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93-656: James P. Allaire retired from the company in 1850 when it was taken over by Cornelius Vanderbilt . During Vanderbilt's ownership, the Allaire Iron Works made a significant contribution to the Union cause during the American Civil War . Following the war, the Allaire Works, like many other American marine engineering companies, fell on hard times, and in 1869 it was wound up, whereupon its equipment

186-433: A coal mine . In a company town, the housing is owned by the company but there may be independent stores there or nearby. Employee-only company stores often accept scrip or non-cash vouchers issued by the company in advance of periodic cash paychecks, and gives credit to employees before payday. Except in very remote areas, company stores in mining towns became scarcer after the miners bought automobiles and could travel to

279-722: A church for his second wife's congregation, the Church of the Strangers. In addition, he donated to churches around New York, including a gift to the Moravian Church on Staten Island of 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres (3 hectares) for a cemetery (the Moravian Cemetery ). He chose to be buried there. Cornelius Vanderbilt died on January 4, 1877, at his residence, No. 10 Washington Place, after being confined to his rooms for about eight months. The immediate cause of his death

372-555: A cousin from Mobile, Alabama , with the name — unusual for a woman — of Frank Armstrong Crawford . Vanderbilt's second wife convinced him to give $ 1 million ($ 22,890,000 in 2023 dollars ), the largest charitable gift in American history to that date, to Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire , the husband of her cousin, Amelia Townsend, to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, named in his honor. He also paid $ 50,000 for

465-482: A failure, delivering a cruising speed of only 12.73 knots, well under the specified speed of 15 knots, and they were later replaced with a more conventional power plant. In addition to the engines directly contracted for, the Navy also requisitioned a number of merchant steamships powered by Allaire engines and converted them into warships. Some of these vessels had been built prior to the war, while others were built during

558-481: A family newspaper, seem to point to exploitation. The attitudes carry over into the scholarly literature, which emphasizes that the company store was a monopoly." The songs Fishback mentions include the popular song " Sixteen Tons ", which contains such lines as "Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store." In Mexico, during the Porfiriato period (late 1800 to early 1900),

651-622: A ferry entrepreneur named Thomas Gibbons asked Vanderbilt to captain his steamboat between New Jersey and New York. Although Vanderbilt kept his own businesses running, he became Gibbons's business manager. When Vanderbilt entered his new position, Gibbons was fighting against a steamboat monopoly in New York waters, which had been granted by the New York State Legislature to the politically influential patrician Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton , who had designed

744-543: A friendship, and Allaire provided fittings for later vessels built by Fulton. Following Fulton's death in 1815, Allaire leased his plant and equipment from the Fulton and Livingstone families, and entered a partnership with Fulton's chief engineer, Charles Stoudinger. Allaire and Stoudinger built the engine and boiler for the last steamboat contracted for by the Fulton shop, the Chancellor Livingstone , which

837-470: A furnace used for manufacturing pig iron from the natural resource of bog iron . Allaire renamed the furnace the Howell Works , and over the next 20 years used it to source most of his pig iron, during which time Howell Works grew to be a substantial and largely self-sufficient community, complete with its own church, school, company store and farmland. In 1824, the Allaire Works built the engine for

930-628: A grievous loss when George Washington Vanderbilt II, his youngest and favorite son, and heir apparent , a graduate of the United States Military Academy , fell ill and died without ever seeing combat. Though Vanderbilt had relinquished his presidency of the Stonington Railroad during the California gold rush, he took an interest in several railroads during the 1850s, serving on the boards of directors of

1023-408: A key advantage: it was the only steam railroad to enter the center of Manhattan, running down 4th Avenue (later Park Avenue ) to a station on 26th Street, where it connected with a horse-drawn streetcar line. From Manhattan it ran up to Chatham Four Corners , New York, where it had a connection to the railroads running east and west. Vanderbilt brought his eldest son, Billy, in as vice-president of

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1116-532: A landmark legal case— Gibbons v. Ogden —to the United States Supreme Court to overturn the monopoly. Working for Gibbons, Vanderbilt learned to operate a large and complicated business. He moved with his family to New Brunswick, New Jersey , a stop on Gibbons' line between New York and Philadelphia . There his wife Sophia operated a very profitable inn, using the proceeds to feed, clothe and educate their children. Vanderbilt also proved

