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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Cornelius Vanderbilt Biography VANDERBILT, Cornelius (1794–1877). An American capitalist and financier, born near Stapleton, Staten Island, N. Y. He had practically no schooling. At the age of 16 he established a ferry between Staten Island and New York for passengers and farm products. At 18 he owned or controlled three boats, and from that time on his interests in shipping rapidly increased. He rapidly acquired a considerable fleet of river and harbor boats, and in 1817 built and became captain of the first steamboat running between New York and New Brunswick, N. J. A company was organized of which he obtained in 1824 a controlling interest. In 1827 he leased the New York and Elizabeth Ferry and made it a paying investment. In 1829 he began the construction of a fleet of steamboats to compete with the existing Hudson River and Long Island Sound lines. Gradually he obtained control of the important competing lines, established new lines out of New York to Boston and other coast points, and started a new line on the Delaware River. Subsequently his fleet became the largest of the sort in the world, and led to their owner being popularly known as the Commodore. In 1851 he established a steamship and transfer line to California by way of Lake Nicaragua, which successfully competed with the existing Panama route. During the Crimean War he established a transatlantic line between New York and Havre. About the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, having accumulated a fortune of upward of $10,000,000 in the steamboat business, he gradually began to withdraw from that and transfer his capital to railroads, the great possibilities of whose development appealed to him. He had become president of the New York and Harlem Railroad as early as 1857, and in 1864 he obtained control also of the Hudson River Railroad, the stock of which had fallen to a low figure, worked it in conjunction with the Harlem line, and soon placed it on a paying basis. In 1867 he obtained control of the New York Central Railroad, was elected its president, and in 1869 consolidated with it the Hudson River road. Eventually he completed his plan of a through trunk line from New York to Chicago by securing the Lake Shore, Canada Southern, and Michigan Central roads. At his death his fortune, estimated at about $100,000,000, was left largely to his son, William H. Vanderbilt. A bequest of $1,000,000 was made for founding Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tenn. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 14-15. |