Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was an American self made multi millionaire who became one of the wealthiest Americans of the 19^th century. He built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was born on 27 May, 1794 on Staten Island, New York. Vanderbilt University situated in Nashville, Tennessee is named after him; he helped by providing the initial gift of $1 million to found the university. When he died he was worth more than $100 million.

1. What was his nickname?

Ans: Commodore Vanderbilt.

2. When Cornelius was a boy he used to work with his father. His father operated a boat that ferried cargo between Staten Island and Manhattan. When he grew up he worked as a steamboat captain and in the late 1820s went into business for himself and rest is history.

3. Name the ferry entrepreneur who hired Vanderbilt to captain his steamboat?

Ans: Thomas Gibbons.

The Vanderbilt

4. Vanderbilt was nearly killed in the Hightstown Rail Accident on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey that occurred on November 8, 1833. Sixth American President John Quincy Adams was also on the train but survived.

5. What was the name of the steamship yacht that Vanderbilt used to take his family on the grand tour of Europe in 1853?

Ans: The North Star.

6. He bought control of a major shipyard and the Allaire Iron Works, a leading manufacturer of marine steam engines in Manhattan, New York.

7. Name Vanderbilt’s largest steamship that he donate to Union Navy during America Civil War.

Ans: The Vanderbilt.

8. Vanderbilt’s youngest and favorite son George Washington Vanderbilt, who was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, fell ill and died during the Civil War without ever seeing combat. It was a great loss for Commodore Vanderbilt because George was to be his successor of the Vanderbilt Empire.

9. Name any one railway in which Vanderbilt served as director of boards.

Ans: The Erie Railway.

10. Cornelius Vanderbilt took control of the New York and Harlem railway in a famous Stock Market corner in 1863. Vanderbilt was eventually elected as the president of the railway. Vanderbilt brought his son William Henry Vanderbilt in as vice-president of the Harlem.

Vanderbilt University

11. When was the Vanderbilt University established?

Ans: 1873.

12. Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Notable alumni and affiliates include two Vice Presidents of the United States, 25 Rhodes Scholars, seven Nobel Prize laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Academy Award winners.

13. When Cornelius Vanderbilt died?

Ans: January 4, 1877.

14. According to "The Wealthy 100" by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, Vanderbilt would be worth $143 billion in 2007 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. This would make him the second-wealthiest person in American history, after John D. Rockefeller.