biography
| name: |
Vanderbilt, Cornelius
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known as Commodore
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1794–1877)
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| biography:
| Steamship and railroad developer and financier, born in Port Richmond, Staten I, New York, USA. He began as a ferryman between Staten I and New York City (1810), then worked for Thomas Gibbons (1818–29) and assisted him in his fight against the steamboat monopoly before establishing his own steamboat business. By 1846 he was one of the richest men in America, and in 1849 he started a steamship line to California that involved travelling overland through Nicaragua. When his employees tried to cheat him out of his business with the aid of American filibuster William Walker, Vanderbilt helped eject Walker from Nicaragua (1857) and regained control of his line, then sold it to the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Shifting his interest to railroads, by 1862 he was buying stock in the New York & Harlem Railroad, and soon he was extending its service and became president. He then acquired the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central, and consolidated them as the New York Central (1872). Over the next few years he acquired even more lines, and extended his railroad empire into Michigan and Canada. Although his success definitely rested in part on his insistence on providing the best service and on using the best equipment, he could be a ruthless competitor. His most famous business battles were fought against Daniel Drew, first over steamships, then railroads. In 1868, Drew, along with Jay Gould and James Fisk, defeated Vanderbilt's attempt to add the Erie Railroad to his well-run rail system by their fraudulent stock manipulations known as the ‘Erie Wars’. Not usually charitable, Vanderbilt made an exception near the end of his life with gifts totalling $1 million to Central University in Nashville, TN, renamed Vanderbilt University (1873). When he died, with an estate of some $100 million, he was the wealthiest man in America. |
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