Vanderbilt family

The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy. Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants went on to build grand mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York City; luxurious "summer cottages" in Newport, Rhode Island; the palatial Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina; and various other opulent homes.

Vanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt mausoleum at the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island, N.Y.
Current regionUnited States East Coast
Earlier spellingsVan der Bilt, van Derbilt
EtymologyVan der Bilt ("from de Bilt")
Place of originDe Bilt, Netherlands
Estate(s)Vanderbilt houses

The Vanderbilts were once the wealthiest family in America. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the richest American until his death in 1877. After that, his son William acquired his father's fortune, and was the richest American until his death in 1885. The Vanderbilts' prominence lasted until the mid-20th century, when the family's 10 great Fifth Avenue mansions were torn down, and most other Vanderbilt houses were sold or turned into museums in what has been referred to as the "Fall of the House of Vanderbilt".[1][2]

Branches of the family are found on the United States East Coast. Contemporary descendants include journalist Anderson Cooper, actor Timothy Olyphant, musician John P. Hammond and screenwriter James Vanderbilt.

History
Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1846.
The Breakers, built in 1892–1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Newport, Rhode Island
Frederick William Vanderbilt's home, now known as the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York.

The progenitor of the Vanderbilt family was Jan Aertszoon or Aertson (1620–1705), a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as an indentured servant to the Van Kouwenhoven family in 1650.[3][4] Jan's village name was added to the Dutch "Van" (from) to create "Van der Bilt", which evolved into Vanderbilt when the English took control of New Amsterdam (now Manhattan). The family is associated with the Dutch patrician Van der Bilt.[5]

His great-great-great-grandson Cornelius Vanderbilt began the prominence of the family, the fourth of nine children born to a Staten Island family of modest means. Through his paternal great-great grandmother Abigail Southard, he descends from Republic of Salé President Jan Janszoon and his son Anthony Janszoon van Salee. They were among the earliest arrivals to 17th-century New Amsterdam. In a number of documents dating back to this period, Anthony is described as tawny or mulatto,[6] as his mother was of Berber origin from Cartagena in the Kingdom of Murcia.[7][8] Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at age 11 and went on to build a shipping and railroad empire that, during the 19th century, would make him one of the wealthiest men in the world. Starting with a single boat, he grew his fleet until he was competing with Robert Fulton for dominance of the New York waterways, his energy and eagerness earning him the nickname "Commodore", a United States Navy title for a captain of a small task force. Fulton's company had established a monopoly on trade in and out of New York Harbor. Vanderbilt, based in New Jersey at the time, flouted the law, steaming in and out of the harbor under a flag that read, "New Jersey Must Be Free!" He also hired the attorney Daniel Webster to argue his case before the United States Supreme Court; Vanderbilt won, thereby establishing an early precedent for America's first laws of interstate commerce.

The Vanderbilt family lived on Staten Island until the mid-1800s, when the Commodore built a house on Washington Place (in what is now Greenwich Village). Although he always occupied a relatively modest home, members of his family would use their wealth to build magnificent mansions. Shortly before his death in 1877, Vanderbilt donated US$1 million for the establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

The Commodore left the majority of his enormous fortune to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt. William Henry, who outlived his father by just eight years, increased the profitability of his father's holdings, increased the reach of the New York Central Railroad, and doubled the Vanderbilt wealth. He built the first of what would become many grand Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth Avenue, at 640 Fifth Avenue. William Henry appointed his first son, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, as the next "Head of House".

Cornelius II built the largest private home in New York, at 1 West 58th Street, containing approximately 154 rooms, designed by George B. Post. He also built The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island.

Cornelius II's brother, William Kissam Vanderbilt, also featured prominently in the family's affairs. He also built a home on Fifth Avenue and would become one of the great architectural patrons of the Gilded Age, hiring the architects for (the third, and surviving) Grand Central Terminal. He also built Marble House at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island.

George Washington Vanderbilt II, the 3rd and youngest son of William Henry Vanderbilt and youngest brother of Cornelius II, hired Architect Richard Morris Hunt and Landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmsted to construct Biltmore Estate on 125,000 acres near Asheville, North Carolina. The 250 room mansion and 175,856 square feet of floor space remains on top of the list of largest houses in the United States to date.

