VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS American capitalist, was born near Stapleton, Staten island (N.Y.), on May 27, 1794. At the age of 16 he bought a sailboat, in which he carried farm produce and passengers between Staten island and New York, in 1813 carrying supplies to fortifications in New York harbour and the adjacent waters, and in 1817-29 he was a captain on a steam ferry between New York and New Brunswick. He developed an extensive carrying trade along the coast in a fleet which became so large as to win for him the popular designa tion of "Commodore." In 1849 he got from the Nicaraguan Gov ernment a charter for a route across the isthmus. In 1855-61 he operated a freight and passenger line between New York and Havre. In 1857-62 he sold his steamships and turned his atten tion to railways. In 1857 he became a director, and in 1863 presi dent, of the New York and Harlem Railway.
He then acquired a controlling interest in the Hudson River Railway, of which he became president in 1865; and in 1868 he became president of the New York Central (between Albany and Buffalo), which in 1869 he combined with the Hudson River Road, under the name of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. His acquisition of the Lake Shore and Michigan South ern Railway in 1873 established a through line between New York and Chicago. At the time of his death (in New York city on Jan. 4, he controlled the New York Central and Hudson River, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Harlem, and the Canada Southern railways, and had holdings in many others. He
endowed Vanderbilt university.
His eldest son, WILLIAM HENRY VANDERBILT (1821-1885), was born in New Brunswick (N.J.), on May 8, 1821. He was a clerk in a New York banking house from 1839 to 1842. In 186o he was appointed receiver of the Staten Island Railway, of which he was elected president in 1862, and which he brought into con nection with New York by means of a line of ferry-boats. He became vice president of the Hudson River Railway in 1865, vice president of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1869, and president in June 1877, succeeding his father as presi dent of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Canada South ern, and the Michigan Central railways. He died in New York City on Dec. 8, /885.
William Henry's eldest son, CORNELIUS (1843-1899) , became assistant treasurer of the Harlem Railway in 1865, and treasurer in 1867 ; in 1877, after the death of his grandfather, he was elected first vice president of the New York Central, and in 1878 became treasurer of the Michigan Central and vice president and treas urer of the Canada Southern. In 1883 he became chairman of the boards of directors of those two systems.
See W. A. Croffut, The Vanderbilts and the Story of their Fortune (Chicago, Ill., i886) ; D. W. Cross, "The Railroad Men of America," in Magazine of Western History, vol. viii. (Cleveland, Ohio, 1888), and Burton J. Hendrick, "The Vanderbilt Fortune," in McClure's Magazine, vol. xxxii. (1908-1909).