USA > New York > Famous families of New York; historical and biographical sketches of families which in successive generations have been identified with the development of the nation, Vol. II > Part 14
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The youngsters were only too glad to accept the offer. They turned to, and for a fortnight that field was an ant-hill of boyish activity, every one working, and young Vanderbilt easily excel- ling all his companions. Not only was the work done, but in addition the boys removed every stone from the soil, and with them built a wall which is said to have increased the value of the property by $200. Young Cornelius got his boat, and the boys had their excursions. His success was immediate. He was soon the most popular boatman in the harbor, and that summer cleared $1000. In the spring of 1814, he obtained a contract from the Government for the transportation by water of supplies to the nine military posts around the city. The work was so severe that at times he was on his feet twenty-four and thirty-six hours consecutively, but he carried it through without a complaint, and made enough money to build in the fall a fine schooner, and the following year, with his brother-in-law, a still larger and swifter craft.
His success emboldened him to larger efforts, so that in 1818 he was the owner of three vessels, a comfortable home, and $9000. He astonished his friends at this point by giving up his former business and becoming the captain of a steamboat. There was a bitter prejudice against steam at the time, and the wise- acres of the day regarded his move as the height of folly, but he, with extraordinary foresight, saw the magnificent future of the new system of navigation, and went into it with characteristic energy. For twelve years he retained his position and inci- dentally conducted a hotel at New Brunswick, the terminus of his steamboat route. By the time he was forty years old his fortune was estimated at $500,000. When the gold excitement broke out in California, he established a passenger line to the Pacific via Nicaragua. This with his other enterprises netted for him $10,000,000 in the course of eleven years. In the meantime, he had anticipated the importance of the great trunk lines run- ning into New York, although it may be questioned if he con- templated their unification. He bought New York and New Haven stock in 1844 by disposing of the Sound Steamboats he
The Obelisk in Central Park Brought from Egypt by Wm. H, Vanderbilt
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then owned, and in 1863 he purchased a large part of the shares of the New York and Harlem Railroad, and began acquiring Hudson River shares. His next move was to consolidate the Hudson River and Harlem Railroads. In 1867, he was elected president of the New York Central Railroad. Into this road he introduced the reforms which he had applied with so much suc- cess to the other two lines. The year 1869 saw him consolidate the two companies, and also secure a controlling interest in several small roads. He died in 1877, leaving a fortune estimated at $100,000,000. He was a man of great generosity, but never allowed his name to appear in connection with giving. The chief exception to this rule was his gift of a million dollars where- with to establish Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He was twice married: to Sophia Johnson in 1813, and to Frances Craw- ford in 1869. There were twelve children by the first union, but none by the second.
Of the daughters, Phebe [1815] married James M. Cross; Ethelinda [1818], Daniel B. Allen; Emily [1823], William K. Thorn; Eliza [1828], George Osgood; Sophia [1830], Daniel Torrance; Maria Alecia [1831], N. La Bau; Catherine [1834], first, Smith Parker, and afterwards, Gustave Lafitte ; Marie Louise [1835], first, Horace Clark, and second, Robert Niven.
Of the three sons, only one married and had issue. This was William Henry [1821]. He began commercial life at the age of seventeen, and attracted notice in the business world by William his singular success in the management of the Staten Henry Island Railroad, of which he was made receiver by the court. This may be regarded as his education in railroad finance. His next step forward was when he was chosen vice-president of the Harlem and Hudson River Roads in 1864, and thereafter of the New York Central. His management of these corporations was marked by tact and wisdom. He secured control of the Canada Southern and the Michigan Central Roads. Between 1877 and 1880 he obtained control of the Chicago and Northwest- ern, and of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapo- lis Railroads. The year 1879 witnessed the formation of the VOL. II .- 14.
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largest railroad syndicate which had yet been organized. To it he sold 250,000 shares of his New York Central stock. He died in 1885. He increased the wealth of Vanderbilt University by nearly $400,000; he gave to the College of Physicians and Sur- geons (Columbia) a new building, costing $500,000; he paid the expenses ($103,000) incurred in removing the obelisk from Egypt to Central Park, and distributed large amounts of money among many charities and church works. His wife was Maria Louise Kissam, whom he married in 1840, and by whom he had eight children.