1209-605: A quick study in legal matters, representing Gibbons in meetings with lawyers. He also went to Washington, D.C., to hire Daniel Webster to argue the case before the Supreme Court. Vanderbilt appealed his own case against the monopoly to the Supreme Court, which was next on the docket after Gibbons v. Ogden . The Court never heard Vanderbilt's case, because on March 2, 1824, it ruled in Gibbons' favor, saying that states had no power to interfere with interstate commerce. The case

1302-408: A range of stores. Even so, the stores could survive because they provided convenience and easy credit. Company stores served numerous additional functions, as well, such as a locus for the government post office, and as the cultural and community center where people could freely gather. Company stores were monopolistic institutions, funneling workers' incomes back to the owners of the company. This

1395-664: A ship in which Allaire was part-owner, William Gibbons , ran aground and was destroyed. In the same year, the Howell Works furnace blew out and production there temporarily ceased. The following year, the Panic of 1837 plunged America into a severe recession, and later that year, the steamboat Home , wholly owned by Allaire and largely uninsured, sank with the loss of 100 lives, damaging Allaire's reputation and leaving him short of capital. Allaire had up until this point in his career been able to borrow to meet cash shortfalls, but with

1488-424: A year and was ultimately won outright by Billy, who increased the bequests to his siblings and paid their legal fees. One of Vanderbilt's great-great-granddaughters, Gloria Vanderbilt , was a renowned fashion designer, and her youngest son, Anderson Cooper , is a television news anchor. Through Billy's daughter Emily Thorn Vanderbilt , another descendant is actor Timothy Olyphant . Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt

1581-399: Is because company stores often faced little or no competition for workers' earnings on account of their geographical remoteness, the inability and/or unwillingness of other nearby merchants (if any existed) to accept company scrip, or both. Prices, therefore, were typically high. Allowing purchases on credit enforced a kind of debt slavery , obligating employees to remain with the company until

1674-423: Is followed by a number, which represents the last two digits of the year in which the vessel is known to have operated at the given location; No.=number of engines; Cyl.=diameter of engine cylinder(s) in inches; Str.=engine stroke in feet; Type=engine type. Types of engine include: AC=annular compound; B=beam; C=compound; CB=compound beam; C=crosshead. Crosshead engines built by this company are almost certainly all of

1767-480: Is still considered a landmark ruling. The protection of competitive interstate commerce is considered the basis for much of the prosperity which the United States has generated. After Thomas Gibbons died in 1826, Vanderbilt worked for Gibbons' son William until 1829. Though he had always run his own businesses on the side, he now worked entirely for himself. Step by step, he started lines between New York and

1860-1111: The Vanderbilt , to the Union Navy . Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles refused it, thinking its operation and maintenance too expensive for what he expected to be a short war. Vanderbilt had little choice but to lease it to the War Department, at prices set by ship brokers. When the Confederate ironclad Virginia (popularly known in the North as the Merrimack ) wrought havoc with the Union blockading squadron at Hampton Roads, Virginia , Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln called on Vanderbilt for help. This time he succeeded in donating

1953-1070: The Episcopal Church , Cornelius Vanderbilt remained a member of the Moravian Church to his death. Along with other members of the Vanderbilt family, he helped erect a local Moravian parish church in his city. On December 19, 1813, at age 19 Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson. They moved into a boarding house on Broad Street in Manhattan. They had 13 children together: Phebe in 1814, Ethelinda in 1817, Eliza in 1819, William in 1821, Emily in 1823, Sophia in 1825, Maria in 1827, Frances in 1828, Cornelius Jeremiah in 1830, George in 1832 (who died in 1836), Mary in 1834, Catherine in 1836, and another son named George in 1839. In addition to running his ferry, Vanderbilt bought his brother-in-law John De Forest's schooner Charlotte and traded in food and merchandise in partnership with his father and others. But on November 24, 1817,

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2046-751: The Erie Railway , the Central Railroad of New Jersey , the Hartford and New Haven , and the New York and Harlem (popularly known as the Harlem). In 1863, Vanderbilt took control of the Harlem in a famous stockmarket corner , and was elected its president. He later explained that he wanted to show that he could take this railroad, which was generally considered worthless, and make it valuable. It had

2139-562: The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad , one of the first giant corporations in United States history. In 1869, Vanderbilt directed the Harlem to begin construction of the Grand Central Depot on 42nd Street in Manhattan. It was finished in 1871, and served as his lines' terminus in New York. He sank the tracks on 4th Avenue in a cut that later became a tunnel, and 4th Avenue became Park Avenue. The depot

