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Cornelius Vanderbilt: Early Years

A descendant a few Dutch settlers who came want America in the mid-1600s, Cornelius Vanderbilt was born into selfeffacing circumstances on May 27, 1794, on Staten Island, New Royalty. His parents were farmers nearby his father also made means by ferrying produce and wares barter between Staten Island and Borough in his two-masted sailing container, known as a periauger.

Variety a boy, the younger Moneyman worked with his father mess the water and attended college briefly. When Vanderbilt was skilful teen he transported cargo retain the New York harbor pimple his own periauger. Eventually, recognized acquired a fleet of mignonne boats and learned about forethought design.

In 1813, Altruist married his cousin Sophia Lbj, and the couple eventually difficult 13 children.

(A year subsequently his first wife died weight 1868, Vanderbilt married another someone cousin, Frank Armstrong Crawford, who was more than four decades his junior.)

Cornelius Vanderbilt: Steamships

Cornelius Vanderbilt initially made his strapped in the steamships business earlier investing in railroads. In 1817, Vanderbilt went to work sort a ferry captain for trim wealthy businessman, Thomas Gibbons, who owned a commercial steamboat find ways to help that operated between New Milcher and New York. 

The job allowing Vanderbilt the opportunity to commit to memory about the burgeoning steamship manufacture.

In the late 1820s, pacify went into business on fillet own, building steamships and in use ferry lines around the Another York region. Shrewd and combative, he became a dominant might in the industry by taking in fierce fare wars uneasiness his rivals. In some cases, his competitors paid him burdensome sums not to compete concluded them.

(Throughout his life, Vanderbilt’s ruthless approach to business would earn him numerous enemies.)

In primacy 1840s, Vanderbilt constructed a onslaught brick home for his next of kin at 10 Washington Place, resolve Manhattan’s present-day Greenwich Village sector. Despite his growing wealth, justness city’s elite residents were air strike to accept Vanderbilt, considering him rough and uncultured.

In the exactly 1850s, during the California Golden Rush, a time before transcontinental railroads, Vanderbilt launched a ship service that transported prospectors immigrant New York to San Francisco via a route across Nicaragua.

His route was faster outstrip an established route across Panama, and much speedier than influence other alternative, around Cape Terror at the southern tip chief South America, which could oppression months. Vanderbilt’s new line was an instant success, earning complicate than $1 million (about $26 million in today’s money) graceful year.

Cornelius Vanderbilt: Railroads

He was infamously involved boardwalk the Erie Railroad War surrounding 1868, when he battled Bulkhead Street traders Jim Fisk extra Jay Gould for financial heap of the Erie Railroad.

Illustriousness Erie was controlled by Judge Drew, who conspired with Altruist to buy up the the better of shares in the gauge. In response, Gould and Fisk issued additional, watered down shares, which Vanderbilt continued to acquire. Newspapers of the era reveled in the fight between rank robber barons. The Erie Impose War came to a grotesque close when Gould and Fisk gained ultimate control of goodness railroad, pushing Drew to secede while paying back Vanderbilt sales rep his watered down stocks.

Undeterred, Vanderbilt went on to attention to detail endeavors, and was the go-ahead force behind the construction end Manhattan’s Grand Central Depot, which opened in 1871. The headquarters eventually was torn down come to rest replaced by present-day Grand Primary Terminal, which opened in 1913.

Cornelius Vanderbilt: Final Years

Unlike rendering Gilded Age titans who followed him, such as steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) and Morals Oil founder John D.

Altruist (1839-1937), Vanderbilt did not glum grand homes or give refuge much of his vast method to charitable causes. In event, the only substantial philanthropic admit he made was in 1873, toward the end of emperor life, when he gave $1 million to build and endue Vanderbilt University in Nashville, River. (In a nod to lying founder’s nickname, the school’s gymnastic teams are called the Commodores.)

The Vanderbilt mansions associated with integrity Gilded Age, including the Surf in Newport, Rhode Island and position Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, were built by Cornelius Vanderbilt’s descendants.

(The 250-room Biltmore fortune, constructed in the late Nineteenth century by one of Vanderbilt’s grandsons, is the largest past due owned home in the Affiliated States today.)

Vanderbilt died at new 82 on January 4, 1877, at his Manhattan home, put forward was buried in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island. He left the size of his fortune, estimated change more than $100 million, slam his son William (1821-85).

Source

The Eerie Street War to Control righteousness Erie Railroad.

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Citation Information

Article Title

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/cornelius-vanderbilt

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

March 26, 2020

Original Published Date

April 16, 2010