Of the daughters of William Henry, Margaret Louisa married Elliot F. Shepard; Emily, William D. Sloane; Florence Adele, H. Mckay Twombly; and Eliza Osgood, W. Seward Webb. Of the four sons, Cornelius [1843] married Alice Gwynne; William Kis- sam [1849], Alva Smith; Frederick W. [1858], Mrs. Alfred Tor- rance; George [1864], Edith Stuyvesant Dresser.
All of the male members of this generation have been active in New York society and commerce. Cornelius, the oldest, was carefully trained for business by his father. He was Cornelius III. placed in the offices of the New York Central, and rose from clerk to be president. His life was exceedingly busy; he was a director in thirty-four railways, and a trustee of many in- stitutions. He was a generous contributor to the Protestant Episcopal Church and to numerous charities and philanthropies.
The other three sons are prominent in railway affairs. Two tributes from this generation to their father deserve mention: one, the Vanderbilt Clinic, which was presented by the four sons to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the other, the Sloane Maternity Hospital, presented to the same college by Emily, the wife of William D. Sloane.
In the next, or present generation the great-grandchildren of the Commodore are: Cornelius [1873], who married Grace Wil- Cornelius IV. son; Gertrude [1876], who married Henry Payne Whitney; Alfred Gwynne [1877], who married Elsie French; Reginald [1880]; Gladys [1885]-these being the children of Cornelius; Consuelo [1877], who married the Duke of Marl-
Residence of the late Cornelius Vanderbilt, 57th Street and Fifth Avenue
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borough; William K. [1880], who married Virginia Fair; and Harold [1882]- the three being the children of William Kissam. Of this group, Cornelius has displayed high talent as a physicist, mechanical engineer, and inventor. The fact is notable, because he seems to be the first in ten generations to manifest this type of mentality.
Among the descendants of the Commodore who through marriage bear other names may be mentioned members of the families of Horton, Wilmerding, Wallace, Schieffelin, Morris, Fabbri, Burden, Thorn, King, Baring, Parrish, Post, Kissell, An- thony, Hadden, Dyer, Blois, Aymar, Barker, Collins, and Souberbille.
The Vanderbilt record represents the triumph of constructive over destructive finance. The great head, the Commodore, had from his Dutch ancestry all the slow and conservative qualities which are needful in the world of moneyed affairs. To this he added an ambition, will-power, and force which were monu- mental. The larger part of his life was a fierce battle against rival capitalists, many of whom lived by the death of others. This was true in the world of shipping, and especially true in the railway sphere. His chief competitors were men who will go down in history as "wreckers." They owned railroads, not for the benefit of the stockholders, but of themselves. They used their position to control the stock market, and, after fleecing every person possible, they usually wound up by destroying the properties they were supposed to protect, and out of the ruins carving additional fortunes. The history of American railways for many years was the story of misappropriation and malappro- priation. It is painted in the darkest colors, and to few of the figures which occupy its scenes can the historian look with pride or sympathy. Against this motley crew the old Commodore stands out in magnificent relief. In his rugged Dutch heart he knew that honesty paid in the long run, and that the greatest reward came to him who best did his duty. He made his millions not at the expense of others, but by helping others to make thousands where before they had made hundreds.
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By reducing the rates for travel and traffic, by diminishing the peril, wear, and tear of railway life, by utilizing every new invention and discovery, by employing men with regard to their fitness and merit, by organizing railways as a general organizes an army, he estabished a new precedent and standard for Ameri- can financiers. His descendants have but followed in his foot- steps. Scores of other financiers have taken up the work, and, following the same lines, have met with the same success. The giant operations of to-day are merely repetitions on a larger scale of what the old New York Central President did forty years ago. He was the first American railway king in the true sense of the word. His kingdom was small, compared to the empires whose capitals now dot Wall Street, and his army of employees insig- nificant beside those which serve the huge corporations of the present year, but their systems are his system applied to new conditions, and their success is based upon the principles he laid down for his own guidance. As the prosperity of the Empire City and State is so largely a consequence of its matchless railway facilities, his name will go down to the future as one of its most useful citizens.