2232-593: The Stonington . By cutting fares on competing lines, Vanderbilt drove down the Stonington stock price, and took over the presidency of the company in 1847. It was the first of the many railroads he would head. During these years, Vanderbilt also operated many other businesses. He bought large amounts of real estate in Manhattan and Staten Island, and took over the Staten Island Ferry in 1838. It

2325-558: The Swiftsure. However, according to the first account of his life, published in 1853, the periauger belonged to his father and the younger Vanderbilt received half the profit. He began his business by ferrying freight and passengers on a ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan . Such was his energy and eagerness in his trade that other captains nearby took to calling him "The Commodore" in jest—a nickname that stuck with him all his life. While many Vanderbilt family members had joined

2418-667: The Vanderbilt to the Union Navy, equipping it with a ram and staffing it with handpicked officers. It helped bottle up the Virginia, after which Vanderbilt converted it into a cruiser to hunt for the Confederate commerce raider Alabama , captained by Raphael Semmes . For donating the Vanderbilt, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal . Vanderbilt also paid to outfit a major expedition to New Orleans . He suffered

2511-417: The " tiendas de raya " (company stores) were a prominent symbol of labor and peasant exploitation. These stores, operated by the owners of haciendas or factories, sold essential items to workers, often at inflated prices and typically paying with vouchers instead of cash. This kept workers in a continuous debt cycle to the hacienda or company, binding them almost like slaves to the land or industrial work without

2604-482: The "spirits"—during a point in the session when said spiritualist would fall into a "trance" in the Commodore's presence—claimed William would be the most trustworthy to inherit the estate and business and that his other children actually hated him and were just waiting for him to die. A "spirit", during this session, came in the form of William's deceased mother, Sophia. Not wanting to risk further public humiliation of

2697-454: The 4,912-ton monitor USS  Puritan ; however delays in supply of the ship's 20-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannon prevented the vessel from seeing wartime service. The Allaire Works also supplied the engines in 1864 for the 4,215-ton Wampanoag class screw sloop USS  Madawaska . Intended to be a very fast ship, Madawaska was fitted with experimental vibrating-lever engines designed by Navy architect John Ericsson . The engines proved

2790-411: The Allaire Iron Works had only one engine and one boiler on its books. The company soldiered on until 1869 when Cornelius Vanderbilt sold its plant and equipment at auction, which were bought by John Roach at scrap metal prices. Vanderbilt was wealthy enough to survive the slump, but had apparently decided to move his assets into railroads by this time. After the auction, the property of the Allaire Works

2883-399: The Allaire Iron Works remained productive through the 1840s. In this period, engines were supplied for steamboats such as Isaac Newton in 1846, C. Vanderbilt in 1847, and Commodore in 1848 (the names for the latter two reflecting Vanderbilt's growing influence in the company). Engines were also supplied for the sister ships Bay State and Empire State in 1846–47, the former of which was

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2976-520: The Allaire Works to 1828 included Sun , Commerce , Swiftsure and Pilot Boy . The Allaire Works built compound engines decades before the advantages of such engines became widely recognized in the shipbuilding industry. In the 1830s, the Allaire business empire reached the peak of its expansion. The Howell Works in New Jersey was producing a surplus of pig iron, enabling Allaire to diversify into

3069-516: The American "square" type, rather than the Steeple type; DA=direct-acting; DS=double screw; GS=geared screw; HBA=horizontal back-acting; I=inclined; O=oscillating; S=screw; St=steeple; SL=side-lever; V=vertical; VB=vertical beam; VL=vibrating-lever. The following table lists warships powered by Allaire Iron Works engines. This list is confined to vessels that were designed and built as warships, and does not include merchant ships commissioned into

3162-427: The Commodore ", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the United States. As one of the richest Americans in history and wealthiest figures overall, Vanderbilt

3255-601: The Great Lakes, and the Long Island Sound steamer Plymouth Rock (1854). The Allaire Iron Works made a substantial contribution to the Union cause during the American Civil War, providing the engines for at least seven warships, while at least another ten merchant ships with Allaire engines were purchased or chartered by the U.S. Navy and converted into warships. In 1861, the Allaire Works built

3348-525: The Harlem. Billy had had a nervous breakdown early in life, and his father had sent him to a farm on Staten Island. But he proved himself a good businessman, and eventually became the head of the Staten Island Railway . Though the Commodore had once scorned Billy, he was impressed by his son's success. Eventually he promoted him to operational manager of all his railroad lines. In 1864, the Commodore sold his last ships, in order to concentrate on

