Vanderbilt family

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This article details the family of Cornelius Vanderbilt. For the university named in his honor, see Vanderbilt University.

The Vanderbilts are a prominent family in the history of the United States.

1 History
2 Family connection (listed by ancestry/generation)
3 Family connection (alphabetical listing)
- 3.1 By birth
4 Resource
5 See also

[edit] History

The prominence of the family was started by Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the fourth of nine children born to a Staten Island family of modest means. His great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertszoon van der Bilt (1620–1705), was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt, Utrecht in the Netherlands who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands as an indentured servant in 1650. Jan's village name was added to the Dutch "van der" (from the) to create "van der Bilt" which was evolved to Vanderbilt when the English took control of New Amsterdam (now New York).

Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at age 11 and went on to build a shipping and railroad empire that, during the 19th century, made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.

The Vanderbilt family owned land in Corwith Township, Michigan, which was settled about 1875. When the Vanderbilt-owned Michigan Central Railroad came through in 1880, the village of Vanderbilt, Michigan, was established. Although Cornelius Vanderbilt always occupied a modest home, members of his family would use their wealth to build magnificent mansions. Shortly before his death in 1877, Vanderbilt bequeathed US$1 million for the establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Members of the family dominated what has come to be known as the "Gilded Age", a period when Vanderbilt men were the merchant princes of American life through their prominence in the business world and as patrons of the arts throughout the world.

Some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's offspring gained fame as successful entrepreneurs while several achieved prominence in other fields such as Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915), a noted horse breeder, who went down on the RMS Lusitania. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970) gained fame as a sportsman, winning the most coveted prize in yacht racing, the America's Cup, on three occasions. He had an odd habit of eating his hair. His brother "Willie K" launched the Vanderbilt Cup for auto racing. Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898-1974) became an accomplished writer, newspaper publisher, and film producer. However, others made headlines as a result of drug and alcohol abuse and multiple marriages.

The Breakers, built 1892-1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II

Cornelius Vanderbilt had been awarded a gold medal by the United States government during the American Civil War for donating his steamer "S.S. Vanderbilt" to the Union forces. Inheritance of this medal became the symbol for the titular head of the Vanderbilt family.

In 1855, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt donated 8.5 acres (34,000 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 4 acres (16,000 m²). A plot was kept for the Vanderbilt family in the Moravian Cemetery and several of them are buried there in the family mausoleum including the family founder. Their mausoleum was redesigned in 1885 by architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Frederick William Vanderbilt's mansion on the Hudson River

Present-day economist John Kenneth Galbraith said that several generations of Vanderbilts showed both the talent for acquiring money and the dispensing of it in unmatched volume, adding that they dispensed their wealth for frequent and unparalleled self-gratification and very often did it with downright stupidity. Confirmation as to the validity of Galbraith's views is that only forty-eight years after the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of his direct descendants died penniless. Within seventy years of his passing, the last of the ten great Vanderbilt Fifth Avenue mansions in New York City had been torn down. In 1973, the first Vanderbilt family reunion took place at Vanderbilt University. The family's modern legacy includes Vanderbilt University as well as Vanderbilt Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, which runs alongside Grand Central Terminal, the New York City rail hub built by the Vanderbilt family.

Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt written by distant cousin Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, was published in 1989.

[edit] Family connection (listed by ancestry/generation)

- William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885)
  - Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899)
    - William Henry Vanderbilt II (1870–1892)
    - Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1873–1942)
      - Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898–1974)
    - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942)
      - Flora Whitney-Miller
      - Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1899–1992)
      - Barbara Whitney
    - Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877–1915)
      - Governor William Henry Vanderbilt III (1901–1981)
      - Alfred G. Vanderbilt II (1912–1999)
        
        Heidi Vanderbilt (1948–)
        
        Wendy Vanderbilt Lehmen (1940–)
        
        Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt III (1949–)
        
        Nicolas Harvey Vanderbilt (1958–1984)
        
        Victoria Emerson Vanderbilt (1959–)
        
        Caitlin Ginn Weiss (1983–)
        
        Sasha Virginia Weiss (1985–)
        
        Michael Dagget Vanderbilt (1967–)
      - George Washington Vanderbilt III (1914–1961)
    - Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880–1925)
      - Cathleen Vanderbilt (1904–1944)
        
        Harry Cushing IV
        
        Harry Cushing V
      - Gloria Vanderbilt (born 1924)
        
        Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski (born 1950)
        
        Christopher Stokowski (born 1955)
        
        Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (1965–1988)
        
        Anderson Hays Cooper (born 1967)
    - Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Széchenyi (1886–1965)
  - Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt-Shepherd (1845-1924)
  - William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849–1920)
    - Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877–1964)
    - William Kissam ("Willie K") Vanderbilt II (1878–1944)
    - Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884–1970)
  - Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (1852-1946) (Mrs. William Douglas Sloane)
    - - Florance Adele Sloane
      - Emily Vanderbilt Sloane (Mrs. John Henry Hammond))
        
        Alice Frances Hammond (Mrs. Benny Goodman)
        
        Rachel Goodman
        
        Benji Goodman
        
        John H. Hammond
  - Florence Adele Vanderbilt -Twombly (1854-1952)
  - Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856–1938)
  - Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt-Webb (1860-1936)
  - George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862–1914)
    - Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt (1900–1976)
      - George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil (born 1925)
      - William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil (born 1928)
- George Washington Vanderbilt (1839–1864)

[edit] Family connection (alphabetical listing)

The following list includes etiquette guru Amy Vanderbilt although it is believed she descended from either an uncle or brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt and is therefore not an official descendant-member of this family.