Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/258

 VAN CORTLAXDT

VANDERBILT

sons. Philip (q.v.)and Pierre. Jr. (1762-1848) were soldiers in the Revolution: the latter graduating from Rutgers. 1783. and receiving the honorary degree LL.D.. 1S43. also serving as a representa- tive in congress. 1811-13. Lieutenant-Governor Van Cortlandt died at Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., Nov. 5. IS.JI.

VAN CORTLANDT, Stephanus, jurist, was born in New Amsterdam (New York city). May 4, 1643: son of Oloff (or Oliver) and Annetje LoiK'kermans. His fatlier (1000-l(i84) immi- grated to New Netherlands from Holland as an officer on the Hering of the West India Company in 1638; served as commissioner of cargoes, 1839; customs officer. 1643-48; burgomaster of New Amsterdam, 1655-64, and was a mercliant of great wealtli. Steplianus Van Cortlandt pursued his studies under the Dutch clergymen of New Amsterdam; engaged in merchandising, and uix)n the establisliment of English government in New York city in 1664, became a member of the court of assizes. He was commissioned ensign in King's county regiment in 1668; promoted cap- tain and colonel; was mayor of New York city. 1677-1700: a member of the governor's council. 16.83-1700; commissioner of the revenue, 1686: and also served as deputy auditor and dep- uty secretary of New York city. In 1688, during Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson's absence in Eng- land, at the time of Gov. Jacob Leisler's revolt.Van Cortlandt. with Frederick Philipse, was left in charge of the government. He was judge of the court of common pleas in King's county, for sev- eral years: a justice of the supreme court of the province. 1693. and appointed chief -justice in 170<J. serving until his death in November of the same year. His estate on Croton Bay was erected into the lordsliip and manor of Cortlandt by patent of William III. June 17, 1697. He died in New York city Nov. 25. 1700.

VAN DEPOELE, Charles J., electrician, was born in Liditervelde. Belgium. April 27, 1846. He was apprenticed to a wood-carver in Paris. France, in 1861. and continued to follow the trade, devoting all his leisure, however, to elec- trical experiments, for which he had shown a decided ingenuity from childliood. In 1871 he came to the United States and established him- self in the wood-carving business in Detroit, Mich., the control of which he subsequently con- signed to his father, and against the hitter's wishes gave his entire time to the study of elec- tricity. He removed to Chicago. 111., in 1880; organize'! a company for lighting the streets of tliat city, constructing his own dynamo, which proved a successful exi»eriment. and in 1883 gave an exhibition of street railway cars run by elec- tricity. This was followe<l by exhibitions at Toronto. Ontario, of a conduit road, 1884, and of

the overhead trolley system, 1885, which system he introduced into thirteen cities, 1885-88. In the latter year he sold his patents and business to the Thomson-Houston company of Lynn, Mass., of which company he became electrician. He also invented the electric percussion drill for mining. He died in Lynn. Mass.. March 18, 1892. VANDERBILT, Cornelius, financier, was born in Port Richmond, Staten Island. N.Y., May 27, 1794: son of Cornelius and PlKjebe (Hand) Van- derbilt. His first ancestor in America. Jan Aert- sen Van der Bilt, emigrated from Holland, and settled on a farm near Flatbush, L.I., N.Y. about 1650. His father removed to Stapleton. L.I.. and Cornelius attended the common schools and worked on the farm until 1811, when, with one Jiun- dred dollars bor- rowed from his mother, he purchased a boat and engaged in ferrying the la- borers at work on the government fortifica- tions between Staten Island and New York. In 1813 he married, and removed to New York city. In 1815. in partnership with his brother-in-law, Capt. John DeForest. he built the schooner Char- lotte, and in 1817 became captain of a steamboat plying on the canal between New York and Phila- delphia. He removed to Elizabethport, and later to New Brunswick, where he conducted the hotel in connection with the steamboat, and in 1827 leased the Elizabethport and New- York ferry, which he successfully managed. He estab- lished steamboat lines on Long Island Sound and on the Hudson river, and in July. 1851. estab- lished a route to San Francisco via Nicaragua. In 1853 he sold his steamers to the Nicaragua Transit company, and in 1855 established a line of steamers between New York and Havre. In May. 1862, when the government was in need of fast steamers for cruising the Atlantic in search of blockade runners and Confederate commerce destroyers, he offered to sell the VamlerhUt. the fastest steamer afloat, which had cost him $800.- 000. to the government, and when the navy de- partment hesitated to make an offer for the ves- sel, owing to the fact that the machinery was placed above deck, he suggested in a letter to W. O. Bartlett dated May 14. 1863. that Com. Rob- ert F. Stockton, retired, and two active com- manders in the U.S. navy determine a valuation, adding: " If this will not answer, will the gov-