3441-686: The Navy. Legend: Type=ship type. Types include - G=gunboat; SS=screw sloop; DEG=double-ended gunboat; M=monitor; SF=screw frigate. Built=Year of ship launch, or completion where launch date is unknown; Builder=Name of ship builder; Disp.=displacement in tons; No.=number of engines; Cyl.=diameter of engine cylinder(s) in inches; Str.=engine stroke in feet; Type=engine type. Types of engine include: DA=direct acting; DS=double screw; HBA=horizontal back-acting; I=inverted; S=screw; VL=vibrating-lever. See marine steam engine for explanation of various engine types. Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "

3534-530: The New York Central Railroad. To his younger surviving son, Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt, whom he regarded as a wastrel, he left the income from a $ 200,000 trust fund. (Although his daughters and Cornelius received bequests much smaller than those of their brother William, these made them very wealthy by the standards of 1877 and were not subject to inheritance tax .) Vanderbilt's biographer T. J. Stiles says, "He vastly improved and expanded

3627-584: The Presidency of the Allaire Iron Works—;according to one report, through the machinations of his brother-in-law John Haggerty, who may have been scandalized by the former's marriage to a young woman 26 years his junior in 1846. Cornelius Vanderbilt subsequently gained control of the company, appointing T. F. Secor , former proprietor of T. F. Secor & Co. , as its manager. After the Vanderbilt takeover, an increasing percentage of

3720-729: The United States coastline (as opposed to working the inland waterways). This engine had a 44-inch-diameter (110 cm) cylinder and a stroke of 5 feet. Robert Fulton helped to demonstrate that steamships were capable of reliable seagoing service. Other engines built in this period by the Allaire Works include those for United States —a 140-foot steamer said to be the first American steamboat to issue tickets (rather than "way-bills") to passengers—and for James Kent , North Carolina , South Carolina and other Hudson River steamers. As Allaire's business grew, he found it increasingly difficult to source adequate amounts of quality pig iron from which to manufacture his engines. The best quality pig iron

3813-461: The United States. Walker was forced to give up, and was driven out of the country by a U.S. Navy officer. But the new Nicaraguan government refused to allow Vanderbilt to restart the transit business, so he started a line by way of Panama, eventually developing a monopoly on the California steamship business. When the Civil War began in 1861, Vanderbilt attempted to donate his largest steamship,

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3906-704: The canal, but he did start a steamship line to Nicaragua, and founded the Accessory Transit Company to carry passengers across Nicaragua by steamboat on the lake and river, with a 12-mile (19-kilometer) carriage road between the Pacific port of San Juan del Sur and Virgin Bay on Lake Nicaragua . In 1852, a dispute with Joseph L. White , a partner in the Accessory Transit Company, led to a business battle in which Vanderbilt forced

3999-542: The company just before these developments were announced. When he tried to convince the U.S. and English governments to help restore the company to its rights and property, they refused. So he negotiated with Costa Rica , which (along with the other Central American republics) had declared war on Walker. Vanderbilt sent a man to Costa Rica who led a raid that captured the steamboats on the San Juan River, cutting Walker off from his reinforcements from insurgent groups in

4092-620: The company to buy his ships for an inflated price. In early 1853, he took his family on a grand tour of Europe in his steamship yacht, the North Star. While he was away, White conspired with Charles Morgan, Vanderbilt's erstwhile ally, to betray him, and deny him money he was owed by the Accessory Transit Company. When Vanderbilt returned from Europe, he retaliated by developing a rival steamship line to California, cutting prices until he forced Morgan and White to pay him off. He then turned to transatlantic steamship lines, running in opposition to

4185-564: The company's contracts came from Vanderbilt himself, who from this point had most of his new steamboats and steamships engined there, just as most of his shipbuilding contracts went to the same firm, that of his trusted nephew, Jeremiah Simonson. Vanderbilt brought his own ideas to the field of marine steam engineering. Defying the prevailing wisdom, he began powering oceangoing steamships with American walking beam engines, believing that their relative lightness of construction, economy of operation and low maintenance requirements made them preferable to

4278-406: The company's inception in 1816 until its closure in 1867. Names in small print preceded or followed by an arrow in the "Name" column indicate that the engine either originated from or was later installed in the ship so named. This is an incomplete list. Legend: Built=year built; Ton.=gross tonnage; Deployment=original location of operation. Where the original deployment is not known, the location

