Tennessee Celeste Claflin - Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt

“Tennessee just twenty-two when met Cornelius Vanderbilt... the healer of whatever ailed him. She was experienced at the laying on of hands, which was supposed to magnetize the patient and act as a kind of electric prod to jolt his system back into shape. No doubt it did. With her full, sensuous mouth, teasing eyes, and expert hands, Tennessee was just the lighthearted hellion to work wonders on the Commodore’s aged body and revive his sagging spirits,” and she was paid handsomely for her trouble.

At some point the widowed Vanderbilt’s “status as a backer changed somewhat” as he followed the wishes of his family and married someone other than Tennie, “despite Tennessee’s understanding that he had promised himself to her.” Rumor had it “that the new Mrs. Vanderbilt had seen him with his arm around Tennie and forbidden him further association” with her. “If Tennessee and Victoria were concerned that their pipeline to the stock market would be closed by Vanderbilt’s marriage” Black Friday made that a moot point. “On September 24, 1869, Wall Street crashed with a mighty thud.”

Vanderbilt died on January 4, 1877, worth $100 million. Some family members contested his will and Tennie was “sure to be brought in to testify to… interest in spirit communications.” She and her sister were paid $100,000 by a Vanderbilt heir to make themselves unavailable to testify. Before the trial “ set off for England in six first-class double staterooms, accompanied by a small army of servants.”