Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-03-07
VANDERBILT DIES
FROM OPERATION
Youngest Son of New York FL
nancier Expires Three Days
After Ordeal.
OWNER OF FAMOUS ESTATE
Spends 100000 Trimming Down
Mountain for Home at Biltmore,
North Carolina.

Washington, d. c., March George
W. Vanderbilt of New York died here
yesterday from the effects of an opera
ton for appendicitis performed last
Tuesday. Reports issued from his
residence from time to time since then
declared that he was better. and there
was no fear that he would not re-
cover. Not until yesterday did the
nature of his illness become generally
known. sThe physicians who perform
ed the operation withheld all particu-
lars.
George Washington Vanderbilt was
born in the old Vanderbilt home at
New Dorp. Staten Island, Nov. IA,
1862. He was the youngest son OF
William II. Vanderbilt. He inherited
q fortune estimated at S10,00O,OOO. He
also got the house his father built at
Fifth avenue and Fifty-first street and
the magnificent art collection ii con-
tanned. He never took an active part
in BUSINESS, but travelled extensively,
and was interested in literature and
art His special hobby, however, was
Baltimore, the beautiful estate of 1OO.-
900 acres on the French Broad river,
near Asheville, in western North Caro-
lima. He acquired the estate in 1885
and laid out a vast park that has sell
dom had an equal, and was said to be
the finest in America.
The house at Baltimore. which has
$50 rooms, is located on one OF the
Blue Ridge mountains, and about ST.
100000 was spent in preparing the site,
trimming down" the mountain several
his agents obtained Bedford granite.
They were instructed to copy a cha
te2u which Mr.. Vanderbilt had seen on
a bank of the Loire in France. This
was done.
Married Edith S. Dresser.
Mr.. Vanderbilt married Edith Stuy-
vesant Dresser, descendant of Peter
Stuyvesant, last Dutch Governor of
New York, or as it was then, New
She is related to the
king. Leroy, Fish and Stuyvesant fami-
lies that have for generations been as
ISOLATED with the history of New
York. Her father was the late Cap
tain George Warren Dresser, U. S. a.
The wedding took place in Paris in
1898. The couple later toured the
WOrlQ IN search Oh paintings, lapeS-
tries, rugs and statuary for Baltimore. |
On the mountain top near the house
was created a garden copied after
those which have made the French !
estate along the Loire famous. The
town of Baltimore Mr. Vanderbilt had
laid out like ar EIeiish village.
The interior of Baltimore House, its |
grand stairway that led to the recep- |
ton hall with its frcscced ceilings; |
the dining room. 120 feet long, with its |
organ loft and ilIge ireplaces, and the |
art treasures that adorned the home |
were world-renowI.eJ They were not |
all of Baltimore. however. for the es-
tate was a scientific farm, where the |
milk giving of every pedigreed COW
was recorded daily, where soil experts |
studied the fields and property adapt
ed crops were planted.
Pinchot Aids Estate.
Clifford Pinchot, afterward chief for
ester of the United States, planned
the regime for the woods, and plants
from the Baltimore nurseries nre sent
to all parts of the country. The owner