Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-06-27
VANDERBILT.
A Pen Picture of the 1Iil-
liOnaire Who Founded
Our University.
The Means by which He Amassed HIS
Colossal FOrtune-HIs Appearance,
Manner, Habits aud Home Life.

] pears IN W all bLI6tL, anu WHO We
Yields a power sufficiently great to up
set in few hours all the spectators
on Change, Jay Gould not excepted
That man is now eighty-one years old
yet he looks so fresh that good many
men of sixty might well envy him. His
powerful frame has not suffered either
from hard work or the excitement Of
financial speculations. The invigorat.
ing open air which he breathed on
Staten Island in his childhood and on
board his vessels in his youth seems to
have insured him against the ealami-
ii, to which town life exposes its chill
dren.
The contrast presented in the APP
pearance of the three leading fnanciers
of New York is a most curious one.
Daniel Drew looks like broken.dow
hollow. chested Harpagon; Jay Gould
like a quaint Moorish pawn-broker;
while Vanderbilt has about him abso-
lutely nothing suggestive of money
dealing. He looks like a stubborn,
hard-working Dutchman-not one Of
those little, fat Dutchmen who could
not get along in their own country, and
who emigrated here to become the
standing butt for American Jokes, but
one Of those Dutchmen who never leave
the land they conquered from the sea,
and whose Herculean frames, red faces
with side whiskers, and long classical
pipes, have furnished the originals for
so many immortal productions Of the
| Flemish school of painting.
The Commodore's father, a well-to-
do land owner of Staten Island, rented
his estate in small lots to market gar
deners, and ran a sail boat, in which he
carried the gardeners produce to New
York at good, round tariff, thu max
ing his land pay double tribute. He
was very anxious that his boy should
acquire a good education, and strJve to
excite the boys ambition IN that direc-
ton; but "COrnele" did not take kindly
to books. He was g healthy and pow
erful young animal, exhibiting a great
er taste for robbing melon patches and
punching the heads Of his companions
who dared to oppose him; than for pars-
ing. AS a natural consequence of this,
the great fnancier's verbs, prOnouns
and nouns frequently do nOtagree even
at this day.
Before he was fully sixteen years Of
age he begged his father to purchase a
boat for him that be might earn his
own living, and began to runit in COM
petition with that of his governor. So
well did he manage the business that
within two years he became sole owner
of two more boats and part owner and
captain of a third, which was the
biggest vessel of the kind in the har-
Dor. This precocious success of the
sell. made ship-Owner was determined
not more by his natural abilities and
hard work than by the most rigid par
simOny. The lad was never known to
spend upon himself cent more than
was strictly necessary to keep body and
soul together. Interest-b bearing in
vestment was the only use he knew for
money.
At the early age of nineteen he mar
ried his cousin, Miss Sophie j. John
son, Of Port Richmond, and settled
down in New York. She kept for him
subsequently a hotel at New Bruins
wick, n. j., bore him thirteen children,
and to the day of her death, in 1868,
was the slave of all his wishes, and the
only person in wh9m he placed implicit
confidence.
AT the age of twenty three Wander
bilt found himself the master Of a
small feet of sailing vessels, and the
possessOr of $4,000 IN hard cash. The
invention of Robert Fulton was Just
then coming into practical use, and the
State of New York had given to him
and his friend Chancellor Livingston, a
monopoly of steam navigation on the
waters within its boundary. Vanderbilt,
who was always strongly opposed to all
monopolies, when held by anybody but
himself, saw at once the immense ad-
Vantages of steam navigation, and
chafed at the restriction. He made
himself thoroughly acquainted with the
details Of the new invention, and while
pursuing his inquiries in this direction
made the Acquaintance of Mr.. Gibbons,
who was running a line of vessels be-
tween New York and Philadelphia.
This new friend soon had builta dimin
utive steamboat for his line between
this city and New Brunswick, and made
Vanderbilt captain Of it, with salary
of $1,000 per year. Livingston and
Fulton appealed against Gibbons as one
who had infringed on their monopoly,
but after long litigation Chief Justice
Marshall, Of the United States Supreme
Court, decided that no State could
grant exclusive privileges on any of
the great waters of the country, and
the field was thrown Open to all corners.
1t was about this time that the foun-
dation of the colossal fortune of Van
derbilt began to be laid. In 1929 he
was able to leave the service of Gibbons
and to become himself Oneof the largest
ship builders and ship-OwneTs. He
had lines of steamboats, on the North
river, on Long Island Sound, on the
coast Of Maine, on the Delaware, and
began 20 build steamships for the trans
atlantic voyages, of which the Pro-
metheus and she Vanderbilt were the
largest and the best known.
In lS4S, when the California rush
began, Vanderbilt had large amount
of available money and q number of
vessels, which enabled him to open a
new rOute of his own, in opposition to
the United States Mail Steamship Com
pany and the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company, which was then in its infancy
This California route induced Wander
bilt to take part in a flibustering ex-
petition to Nicarauga, and the plain
Dutch common sense secured HIM COM
plete victory in the overthrow of the
adventurer who assumed the Presidency
of Nicaragua and his flight from the
country. And among all these occupa-
tons Vanderbilt found time to build
the steam yacht North Star" and to
undertake with her cruise to Europe
1t was about 1864 that he finally
abandoned the domain of Neptune, and
his accumulated fortune at that time
was estimated at forty million dollars.
1t must not be supposed, however, that
| he took 10 railways only WHEN he left
the shipping trade. On the contrary,
he with rev his capital from maritime
operations, step by step, long before he
retired himself from these pursuits
By means of lending money to the
! President of the New York and New