Cornelius Vanderbilt, who laid the foundation of the great wealth since enjoyed by the noted family of that name, was born at Staten Island, N.Y., May 29th, 1794. His parents had emigrated from Holland, and were among the earliest settlers of the Empire State.
It was more his own fault than that of any one else that his education was meager, for he was decidedly adverse to the acquisition of knowledge.
When twelve years of age he was to be found daily upon the sailing boats in New York Bay, and by the time he had reached sixteen he had saved enough money to purchase a boat of his own, which he ran as a ferry between New York and Staten Island. He was a brave youngster, and during the war of 1812 started from Fort Richmond in the face of a perilous storm, when no other boatman would undertake the task. At eighteen he owned two boats, and was captain of a third. A year later he married and moved to New York. About this time he carried large supplies for the government to various posts about New York, and with the income derived in this way he was enabled to buy a number of boats, sloops and schooners.
At twenty-three, having accumulated nearly $10,000, he entered the employ of Thomas Gibbons, becoming captain of a small steamboat running between New York and New Brunswick, and took charge of the hotel at the latter place every night. In the course of seven or eight years he had practical control of the Gibbons' line, and through his good management his own income rose to over $40,000 a year. He leased for a long term the ferry between New York and Elizabeth, puton a number of new boats, and made the enterprise a profitable one. Severing his connection with Gibbons in 1829, he devoted nearly a score of years to building and operating boats on the Hudson, and on the Delaware from Philadelphia to Bordentown. In 1849 he built the steamer Prometheus, in which he sailed for the Isthmus of Darien. In 1851 he established a line of steamers between New York and California, by way of Nicaraugua, personally managing the company for two years, and finally became its president. In the following year he started a line from New Orleans to Georgetown, with three steamers. By this time he had amassed great wealth, and having constructed the steamer North Star,made a tour of European waters with his family. During his absence, C. K. Garrison and W. D. Morgan, who owned a majority of the stock in his steamship enterprises, combined in deposing him from the management. On his return he organized an opposition line between New Orleans and Galveston, established an independent one between New York and Aspinwall, and compelled a compromise which soon landed into full control of the company. In 1855 he established an independent line of steamers between New York and Havre. Subsequently, he withdrew his money from the vessel business, and invested it in railroads. He was successively president of the New York & Hudson Rive rRailway, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, and the Harlem Railway, and director in the Western Union Telegraph Company.
He presented the government with his finest steamship, the “ Vanderbilt,” for which a vote of thanks was passed to him by Congress. He purchased the building known as the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in New York City, and presented it to the Free and Independent Church of Jesus Christ, of which Rev. Chas. F. Deems was pastor, to be used by that society as a place of public worship, and to be known as the “Church of the Stranger.” On March 27th, 1873, he presented the Methodist Episcopal Church of the South with half a million dollars, to be used in founding auniversity at Nashville, Tenn., for the education of the youth of the church. The board of directors of this institution decided to name it the Vanderbilt University. He subsequently again presented it with a similar amount.
Mr. Vanderbilt was twice married, and had thirteen children. He died in New York in 1877, at the age of 83 years.