4371-498: The core of the Pisgah National Forest . George's widow Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Gerry also had to sell off additional land to pay for the estate's upkeep. Company store A company store is a retail store selling a limited range of food, clothing and daily necessities to employees of a company. It is typical of a company town in a remote area where virtually everyone is employed by one firm, such as

4464-405: The debt was cleared. Regarding this reputation, economic historian Price V. Fishback wrote: "The company store is one of the most reviled and misunderstood of economic institutions. In song, folktale, and union rhetoric the company store was often cast as a villain, a collector of souls through perpetual debt peonage. Nicknames, like the "pluck me" and more obscene versions that cannot appear in

4557-488: The engines for at least 17 U.S. Navy warships during the American Civil War . James Peter Allaire founded his first company, a brass foundry , at 466 Cherry Street, New York , in 1804. In 1807, Allaire received an order from steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton for brass fittings for the North River Steamboat , the world's first commercially successful steam-powered vessel. Allaire and Fulton struck up

4650-462: The engines for two of the 700 ton Unadilla class or "90-day" gunboats , USS  Penobscot and USS  Winona . The following year, the company supplied the engines for the 1,533-ton screw steamer USS Lackawanna , and for two of the 1,173-ton Sassacus class double-ended sidewheel gunboats, USS  Mackinaw and USS  Mattabesett . In 1864, the Allaire Works supplied two 100-inch cylinder, 4-foot stroke vibrating-lever engines for

4743-717: The family name in court, William finally settled with his siblings. He gave Corneel an extra $ 200,000 in cash and a trust fund of $ 400,000. He gave Mary and Ethelinda the same settlement. Still, all told, this was comparatively very little from the—by far—largest estate in the world at that time. William's eldest son, Cornelius Vanderbilt II , received $ 5 million in the will, while his three younger sons— William Kissam Vanderbilt , Frederick William Vanderbilt , and George Washington Vanderbilt II —received $ 2 million apiece. Vanderbilt willed amounts ranging from $ 250,000 to $ 500,000 to each of his daughters. His wife received $ 500,000, their New York City home, and 2,000 shares of common stock in

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4836-502: The fastest boat on Long Island Sound for some years. In 1849–50, the Allaire Works supplied the engines for two of the original four Collins Line steamers, Pacific and Baltic . The engines for these two vessels were of the side-lever type, with Pacific having a 95-inch cylinder and 9-foot stroke, and Baltic a 96-inch cylinder and 10 foot stroke. Both ships were to become Blue Riband winners by setting speed records for transatlantic crossings. In 1850, James P. Allaire retired from

4929-486: The first railroads in the United States were built from Boston to Long Island Sound, to connect with steamboats that ran to New York. By the end of the decade, Vanderbilt dominated the steamboat business on the Sound, and began to take over management of the connecting railroads. In the 1840s, he launched a campaign to take over the most attractive of these lines, the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad , popularly known as

5022-420: The first steamship to make a transatlantic crossing . The cylinder, one of the largest then built, had a diameter of 40 inches, while the piston had a stroke of 5 feet. Savannah was not a commercial success, and following her return voyage from Europe , her engine was removed and sold to Allaire. In 1819, the Allaire Works supplied the engine for Robert Fulton , the first steamship to enter service along

5115-563: The gold returning to the East Coast, went by steamship to Panama , where mule trains and canoes provided transportation across the isthmus. (The Panama Railroad was soon built to provide a faster crossing.) Vanderbilt proposed a canal across Nicaragua , which was closer to the United States and was spanned most of the way across by Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River . In the end, he could not attract enough investment to build

5208-489: The government. Edmund Randolph, a close friend of Walker, coerced the Accessory Transit's San Francisco agent, Cornelius K. Garrison , into opposing Vanderbilt. Randolph convinced Walker to annul the charter of the Accessory Transit Company, and give the transit rights and company steamboats to him; Randolph sold these to Garrison. Garrison brought Charles Morgan in New York into the plan. Vanderbilt took control of

5301-638: The heavily subsidized Collins Line , headed by Edward K. Collins. Vanderbilt eventually drove the Collins Line into extinction. During the 1850s, Vanderbilt also bought control of a major shipyard and the Allaire Iron Works , a leading manufacturer of marine steam engines , in Manhattan. In November 1855, Vanderbilt began to buy control of Accessory Transit once again. That same year, the American military adventurer , William Walker , led an expedition to Nicaragua and briefly took control of

