The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-27

as 100 years ago she might have known
what It was to attend the guests of the
little Staten island inn which no less a
person than her paternal greatgrand-
mother ran for time in an effort to
augment the family fortunes.
The first Vanderbilt of whom there is
any record is one Arts Van Der Bylt, a
Dutch farmer who settled on Long Is
land.
Back in 1894 the first Cornelius Van
derbilt married. 1t appears that he
cnanced to secure wife who was a
woman of ability. She kept the wolf
from the Vanderbilt door in various
ways, and she also became the mother
OF Cornelius II. There We're other chill
dren, many of them-in fact, the VAN
derbllts have run to big families-but
had 1t not been for Cornelius II there
would have been no Countess Gladys
today in the marble palace on Fifth av-
enue- Which is to say that Cornelius
IL was the Saul who was to stand head
ana shoulders above the others OF the
Vanderbilt brood. The boy did not care
for school. He preferred work to study,
but he preferred play to work Whether
it was the near proximity of the sea or
the blood of some remote, nautical an
cestor that stirred in his veins is I'M
known, but he early announced his in
tention of becoming a sailor.
The mother did not like the idea or
her sons going to sea. Her influence
was strong with him, and she coun-
SEIZED against it. She promised him that
if he would till a particularly rocky
family had moved there from Long Is
land-she would lend him 800 with
which to buy a boat. Cornelius went
among the boys of his acquaintance
and told them of the boat he was going
to buy. Those who helped him till that
eight acres might hope to help him sail
the boat, he limited. The ground was
plowed and planted; the boat was
bought Cornelius was then 16 years
OLD.
But it was not for a pleasure craft
that the boy bought his boat. There
was money to be made carrying passen-
gers and small freight to New York.
When Cornelius began his trips New
York was a cluster of houses and storNs
below Fulton street; Broadway ran to
| where the city hall was rising and dis
appeared in the cornfields to the north,
and the Bowery was a country lane
leading to the COW pastures above
Fourteenth street. The city was grow
ing, and where there was growth there
was money to be made. At the end OF
the first year the boy gave back the
800 to his mother and $1,000 besides.
Another year and he had given her
| 81, 900 more and owned part interest
in several more boats. At 10 he took
Sophia johnson as his wife and moved
| to New York. The city did not please
his wife, however, and he moved back
to Staten island and built the house
| which is still standing there. He was
then % years old. He owed no man
anything. There was $4,000 to his credit
in the bank. The Vanderbilt wealth
had begun to grow.
In 1917 he built the first steamship
that was run between New York and
New Brunswick and became its captain
at salary Of $1,000 a year. In 1918 he
took command of a bigger and better
boat, and by 1924 he was in control OF
the Gibbons line, which was paying
| $40, 900 a year. This young man had no
education. but he was thrifty and rode
in on the breakers of the country
growth. Increase in population meant
| increase In wealth for him, and the
population grew rapidly. Then he
| launched out into, other ventures He
| organized and equipped new lines of
| ferries and river and sound steamers
and monopolized the traffic of the wa
terways in the east. In one speculation
alone-the Nicaragua route from New
York to San Francisco-he netted 1
million dollars. In 1856 the Vanderbilt
| fortune was about 10 million dollars.
! In 1874 Cornelius began to be interest
| ed in railroads. He bought heavily OF
| the stock of the New York & New
Haven road and of the stock of the
] Hudson River road. He soon had con-