Dan TRensselaer
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TonotA soft to Em.l fruit
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer First Lord of the Manor
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VAN RENSSELAER
F the greatness of a family is to be measured by the number of distin- guished public servants it has given to the State, the Van Rensselaers are entitled to a high place on New York's roll of fame. From the first Dutch settlements to the present time, a period of thirteen generations, they have always been represented by one or more members of ability and social position in public affairs. The family will be long remembered because it was identified with the movement for establishing a landed aris- tocracy of the New World. It enjoyed the ancient Dutch title of Patroon, and, after the supersedure of the Dutch by English au- thority in America, of Lord of the Manor. They were a stalwart race and fought strenuously for their ideas. Their titles vanished in the Revolution, but their real-estate system was not abolished until the middle of the nineteenth century.
The founder of the family in America was Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, who was a wealthy Amsterdam merchant, and a leader in the famous guild of trading princes which at that time played so prominent a part in the commerce Kiliaen of the world. He owned large estates in the Netherlands, and was a director of the Dutch West India Company. He must
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have been shrewd and far-sighted. When the company took possession of land around the Hudson River, he, with his col- leagues, instituted a college of nine commissioners to take charge of the new enterprise, and practically to become an im- perium in imperio. It is needless to remark that Kiliaen was a member of this smaller body, and before a year had passed was apparently its active head. As a member of the company, he voted in favor of a liberal charter to the college, which created a number of patroons with feudal power and jurisdiction, of whom he was one of the most prominent. He was fair and just in his dealings. He might have followed the example of the Puritans and Pilgrims, and seized land without recognizing the rights of the redmen. This was too common a course in those years, and had he done it, it would have provoked neither censure nor comment.
But he sent out agents and bought the land from the Indians in 1630, and paid the owners even more than they demanded. Then with mercantile thrift he had the sale sanctioned by the college and the company under their great seal. He kept on securing other bits of choice land for seven years, when he con- cluded that his property was as large as he could handle with his surplus wealth. It was a magnificent estate. His agents with fine judgment had chosen a territory which composed a tract twenty-four miles wide and forty-eight miles long, contain- ing more than seven hundred thousand acres, which now con- stitutes the counties of Rensselaer, Albany, and the northern part of Columbia. If the record is to be believed, he never came out to take charge of his colony, although he sent out colonists and stores with generous hand. According to tradition, how- ever, he visited Rensselaerwyck, as he styled the colony, once or twice, but if he ever made the trips, they must have been of brief duration.
Kiliaen's wisdom was shown in another point-the selec- tion of his colonists. As far as he could, he picked out young farmers-strong, healthy, intelligent, and married. To keep them from growing homesick, he dispatched regularly shipments of
Margaret Schuyler Wife of Stephen Van Rensselaer III.
Philip Van Rensselaer Mayor of Albany
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various goods and merchandise from home, taking care to include little articles of comfort or pleasure-giving quality, which would appeal to the better nature of his tenants. One cargo, sent in 1643, and consigned to his colony for its own use, was valued at twelve thousand eight hundred and seventy guilders-about as many dollars, according to the purchasing value of the guilder at that period. The great merchant was working not for himself, apparently, but for his children. Rensselaerwyck was to be a petty principality, of which his descendants were to be the feudal lords. At the very start he built a fort and went to the expense of equipping it with the best cannons of the time. He organized a court which dispensed justice, civil and criminal, and from which appeals were allowed to a higher tribunal. Even here the forethought of the man was well displayed. On the face of the old documents it does not appear whether these appeals lay to the college, the company, or to the highest court of the Netherlands.
