Vanderbilt family
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This article details the family of Cornelius Vanderbilt. For the university, see Vanderbilt University.
The Vanderbilts are a prominent family in history of the United States.
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History
The family was founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), the fourth of nine children born to a Staten Island family of modest means. His great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertson van der Bilt (1620-1705), was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt, Utrecht in the Netherlands who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands as an indentured servant in 1650. Aertson's village name was added to the Dutch "van der" (from the) to create "van der bilt" which was evolved to Vanderbilt when the English took control of New Netherlands (now New York).
Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at the age of 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 bequeathed $1 million for the establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
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.
Some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's offspring gained fame as successful entrepreneurs while several achieved prominence in other fields such as Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915), a noted horse breeder, who went down on the RMS Lusitania. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, (1884-1970), gained fame as a sportsman, winning the most coveted prize in yacht racing on three occasions, the America's Cup and his brother "Willie K" launched the Vanderbilt Cup for auto racing. Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898-1974) became an accomplished writer, newspaper publisher, and film producer. However, others made headlines as a result of drug and alcohol abuse and multiple marriages.
Cornelius Vanderbilt had been awarded a gold medal by the United States government during the 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 a number of them are buried there in the family mausoleum including the family founder. Their mausoleum was redesigned in 1885 by architect, Richard Morris Hunt.
Present-day 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 of their wealth for frequent and unparalleled self-gratification and very often did it with a forthright stupidity. 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. Of the 120 descendants gathered there, not a single one of those in attendance was a millionaire, though many other members of the family are from their family inheritance.
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.
Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt written by distant cousin Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, was published in 1989. Josiah Hornblower, a descendant of the Vanderbilts and heir to the Vanderbilt/Whitney empire, is featured in a documentary called Born Rich about the experience of growing up as the heir to one of the world's greatest fortunes.
Vanderbilt family connection (Listed by Ancestry/Generation)
- Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)
- William Henry Vanderbilt (1821-1885)
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899)
- William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849-1920)
- William Kissam ("Willie K") Vanderbilt II (1878-1944)
- Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970)
- William Henry Vanderbilt (1821-1885)
Vanderbilt family connection (alphabetical listing)
The following list includes etiquette guru Amy Vanderbilt although it is believed she descended from either an uncle or brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt and is therefore not an official descendant-member of this family.
By birth
- Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915)
- Alfred G. Vanderbilt II (1912-1999)
- Amy Vanderbilt (1908-1974)
- Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964)
- Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899)
- Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1873-1942)
- Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898-1974)
- Florence Vanderbilt (1854-1952)
- Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856-1938)
- George Washington Vanderbilt (1839-1864)
- George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862-1914)
- George Washington Vanderbilt III (1914-1961)
- Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942)
- Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szechenyi (1886-1965)
- Gloria Vanderbilt (born 1924)
- Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970)
- Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925)
- William Henry Vanderbilt (1821-1885)
- William Henry Vanderbilt II (1870-1892)
- William Henry Vanderbilt III (1901-1981)
- William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849-1920)
- William Kissam ("Willie K") Vanderbilt II (1878-1944)
By marriage
- Alva Vanderbilt-Belmont (1853-1933)
- Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan-Vanderbilt (1904-1965)
- Grace Wilson-Vanderbilt (1870-1953)
Resource
- FORTUNE'S CHILDREN: The Fall of the House of VANDERBILT
By: Arthur T. Vanderbilt II ISBN 0-688-07279-8 Library CALL# 973.08 VAND