church of the Strangers. In addition, he donated to churches around New York, including a gift to the Moravian Church on Staten Island of 8+1⁄2 acres (3 hectares) for a cemetery (the Moravian Cemetery). He chose to be buried there.
Death
Cornelius Vanderbilt died on January 4, 1877, at his residence, No. 10 Washington Place, after being confined to his rooms for about eight months. The immediate cause of his death was exhaustion, brought on by long suffering from a complication of chronic disorders.[1] At the time of his death, aged 82, Vanderbilt had an estimated worth of $105 million ($3,004,312,500 in 2023 dollars [7]).[22]
In his will, he left 95% of his $105 million estate to his son
William's eldest son, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, received $5 million in the will, while his three younger sons—William Kissam Vanderbilt, Frederick William Vanderbilt, and George Washington Vanderbilt II—received $2 million apiece. Vanderbilt willed amounts ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 to each of his daughters. His wife received $500,000, their New York City home, and 2,000 shares of common stock in the New York Central Railroad. To his younger surviving son, Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt, whom he regarded as a wastrel, he left the income from a $200,000 trust fund. (Although his daughters and Cornelius received bequests much smaller than those of their brother William, these made them very wealthy by the standards of 1877 and were not subject to inheritance tax.)
Legacy
Vanderbilt's biographer T. J. Stiles says, "He vastly improved and expanded the nation's transportation infrastructure, contributing to a transformation of the very geography of the United States. He embraced new technologies and new forms of business organization, and used them to compete....He helped to create the corporate economy that would define the United States into the 21st century."[24]
The Commodore had lived in relative modesty considering his nearly unlimited means, splurging only on race horses. His descendants were the ones who built the Vanderbilt houses that characterize the United States' Gilded Age.
According to The Wealthy 100 by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, Vanderbilt would be worth $143 billion in 2007 United States dollars if his total wealth as a share of the nation's gross domestic product (
In 1999, Cornelius Vanderbilt was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame, recognizing his significant contributions to the railroad industry. He was inducted in the "Railway Workers & Builders: North America" category.[28]
A
Descendants
Cornelius Vanderbilt was buried in the family vault in the
One of Vanderbilt's great-great-granddaughters, Gloria Vanderbilt, was a renowned fashion designer, and her youngest son, Anderson Cooper, is a television news anchor. Through Billy's daughter Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, another descendant is actor Timothy Olyphant.[8]
Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt was childless when he committed suicide, in 1882, and George Washington Vanderbilt died during the Civil War, before having any children. All of the Vanderbilt multimillionaires descend through the oldest son Billy and his wife.
Cornelius' youngest grandson through William, George Washington Vanderbilt II, built the 250-room Biltmore Estate in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, as his main residence with part of his inheritance from his grandfather. It still retains the title of the largest privately owned home in the United States, though it is open to the public. The mansion contains 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 square meters) of total floor space and originally sat on 125,000 acres (50,600 hectares) of land. It now sits on 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) due to George's final wishes that 86,000 acres (35,000 ha) be sold to the government at $5 per acre ($12/ha)—a significantly cut rate and what George had originally paid—in order to form the core of the Pisgah National Forest, as well as George's widow, Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Gerry, being forced to sell off additional land to pay for the estate's upkeep.
Railroads controlled by Vanderbilt
- New York and Harlem Railroad (1863–)
- Hudson River Railroad(1864–)
- New York Central Railroad (1868–)
- Canada Southern Railway (1873–)[32]
- Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (1873?–)
- Michigan Central Railroad (1877–)[33]
- New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad(Nickel Plate Road, 1882–)
- West Shore Railroad (1885–)
- Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad
- Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad
- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway
- Lake Erie and Western Railroad
- Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad
See also
- Tennessee Celeste Claflin, mistress of Cornelius Vanderbilt in later life
- List of railroad executives
- List of richest Americans in history
Notes
References
- ^ a b c "Cornelius Vanderbilt.; A Long And Useful Life Ended. The Renowned Commodore Dies After Eight Months' Illness His Remarkable Career As A Man Of The World His Wealth Estimated At $100,000,000 Particulars Of His Illness And Death" (PDF). The New York Times. January 5, 1877. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 4, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- ^ "Commodore Vanderbilt's Life" (PDF). The New York Times. January 5, 1877. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- .