As all his colonists were required to take an oath of alle- giance to him, it may be inferred that the indefiniteness as to appeals was intentional, and was put there with a view to deny- ing in the future any jurisdiction of a superior power outside of the Netherlands. This would have avoided any claim of suze- rainty by the college or the company. The colony grew in pros- perity and numbers, and was a formidable rival for many years to New Amsterdam. The superintendents were generally, if not always, blood relatives of the first Patroon, and men of strong personality and executive power. Two of them, Jan Baptist Van Rensselaer and Jeremias Van Rensselaer, carried the Jan Baptist
estate through all the storms and troubles of those exciting times, and increased its value to handsome proportions. The latter possessed a chivalrous nature of the highest type. After the New Netherlands were transferred to Eng- Jeremias land, there was some legal trouble in securing the confirmation of the Van Rensselaer grants. Partly to evade the legal difficulties, and partly, perhaps, to tempt the man, several people of prominence advised Jeremias to take out the patents
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in his own name. At the time he had a large interest in the property, both as agent and as heir, and could have obtained the patent in his own name without deceit or trouble. But it is recorded that he refused the offer with the simple remark: "I am only a part heir, and I cannot defraud my sisters and brothers."
In 1695, the great Kiliaen Van Rensselaer estate was divided, the American part going to Kiliaen of Albany, son of Jeremias, Kiliaen of for himself, his brothers and sisters, and the Holland Albany possessions to the heirs living in that country. In 1704, Queen Anne confirmed Kiliaen's estate. This made him the first Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck, of which he was also the fourth Patroon. From Kiliaen, and his brother Hendrik, have sprung all the American Van Rensselaers. The other rel- atives of the three generations preceding them either died childless or else remained in the Old World. Kiliaen married his cousin, Maria Van Cortlandt, by whom he had six sons and four daugh- ters. His oldest son, Jeremias, who died unmarried, was the fifth Patroon, and his second son, Steven, the sixth. The latter's son, Stephen II., became the seventh Patroon, and Stephen II. married Catherine Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence. He built the Van Rensselaer manor-house, which in the last century was regarded as the finest colonial mansion in the Empire State. Like his ancestors, Stephen was a royal host. He entertained in a style which would have been extravagant for other citizens. To his tenants he was a kind landlord, aiding them to improve their property and the surrounding country, and often making improvements himself for their benefit. His very generosity proved paying investments. Thus he assisted several tenants in building sloops with which to navigate the Hudson. In the course of time they paid him back the loans, and with true Knickerbocker gratitude always carried his produce and freight for smaller rates than they charged other customers. The same policy marked his construction of wharves and toll bridges, lime- stone kilns and brickyards.
Maria Van Cortlandt Wife of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the Fourth Patroon
Anna Van Wely Second Wife of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the First Patroon
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The next generation produced the flower of the family. This was Stephen Van Rensselaer 111., fifth Lord of the Manor and eighth Patroon. His father having died, he was educated by his grandfather, Philip Livingston. Under Stephen III. such auspices he progressed rapidly, and in due course was graduated from Harvard with high honors. He married Mar- garita Schuyler, thus transmitting to his posterity the blood of five of the great colonial families-Schuyler, Van Rensselaer, Livingston, Van Cortlandt, and Ten Broeck. After graduation, he kept up his studies, and at the same time personally managed his large estates. Four years later, he became interested in military affairs, and received a commission as major of infantry. He was so active in his new position that in 1786 he was pro- moted to be colonel; thereafter he was made a major-general. He also entered politics, and proved an efficient Assemblyman, Senator, and Lieutenant-Governor. His first wife dying, he married Cornelia Paterson, daughter of Supreme Court Judge William Paterson, who was also Governor of New Jersey. In 1810, the General was appointed upon the commission to desig- nate the route for the Erie Canal. In 1816, the law was passed for building that vast waterway, and he served as member of the board and then as president from 1824 until his death in 1839. In the War of 1812 he displayed rare gallantry and military skill.
Among his officers were many of his kinsmen, notably his cousin, Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, who was wounded at the battle of Queenstown Heights. In addition Colonel Solomon to his studies, his business, military affairs, and his political labors, Stephen Van Rensselaer still found time for a vast amount of outside work. From 1819 to 1839, he was a Regent of the State University, and, in the last years of that period, its Chancellor. From 1823 to 1829, he served acceptably in the House of Representatives. In 1824 he founded the first scientific school in the New World. His own words show how far ahead he was of the times: "A school to qualify teachers to instruct the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural history to agriculture, domestic economy, and to the
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arts and manufactures." This school, now known as the Rens- selaer Polytechnic Institute, will always be a memorial to the philanthropy and statesmanship of its founder. In 1825, Yale con- ferred upon him the degree of LL.D.
