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Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt, nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, he worked his way into leadership positions in inland and coastal shipping, then invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, which transformed the geography of the United States.
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business · American business tycoon (1794–1877) · railway executive · entrepreneur · also Cornelius Vanderbilt, Commodore Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt I, Vanderbilt
Born 27 May 1794 · Died 4 January 1877 · Q313721
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2026· 1 entry
2025· 1 entry
Dollars ), the largest charitable gift in American history to that date, to Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire, the husband of her cousin, Amelia Townsend, to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, named in hi
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2022· 1 entry
insider.si.edu: Cornelius Vanderbilt
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2009· 1 entry
Awarded National Book Award for Nonfiction (2009).
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2007· 1 entry
United States dollars if his total wealth as a share of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) in 1877 (the year of his death) were taken and applied in that same proportion in 2007
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1999· 1 entry
Cornelius Vanderbilt was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame, recognizing his significant contributions to the railroad industry
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1897· 1 entry
Stands near Kirkland Hall in commemoration of his gift to help found the university
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1882· 1 entry
And George Washington Vanderbilt died during the Civil War, before having any children
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1877· 3 entries
Died 1877-01-04.
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“He vastly improved and expanded the nation”
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“What do I care about law? Ain't I got the power?”
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1871· 1 entry
And served as his lines' terminus in New York
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1870· 1 entry
Consolidated two of his key lines into the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, one of the first giant corporations in United States history
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1869· 2 entries
In London, Ontario, he married a cousin from Mobile, Alabama, with the name — unusual for a woman — of Frank Armstrong Crawford
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Vanderbilt directed the Harlem to begin construction of the Grand Central Depot on 42nd Street in Manhattan
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1868· 2 entries
Vanderbilt went to Canada
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Vanderbilt fell into a dispute with Daniel Drew, who had become treasurer of the Erie Railway
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1864· 2 entries
The Commodore sold his last ships, in order to concentrate on the railroads
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The New York Central Railroad in 1867, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1869
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1863· 1 entry
Vanderbilt took control of the Harlem in a famous stockmarket corner, and was elected its president
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1861· 1 entry
Vanderbilt attempted to donate his largest steamship, the Vanderbilt, to the Union Navy
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1853· 1 entry
The periauger belonged to his father and the younger Vanderbilt received half the profit
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1849· 1 entry
Vanderbilt switched from regional steamboat lines to ocean-going steamships
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1834· 1 entry
Vanderbilt competed on the Hudson River against the Hudson River Steamboat Association, a steamboat monopoly between New York City and Albany
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1833· 1 entry
Vanderbilt was nearly killed in the Hightstown rail accident on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey
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1831· 1 entry
Took over his brother Jacob's line to Peekskill, New York, on the lower Hudson River
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1826· 1 entry
Vanderbilt worked for Gibbons' son William until 1829
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1824· 1 entry
It ruled in Gibbons' favor, saying that states had no power to interfere with interstate commerce
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1817· 1 entry
A ferry entrepreneur named Thomas Gibbons asked Vanderbilt to captain his steamboat between New Jersey and New York
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1814· 1 entry
Ethelinda in 1817, Eliza in 1819, William in 1821, Emily in 1823, Sophia in 1825, Maria in 1827, Frances in 1828, Cornelius Jeremiah in 1830, George in 1832 (who died in 1836), Mary in 1834, Catherine in 1836, and anothe
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1813· 1 entry
At age 19 Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson
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1794· 1 entry
Born 1794-05-27.
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