Cornelius Vanderbilt
The still vast Vanderbilt fortune, which touches every American state in some manner or another, began with a single impoverished boy with minimal education. Vanderbilt was 11 when he was forced to quit school to work on his father’s ferry, which operated in New York Harbor. At 16 he was given a two-masted shallow draft bark to operate as a ferry on his own, with half of the earnings going to his father, the owner of the bark. Vanderbilt ferried passengers and freight, competing with the other ferry captains who typically bid for loads or riders. He undercut the other bids, and his competitors took to calling him the Commodore.
With his share of the earnings Vanderbilt purchased another vessel and began trading. In 1817 Vanderbilt retained his own businesses when he went to work as a business manager for a steam ferry company. He quickly learned the complexities of running a large business and became adept at understanding legal affairs. By the mid-1820s Vanderbilt was opening his own steamboat lines from New York to other points up the Hudson and to other East Coast cities. He also began a long business relationship with Daniel Drew.
When the discovery of gold created gold fever in the late 1840s Vanderbilt began to concentrate on ocean going shipping. By that time he controlled most of the shipping and docks along Long Island Sound and much of the railroad freight traffic feeding New York City. Vanderbilt used cutthroat tactics to take over shipping lines and railroads, driving down the value of competitors’ stock by cutting prices, forcing them to lower their own to compete. He also purchased large tracts of real estate in Manhattan. After establishing steamship lines across most of the Isthmus of Panama he started a passenger and freight shipping line to Panama.
Vanderbilt continued to deal with competition ruthlessly, either driving his rivals out of business or acquiring them. In the 1850s he acquired a major shipyard and a steam engine manufacturer. During the Civil War Vanderbilt donated his largest largest steamship, named for himself, to the Union Navy and later had it converted to a cruiser to hunt the Confederate raiders which were built in Great Britain. He continued to expand his holdings in railroads, and by the end of the American Civil War he dominated the shipping and rail industries on both coasts, controlling several different railroads, and was able to manipulate shipping costs across the country.
In 1870 he gave $1 million dollars (equivalent to about $18 million today) to found Vanderbilt University, established by his second wife’s cousin. He donated to numerous churches and charities in New York, including purchasing a church for his second wife’s congregation, though he attended a different church. When he died his fortune was approximately $100 million, $95 million of which he left to his son William and to William’s sons. The rest of the fortune was doled out in a manner which reflected his attitudes towards his remaining children, his youngest son received but the income from a $200,000 trust. The great Vanderbilt houses were built by his heirs, the Commodore lived modestly for his means all of his life.