The Nickel Plate Road by Taylor Hampton

Author:Taylor Hampton [Hampton, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Military, Other, United States, Americas, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781839745416
Google: p4hbAAAAIAAJ
Publisher: Barakaldo Books
Published: 2020-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

William Henry Vanderbilt, who had acquired control of the Nickel Plate for the Lake Shore, was born in 1821, the eldest son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. After completing his education at Columbus College Grammar School at the age of eighteen, he entered the banking house of Drew, Robinson, and Company in New York, whose principal partner, the notorious Daniel Drew, had begun by watering his thirsting livestock to make them heavier just before selling them at the drover’s market and ended by watering Erie Railroad stock and foisting it upon unwary speculators. Vanderbilt exhibited such industry and executive ability that on the expiration of two years he was offered a partnership.

The close confinement, however, having begun to prey on his health, he determined to take up farming as a means of recuperation. The Commodore having bought him seventy-five acres of unimproved land on Staten Island, he at once took his young wife there and set to work to clear it, and soon had a larger tract purchased and 350 acres under cultivation.

In speaking of these seventy-five acres, Vanderbilt alleged that he had not sufficient means to work and improve them thoroughly, nor would his father advance him a dollar of aid. In his extremity he mortgaged the land for $6,000, which he turned to good account. The circumstances came to the Commodore’s ears, however, and the old gentleman brought the matter up while they were riding together on one occasion.

“So you mortgaged the New Dorp farm for $6,000 did you?” the Commodore said. “You don’t amount to a row of pins and never will!”

“I did mortgage the farm,” replied his son, “and I have put every cent of the money right into improving the land.”

“Well,” continued the Commodore, “I’ll have nothing more to do with you, for you’ll only bring disgrace on yourself, your family, and everybody connected with you.”

However, the next morning, the Commodore sent his son a check for $6,000, ordering him to pay off the mortgage immediately.

Vanderbilt was forty when he entered the railroad business. The Commodore had him appointed receiver of the Staten Island Railway, of which he was elected president in 1862, and which he connected with New York by means of a line of ferryboats. He became vice-president of the Hudson River Railway in 1865, vice-president of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1869, and upon his father’s death in 1877, he succeeded him as president of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Canadian Southern, and the Michigan Central Railways.

His father had left in his hands, to be held intact, the largest industrial fortune accumulated in America up to that time. It was estimated at close to one hundred millions of dollars, largely in railroad and other securities. Thenceforth referred to as the Rothschild of America, Vanderbilt endowed Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, and the Medical College in New York. A frequent continental traveler, he began to collect works of art. When he had gathered in his galleries the largest

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