While some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants gained fame in business, others achieved prominence in other ways, e.g.:

In 1855, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt donated 45 acres (~182,000 m²) of property to the Moravian Church and Cemetery at New Dorp on Staten Island, New York. Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt donated a further four acres (16,000 m²). The Vanderbilt Mausoleum was designed in 1885 by architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Family Tree

Members (by year of birth)

The following list includes Amy Vanderbilt (1908–1974), although it is believed she descended from either an uncle or brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt and is therefore not a descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

  1. Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877)
  2. William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885)
  3. Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt (1830–1882)
  4. Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899)
  5. Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt (1845–1924)
  6. William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849–1920)
  7. Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (1850–1946)
  8. William Knapp Thorn (1851–1911)
  9. Florence Adele Vanderbilt (1854–1952)
  10. Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856–1938)
  11. Eliza "Lila" Osgood Vanderbilt (1860–1936)
  12. George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862–1914)
  13. Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1873–1942)
  14. Alice Louise Vanderbilt Shepard (1874–1950)
  15. Gertrude Vanderbilt (1875–1942)
  16. Elliott Fitch Shepard, Jr. (1876–1927)
  17. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877–1915)
  18. Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877–1964)
  19. William Kissam Vanderbilt II (1878–1944)
  20. Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880–1925)
  21. James Watson Webb II (1884–1960)
  22. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884–1970)
  23. Gladys Moore Vanderbilt (1886–1965)
  24. Flora Payne Whitney (1897–1986)
  25. John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough (1897–1972)
  26. Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898–1974)
  27. Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill (1898–1956)
  28. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1899–1992)
  29. Muriel Vanderbilt (1900–1972)
  30. Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt (1900–1976)
  31. Governor William Henry Vanderbilt III (1901–1981)
  32. Mary Cathleen Vanderbilt (1904–1944)
  33. Frederick Vanderbilt Field (1905–2000)
  34. Amy Vanderbilt (1908–1974)
  35. John Henry Hammond Jr. (1910–1987)
  36. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. (1912–1999)
  37. George Washington Vanderbilt III (1914–1961)
  38. James Watson Webb III (1916–2000)
  39. Whitney Tower (1923–1999)
  40. Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (1924–2019)
  41. George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil (1925– )
  42. John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough (1926–2014)
  43. William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil (1928–2017)
  44. Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill (1929– )
  45. Christopher Denys Stormont Finch-Hatton, 16th Earl of Winchilsea (1936–1999)
  46. John Wilmerding (1938– )
  47. John Paul Hammond (1942– )
  48. Kenneth Peter Lyle Mackay, 4th Earl of Inchcape (1943– )
  49. Jonathan Edward Pease (1952– )
  50. John LeBoutillier (1953– )
  51. Charles James Spencer-Churchill, 12th Duke of Marlborough (1955– )
  52. Lady Henrietta Mary Spencer-Churchill (1958– )
  53. William Douglas Burden III (1965– )
  54. Anderson Hays Cooper (1967– )
  55. Daniel Finch-Hatton, 17th Earl of Winchilsea (1967– )
  56. Timothy David Olyphant (1968– )
  57. James Platten Vanderbilt (1975– )
  58. George John Godolphin Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford (1992– )
  59. Tobias Finch-Hatton, Viscount Maidstone (1998– )


See also

References

  1. "Review of Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt". The New York Times. September 24, 1989.
  2. Vanderbilt, Arthur T., II (1989). Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0-688-07279-8.
  3. Dorothy Kelly MacDowell. Commodore Vanderbilt and his family: a biographical account of the Descendants of Cornelius and Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt. 1989. University of Wisconsin
  4. "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America", Colin Woodard. Penguin, Sep 29, 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2017
  5. List of Dutch patrician families in the Nederland's Patriciaat 1910-2007/2008 (PDF).
  6. "Origins of the Black Atlantic", Laurent Dubois, Julius S. Scott. Routledge, Jan 11, 2013. p. 150
  7. "The Van Salee Family". Frontline. PBS. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
  8. "Jan Jansen van Haarlem and Anthony Jansen van Salee", Brian A. Smith. Washington D.C. 2013
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