- ^ "Cornelius Vanderbilt [1794-1877]". New Netherland Institute. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
- ^ Croffut, William Augustus (1886). The Vanderbilts and the Story of Their Fortune. Belford, Clarke. pp. 1–9 – via Archive.org.
- ^ Nexus: the Bimonthly Newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Volumes 13-16. New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1996. p. 21-23
- ^ a b c 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7474-0620-4– via Google Books.
- ^ Ayres, B. Drummond Jr. (December 19, 2011). "The Episcopalians: An American Elite With Roots Going Back To Jamestown". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ^ Ingham, John N. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Part 4. p. 1501.
- ^ Kobb, Gustav. Staten Island, Volume 14. p. 48.
- ISBN 978-0-465-01030-1.
Shortly thereafter, his son Cornelius (brother to Jacob II, and the second in the family to bear the name Cornelius) was among several signers who petitioned the leaders of the American Moravian Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for permission to build a meeting house. Once the New Dorp worthies received the proper authority from Bethlehem, Cornelius, Jacob II, and many more of the by-now ubiquitous Staten Island Vanderbilts helped construct an austere but sturdy house of worship, which opened its doors in 1763.
- ISBN 978-0-465-01030-1. Archivedfrom the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-3174-0. Archivedfrom the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-375-41542-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8144-1411-8.
- ^ 38th Congress, 13 Stat. 401
- ^ a b White, Bouck (1910). The Book of Daniel Drew. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co – via Archive.org.
- ^ McAlpine, Robert W. (1872). The Life and Times of Col. James Fisk, Jr. New York: New York Book Co. pp. 79–147 – via Archive.org.
- ^ McGerr, Michael (Summer 2006). "The Commodore's Strange Gift" (PDF). Vanderbilt Magazine. pp. 46–53, 86. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2009.
- ^ Knight, Lucian Lamar (1908). Reminiscences of Famous Georgians: Embracing Episodes and Incidents in the Lives of the Great Men of the State, Volume 2. New York: Franklin-Turner. p. 123. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-0-688-10386-6. Archivedfrom the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-0-06-228837-0. Archivedfrom the original on August 14, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-3174-0. Archivedfrom the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- ^ Jackson, Tom; Evanchik, Monica; et al. (July 15, 2007). "The Wealthiest Americans Ever". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2007.
- ^ "Fortune Magazine's "richest Americans"". CNN. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009.
- ^ Klepper, Michael; Gunter, Robert; Baik, Jeanette; Barth, Linda; Gibson, Christine (October 1998). "The American Heritage 40; A ranking of the forty wealthiest Americans of all time (Surprise: Only three of them are alive today)". American Heritage. Vol. 49, no. 6. Archived from the original on December 11, 2007.
- ^ "C. Vanderbilt". North America Railway Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8147-1986-2. Archivedfrom the original on April 22, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2018 – via Google Books.
- ^ Robins & New York Transit Museum 2013, p. 6
- from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
- ^ Van Winkle, Louis (2001). "Gross Ile, MI depot". Michigan Passenger Stations. Archived from the original on October 28, 2005.
- ^ Berry, Dale. "Railroad History Story: Jackson's Evolution as a Rail Center". Michigan's Internet Railroad History Museum. Archived from the original on March 30, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
Further reading
- Folsom, Burton W. (2010). "ch 1". The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America.
- Renehan, Edward J. Jr. (2007). Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
- Robins, A.W.; New York Transit Museum (2013). Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of a New York Landmark. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-61312-387-4. Archivedfrom the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
- Schlichting, Kurt C. (2001). Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6510-7.
- Sobel, Robert (2000) [1965]. The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market. Washington: Beard Books. ISBN 978-1-893122-66-6.
- ISBN 978-0-375-41542-5.; National Book Award
External links
- Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889. .
- Steerage Passage Contract - Le Havre to New York on the clipper ship "Admiral" of the Vanderbilt European Steamship Line 1854 GG Archives
- "The Death of Commodore Vanderbilt", obituary, Scientific American, January 20, 1877, p. 36-37