Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/259

 VAXDERBILT

VAXDERBILT

eminent accept lier as a present from their hum- ble servant ? " He received no reply to his com- munication, and subsequently, wlien long range cannon came into use, the government accepted '•the gift." In 1864, when the state department, through J. C. Derby, despatch agent to New- York, delivered to Mr. Vanderbilt a resolution which had been passed " presenting the thanks of Congress to Cornelius Vanderbilt for a gift of the steamship Vanderbilt," approved, Jan. 28, 1864. by President Lincoln, Speaker Colfax and Vice-President Hamlin, Mr. Vanderbilt, after carefully reading the resolutions, is reported to have said, " Congress be damned ! I never gave that ship to congress. When the government was in great straits for a suitable vessel of war, I offered to give the ship if they did not care to buy it; however, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. AVelles think it was a gift, and I suppose I shall have to let her go." The gold medal ordered to besti'uck to •' fitly embody an attestation of the nation's gratitude for the gift " was delivered in 1865. He sold all his steamboat interests in 1859, when sixty-five years of age, and engaged in specula- tion in Wall street, purchasing shares in the New York and Harlem and New York and New Haven railroads for a low price. He successfully oper- ated a corner in Norwich and Worcester railroad stock ; was elected president of the New York and Harlem road in 1863, and in 1864 managed a corner in the stock of the Hudson River road, uniting it with the Harlem road. In 1867 he be- came president of the New York Central railroad, and in 1869 of the consolidated New York Central and Hudson River railroad. He placed 1000 miles of track ; established new fast trains ; built new stations; adopted a four track system, and made the railroads under his control one of the great trunk line systems of the country. He en- deavored to corner the stock of the Erie railway, and tlius gain complete control of the z-ailroad system in tlief state, but failed, and the road passed into the hands of Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr. In 1868. he organized and consolidated liis railroad interests between New York and Chicago. He was also interested in the Western Union Telegraph company and other valuable stocks, and at the time of his death, his fortune was estimated variously at from $60,000,000 to $100,- 000,000. He was twice married : first, in 1813, to Sophia Johnson, who died in 1868, and secondly in 1869, to Frances Crawford of Mobile, Ala. He gave $50,000 for the property and buildings of the Mercer Street church, which became the Church of the Strangers, New York city, and presented the same to the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Deems, in trust, and soon after, probably through the suggestion of Dr. Deems and Bishop McTyeire, he founded Vanderbilt university at Nashville, X. — 16

Tenn., at a cost of $1,000,000, which gift was lib- erally supplemented by gifts from his son and grandsons. By his will, he bequeathed to his eldest sou, William Henry Vanderbilt, nine- tenths of his entire fortune, leaving $11,000,000 to the latter's four sons, and $4,000,000 to his own daughters. In selecting names for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university, October, 1900, the name of Cor- nelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), was one of the six named in " Class B, Business men,'' and received 29 votes, the largest number in the class. He died in New York city, Jan. 4. 1877.

VANDERBILT, Cornelius, capitalist, was born in New Dorp, S.I., Nov. 27, 1843; eldest son of William Henry and Maria Louisa (Kissam) Van- derbilt. He received a good education ; engaged in business as a clerk in the Shoe and Leather bank of New York, and later in the brokerage office of Kissam Brothers, and in 1865 lie held a posi- tion in the office of the Harlem railroad, becoming treasurer of the company. He was married in Feb- ruary, 1867, to Alice, daughter of Abram E. Gwynne of Cin- cinnati, Ohio. In 1877, on the acces- sion of his father to

tlie presidency of

the New York Central and Hudson River rail- road, Cornelius became first vice-president with financial control of the road, and in 1883, when his father retired, was elected president of the Canada Southern railway, and chairman of the board of directors of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad compain-, and of the Michigan Central Railroad company. In 1886 he became president of the New York and Harlem railroad and of the Beech Creek railroad. He gave $100,000 toward the erection of the Protes- tant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York city, and built a club house for the employees of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad. He was elected a trustee of Columbia college, a vestryman of St. Barthol- omew church, and trustee of the Theological seminary, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and of the American Museum of Natural History. The bulk of his fortune of $70,000,000 he left to his son, Alfred Gwynne. His eldest son Corne- lius, with whom he had quarreled when the son disregraded his wishes as to contracting a mar- riage with Miss Wilson, was cut off with the in-

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