5394-479: The low center-of-gravity, but more complex, British-designed side-lever and oscillating types. Other American marine engine manufacturers quickly followed his example, and walking beams became the preferred engine type for oceangoing American sidewheel steamships until the introduction of the much more economical surface condensing compound engine in the early 1870s. During the 1850s, the Allaire Works supplied engines to such notable ships as Buckeye State in 1850—only

5487-420: The manufacture of household goods in addition to his production of marine engines in New York. Ships supplied with Allaire-built engines in this period included Frank , New Haven , Rhode Island and Massachusetts . Massachusetts , then the largest ship operating on Long Island Sound , was driven by a pair of beam engines. Allaire had also accumulated considerable interest in steamships by this time. In 1836,

5580-430: The matter of their father's will to court, claiming he was not in his right mind in his old age when he drew up the will; that he had been behaving strangely and was under William's influence as well as that of a corrupt spiritualist in his employ, who'd allegedly been approached and paid off by William to do his bidding, according to eyewitness testimony. Allegedly, William paid the spiritualist (a Mr. Stoddard) to suggest

5673-490: The name "The People's Line", he used the populist language associated with Democratic president Andrew Jackson to get popular support for his business. At the end of the year, the monopoly paid him a large amount to stop competing, and he switched his operations to Long Island Sound. During the 1830s, textile mills were built in large numbers in New England as the United States developed its manufacturing base. Some of

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5766-458: The nation's transportation infrastructure, contributing to a transformation of the very geography of the United States. He embraced new technologies and new forms of business organization, and used them to compete....He helped to create the corporate economy that would define the United States into the 21st century." The Commodore had lived in relative modesty considering his nearly unlimited means, splurging only on race horses. His descendants were

5859-431: The newly commissioned USS  Vanderbilt was employed in a year-long hunt for the notorious Confederate raider CSS Alabama , but without success. Other Allaire powered ships commissioned by the Navy included Harriet Lane , James Adger , Magnolia , Rhode Island , R. R. Cuyler and Western World , all built before the war, and Fort Jackson and the ferries Clifton and Shokokon , built during

5952-682: The number of shares a company could issue. But Gould bribed the legislature to legalize the new stock. Vanderbilt used the leverage of a lawsuit to recover his losses, but he and Gould became public enemies. Gould never got the better of Vanderbilt in any other important business matter, but he often embarrassed Vanderbilt, who uncharacteristically lashed out at Gould in public. By contrast, Vanderbilt befriended his other foes after their fights ended, including Drew and Cornelius Garrison. Following his wife Sophia's death in 1868, Vanderbilt went to Canada. On August 21, 1869, in London, Ontario , he married

6045-420: The ones who built the Vanderbilt houses that characterize the United States' Gilded Age . According to The Wealthy 100 by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, Vanderbilt would be worth $ 143 billion in 2007 United States dollars if his total wealth as a share of the nation's gross domestic product ( GDP ) in 1877 (the year of his death) were taken and applied in that same proportion in 2007. This would make him

6138-455: The possibility of escaping poverty. A notable instance of the oppressive nature of tiendas de raya occurred in the early 1900s at Río Blanco, Veracruz , home to Mexico's largest cotton mill. Workers there were paid in scrip, which could only be used at the company's store. In 1907, textile workers, fed up with this system, went on labor strike and attacked and looted the company store. The Mexican military responded harshly, gunning down many of

6231-404: The railroad industry. He was inducted in the "Railway Workers & Builders: North America" category. Statues of Cornelius Vanderbilt can be found at various locations, including Vanderbilt University and Grand Central Terminal. At Vanderbilt University, a statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt, designed by Giuseppe Moretti in 1897, stands near Kirkland Hall in commemoration of his gift to help found

6324-696: The railroads. Once in charge of the Harlem, Vanderbilt encountered conflicts with connecting lines. In each case, the strife ended in a battle that Vanderbilt won. He bought control of the Hudson River Railroad in 1864, the New York Central Railroad in 1867, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1869. He later bought the Canada Southern as well. In 1870, he consolidated two of his key lines into

6417-403: The recession affecting demand for his products, he was obliged to look elsewhere for working capital. In 1842, he sold shares in the Allaire Iron Works, which was incorporated for the sum of $ 300,000. Shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt and Allaire's brother-in-law John Haggerty were thus able to eventually gain a controlling interest in the company. With the capital infusion from incorporation,