The eighth Patroon left twelve children, three by his first and nine by his second wife. Of these, Stephen Van Rensselaer IV., usually referred to as the Young Patroon, was the Stephen IV. eldest. To him had descended the bulk of the great Van Rensselaer estate or plantation, and by him, through political causes, it was dissipated for ever. The dream of the first Patroon came to naught in the lifetime of his ninth successor. The occa- sion was what is known to-day as the anti-rent war, and it was brought about by industrial rather than political forces. Under the old Dutch system the great plantation of seven hundred thousand acres had been split up in small holdings, and these leased in perpetuity for rent charges or services of the olden time. For one field, so many bushels of grain per annum was the rent; for another, so many skins and pelts; for a third, so much timber; and, for a fourth, so many head of cattle, or of sheep. This cum- brous system, well enough adapted to a primitive age, had become utterly opposed to the new conditions of the land. The Van Rensselaers were fine landlords, which cannot be said of all the Patroons of New York, but even with the kindest landlord there was always trouble. Besides this, no tenant desired to make im- provements, whose benefit would revert to the landlord and not to himself. Opposition to the rent system developed into agitation, and this into social and political organizations. Conflicts occurred between the anti-renters and the authorities, and at one time it looked as if civil war or insurrection would devastate the fair land of the old manorial grants.
Stephen was a man of singularly sweet disposition, and rather than oppose the people in their desire for a change in the landed system, he gave up the traditions of his race, cutting his estate into farms and house lots, and selling them to the highest bidder. It was a losing transaction in every way. Worst of all, the coun- try was agitated, the market was worse than stagnant, and most
Stephen Van Rensselaer III. Patroon of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck. Major-General of the United States Army
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of his sales went, it is said, for a mere song. Although legally his father was the last of the Patroons, yet the people of his time, with poetic justice, called him by that title, and as "the last of the Patroons" he will go down to history. He married Har- riet E. Bayard, by whom he had five daughters and three sons. The preponderance of female children has caused this branch of the family almost to disappear in other names, among which are the Douws, Thayers, Robbs, Andrews, Townsends, Barbers, Crosbys, and Berrys. In the web of life, the threads cross unceasingly. The late Stephen Van Rensselaer Townsend, who was graduated from Harvard in 1882, was looking over the university rolls one day, and there found that his great-grandfather, after whom he was named, had been graduated in the class of 1782, just one century before.
Among those who have rendered public service in the present generation of the oldest branch of the family, are William Bayard Van Rensselaer, Dr. Howard Van Rensselaer, and the Rev. Stephen Van Rensselaer. A distinguished brother Dr. Howard of Stephen was Brigadier-General Henry Van Rensselaer, who graduated at West Point in 1827, and served as lieuten- Gen. Henry ant in the United States Army. He was sent to Congress in 1841, and during the rebellion was a colonel, inspector- general, and aide-de-camp to General Scott. He died just before the close of the war of typhoid fever, contracted while in the service.
Besides General Henry was his nephew, Kiliaen, who was born 1845, at Albany. He entered the Civil War a mere boy, and rose to be a captain in the Thirty-ninth New York Volunteers. He took part in some fourteen engagements, and served under Generals Grant and Hancock.
At the close of the war he travelled and entered business life, but after a few years came to devote most of his time to philan- thropy and church work. Another hero of the civil
conflict was William Van Rensselaer, of the Seneca Col. William Falls branch of the family. He was an officer of the New York Volunteer Engineers, and fought with distinguished gallantry in the Army of the Potomac.
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Of the eight other brothers and sisters of Stephen IV., there has been a similar preponderance of female descendants, and the absorption of their own in other family names. Here are found the Ervings, Pruyns, Coopers, Kings, Atterburys, Fairfaxes, Hodges, Grubbs, Screvens, Lorillards, Kennedys, Waddingtons, Delafields, Crosbys, Baylies, and Crugers.
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