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Birth
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on this date his ancestors where Dutch and had moved to America around the 1600s. When he was young he barely went to school but instead he helped his father -
Cornelius gets married
Vanderbilt ended up marrying his cousin Sophia Jonson. This surprised everyone, even his parents. Together they had 13 kids, however only 11 ended up living to be adults. -
Steamship Buiness
Around 1817 Vanderbilt decided to start a business with steamboats. So he started a partnership with a man named Thomas Gibbons. Together they started a small steamboat business. When Gibbons got into some legal troubles but with Vanderbilt's help they won the case. -
Vanderbilt's Partner
Unfortunately Vanderbilt's partner died. This was bad news for Vanderbilt because his partner owned the business. He attempted to get the business back but his partner's son would not sell it to him -
Vanderbilt's steamship sevice
During the 1850's the California gold rush had begun. Vanderbilt earned a fortune from it. But he didn't earn it from finding gold. He would take prospectors from east to west using a route that was much faster then the one that they were originally using. Because of this he made over a million dollars. In to days money that is about 26 million per year. -
Rail roads
Around the time that railroads were really taking off Vanderbilt decided that they were going to be a lot better way to make money. So he left his partner and awhile later he manged to get a hold of a few railroads and made a railroad system. The rest of his life he stayed with railroads and they helped him make all the money he had. -
Vanderbilt's wife is dead
Sadly Vanderbilt wife Sophia died. This left him single and with 13 children -
Vanderbilt's second wife
After Vanderbilt's first wife died he remarried. He married another cousin but I guess by this point it wasn't so much of a surprise. His second wife's name was Frank Armstrong Crawford, she was a lot younger then Vanderbilt. -
Grand Central Depot
This was on of Cornelius Vanderbilt's biggest achievements. Grand Central Depot is a railroad station that Vanderbilt made in New York. This is still open today and when people think of Cornelius Vanderbilt they also think of this depot. -
Vanderbilt gives away money
Towards the end of his life Vanderbilt's wife convinced him to give a lot of his money to charity. He ended up giving about one million dollars to what became Vanderbilt University. -
Vanderbilt get sick
During this time Vanderbilt becomes ill and had this illness leading up to his death. He still worked a lot over the next eight months even though he was like on his death bed. -
Cornelius Vanderbilt's Death
On January 4, 1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt died. They say that he died from exhaustion, and its not hard to see why. He had worked till he died, weather he was working on the empire he had built on railroads or even giving a speech to all the reporters that were outside his house.
