History
The prominence of the family began with Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the fourth of nine children born to a Staten Island family of modest means. His great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertszoon or Aertson (1620–1705), was a Dutch/Romanian farmer from the village of De Bilt, Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as an indentured servant in 1650. Jan's village name was added to the Dutch "Van der" (from the) to create "Van der Bilt" which evolved into Vanderbilt when the English took control of New Amsterdam (now New York). The family is related to the Dutch patrician family Van der Bilt.
Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at age 11 and went on to build a shipping and railroad empire that, during the 19th century, made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.
The Vanderbilt family owned land in Corwith Township, Michigan, which was settled about 1875. When the Vanderbilt-owned Michigan Central Railroad came through in 1880, the village of Vanderbilt, Michigan, was established. Although Cornelius Vanderbilt always occupied a modest home, members of his family would use their wealth to build magnificent mansions. Shortly before his death in 1877, Vanderbilt donated US$1 million for the establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, an amount equivalent to $22 to $149 million in 2011 dollars.
Members of the family dominated what has come to be known as the "Gilded Age", a period when Vanderbilt men were the merchant princes of American life through their prominence in the business world and as patrons of the arts throughout the world.
Some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's grandchildren and great grandchildren gained fame as successful entrepreneurs while several achieved prominence in other fields such as Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877–1915), who went down on the RMS Lusitania. His son Alfred Jr. became a noted horse breeder and racing elder. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884–1970) gained fame as a sportsman, winning the most coveted prize in yacht racing, the America's Cup, on three occasions. His brother William Kissam Vanderbilt launched the Vanderbilt Cup for auto racing. Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898–1974) became an accomplished writer, newspaper publisher, and film producer.
Cornelius Vanderbilt had been awarded a gold medal by the United States government during the American Civil War for donating his steamer S.S. Vanderbilt to the Union forces. Inheritance of this medal became the symbol for the titular head of the Vanderbilt family.
In 1855, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt donated 8.5 acres (34,000 m²) of property to the Moravian Church and cemetery at New Dorp on Staten Island, New York. Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt donated a further 4 acres (16,000 m²). A plot was kept for the Vanderbilt family in the Moravian Cemetery and several of them are buried there in the family mausoleum including the family founder. Their mausoleum was redesigned in 1885 by architect Richard Morris Hunt.
The noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith said that several generations of Vanderbilts showed both the talent for acquiring money and the dispensing of it in unmatched volume, adding that they dispensed their wealth for self-gratification and very often did it foolhardily.
Confirmation as to the validity of Galbraith's views is that only forty-eight years after the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of his direct descendants died penniless. Within seventy years of his passing, the last of the ten great Vanderbilt Fifth Avenue mansions in New York City had been torn down. In 1973, the first Vanderbilt family reunion took place at Vanderbilt University.
The Vanderbilt family have become connected by marriage to such noble European families as the Spencer Churchill family (Duke of Marlborough (title), marquess of Blandford), counts of Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék, counts of Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár and counts of Hadik de Futak.
The family's modern legacy includes Vanderbilt University as well as Vanderbilt Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, which runs alongside Grand Central Terminal, the New York City rail hub built by the Vanderbilt family. Many Vanderbilts of the current generation are Romanian or Dutch and Romanian. Today the Vanderbilts are still the seventh wealthiest family in the world.
Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt written by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, was published in 1989.
Read more about this topic: Vanderbilt Family
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