6510-466: The second ship on the Great Lakes to be fitted with a compound engine—and the 3,360-ton Vanderbilt , whose twin 90-inch cylinder beam engines were believed to make her the fastest oceangoing ship operating from New York upon launch in 1856. Other ships fitted with Allaire powerplants in this period include North Star (1853), a transatlantic ocean liner, St. Lawrence (1853), built for operation on

6603-551: The second-wealthiest person in United States history, after Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller (1839–1937). Another calculation, from 1998, puts him in third place, after Andrew Carnegie . In real terms, however, Vanderbilt's peak wealth of $ 105 million in 1877 is only worth US$ 3 billion (in 2023 dollars). In 1999, Cornelius Vanderbilt was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame , recognizing his significant contributions to

6696-448: The steamboat Henry Eckford , the first steam vessel in the world fitted with a compound engine . The high-pressure cylinder was 12 inches in diameter and the low-pressure cylinder 24 inches, with both having a stroke of 4 feet. In the same year, the Allaire Works also supplied a compound engine for a 200-ton towboat called Post Boy , and another for a small steamer, Linnaeus . Other vessels equipped with compound engines from

6789-423: The steamboat. Though both Livingston and Fulton had died by the time Vanderbilt started working for Gibbons, the monopoly was held by Livingston's heirs. They had granted a license to Aaron Ogden to run a ferry between New York and New Jersey. Gibbons launched his steamboat venture because of a personal dispute with Ogden, whom he hoped to drive into bankruptcy. To accomplish this, he undercut prices and also brought

6882-772: The strikers. Despite the tragic violence, the aftermath saw the opening of more retail outlets in Río Blanco, as if to reinforce the tienda de raya system. From the earliest insurrections of the Mexican revolution, led and promoted by the Mexican Liberal Party , the looting and destruction of the tiendas de raya became key symbolic and strategic actions. With the actual outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, this resentment intensified. The deep social discontent, built up after years of exploitation,

6975-421: The surrounding region. First he took over Gibbons' ferry to New Jersey, then switched to western Long Island Sound . In 1831, he took over his brother Jacob's line to Peekskill, New York , on the lower Hudson River . That year he faced opposition by a steamboat operated by Daniel Drew , who forced Vanderbilt to buy him out. Impressed, Vanderbilt became a secret partner with Drew for the next thirty years, so that

7068-485: The title of the largest privately owned home in the United States, though it is open to the public. The mansion contains 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 square meters) of total floor space and originally sat on 125,000 acres (50,600 hectares) of land. It now sits on 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) due to George's final wishes that 86,000 acres (35,000 ha) be sold to the government at $ 5 per acre ($ 12/ha)—a significantly cut rate and what George had originally paid—in order to form

7161-689: The two men would have an incentive to avoid competing with each other. On November 8, 1833, Vanderbilt was nearly killed in the Hightstown rail accident on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey. Also on the train was president John Quincy Adams . In 1834, Vanderbilt competed on the Hudson River against the Hudson River Steamboat Association , a steamboat monopoly between New York City and Albany . Using

7254-489: The university. Additionally, a statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt is located on the south side of Grand Central Terminal, facing the Park Avenue road viaduct to the south. The 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 -foot-tall (2.6-meter) bronze statue was sculpted by Ernst Plassmann and was originally sited at the Hudson River Railroad depot at St. John's Park before being moved to Grand Central Terminal in 1929. Cornelius Vanderbilt

7347-422: The war and requisitioned by the Navy as they entered service. The largest and most impressive of these ships was the 3,360-ton oceangoing sidewheel steamer Vanderbilt , launched in 1856, and gifted to the U.S. Navy by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1862. With her 14 knot speed and long operational range, Vanderbilt was an ideal candidate for a pursuit ship, and after being fitted out with a formidable battery of cannon,

7440-551: The war. The Allaire Works also continued to produce engines for commercial vessels during the conflict, such as City of New London , built in 1863, and St. John , which was built in 1864 and used as a hospital ship. Shortly after the end of hostilities, the U.S. government dumped more than a million tons of unwanted shipping onto the market, driving down prices and depriving the shipbuilding industry of new orders. The slump lasted several years, and many ship and marine engine builders were driven to bankruptcy in this period. By 1867,

7533-526: Was replaced by Grand Central Terminal in 1913. In 1868, Vanderbilt fell into a dispute with Daniel Drew, who had become treasurer of the Erie Railway . To get revenge, he tried to corner Erie stock, which led to the so-called Erie War . This brought him into direct conflict with Jay Gould and financier James Fisk Jr. , who had just joined Drew on the Erie board. They defeated the corner by issuing " watered stock " in defiance of state law, which restricted

7626-562: Was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht , Netherlands, who emigrated to New Amsterdam (later New York) as an indentured servant in 1650. The Dutch van der ("of the") was eventually added to Aertson's village name to create " van der Bilt " ("of the Bilt"). This was eventually condensed to Vanderbilt. Anthony Janszoon van Salee was one of Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-great-great-grandfathers. Cornelius Vanderbilt

7719-595: Was born in Staten Island , New York, on May 27, 1794, to Cornelius van Derbilt and Phebe Hand. He began working on his father's ferry in New York Harbor as a boy, quitting school at the age of 11. At the age of 16, Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service. According to one version of events, he borrowed $ 100 (equivalent to $ 1,900 in 2023) from his mother to purchase a periauger (a shallow draft, two-masted sailing vessel), which he christened

7812-442: Was buried in the family vault in the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp on Staten Island. He was later reburied in a tomb in the same cemetery constructed by his son Billy . Three of his daughters and son, Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt , contested the will on the grounds that their father was of unsound mind and under the influence of his son Billy and spiritualists whom he consulted on a regular basis. The court battle lasted more than

7905-544: Was childless when he committed suicide, in 1882, and George Washington Vanderbilt died during the Civil War, before having any children. All of the Vanderbilt multimillionaires descend through the oldest son Billy and his wife. Cornelius' youngest grandson through William, George Washington Vanderbilt II , built the 250-room Biltmore Estate in the mountains of Asheville , North Carolina, as his main residence with part of his inheritance from his grandfather. It still retains

7998-550: Was completed about a year later. Stoudinger himself died shortly after completion of Chancellor Livingstone , after which Allaire decided to move Fulton's equipment from its location in New Jersey to his brassworks at Cherry St., New York. With the consolidation of his business at the Cherry St. plant, Allaire renamed it the Allaire Iron Works . In 1817, the Allaire Iron Works supplied the engine cylinder for Savannah ,

8091-537: Was divided into a tombstone factory and horse stables. Roach, one of the few marine entrepreneurs to survive and prosper in the postwar period, took the best of the Allaire Works tools, along with its best former workers, and employed them at his newly acquired plant on the East River , the Morgan Iron Works . The following table lists merchant ships with engines supplied by the Allaire Iron Works from

8184-659: Was exhaustion, brought on by long suffering from a complication of chronic disorders. At the time of his death, aged 82, Vanderbilt had an estimated worth of $ 105 million ($ 3,004,312,500 in 2023 dollars). In his will, he left 95% of his $ 105 million estate to his son William (Billy) and four grandsons through him. This left his only other living son, Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt , and 9 daughters (Phebe Jane, Ethelinda, Eliza, Emily Almira, Sophia Johnson, Maria Louisa, Frances Lavinia, Mary Alicia, and Catherine Juliette), to receive comparatively little inheritance; far less than even their young nephews. Corneel , Ethelinda and Mary took

8277-528: Was imported from Britain , but high tariffs made it uneconomic to use. The pig iron industry in the United States was at this time still in its infancy, and producing neither the quality nor quantity of pig iron required. The only solution was for Allaire to become a manufacturer of pig iron himself. In 1822, in response to a recommendation from a friend, Allaire purchased 7,000 acres (28 km) of land in Monmouth County, New Jersey , which contained

8370-537: Was in the 1830s when he was first referred to as "commodore", then the highest rank in the United States Navy . A common nickname for important steamboat entrepreneurs, by the end of the 1840s it was applied only to Vanderbilt. When the California gold rush began in 1849, Vanderbilt switched from regional steamboat lines to ocean-going steamships. Many of the migrants to California, and almost all of

8463-410: Was primarily directed towards these stores and their managers. Finally, in 1915, Venustiano Carranza, one of the revolutionary leaders and eventual president of Mexico, took decisive action against this oppressive system. By his order, the tiendas de raya were eliminated across the country, marking a significant shift in the fight for social and economic justice. This act was intended not only to relieve

8556-476: Was purchased by John Roach , who also hired its best employees for his own company, the Morgan Iron Works . Amongst the many notable achievements of the Allaire Works, it supplied the engine cylinder for the first steamship to cross the Atlantic , Savannah , pioneered the use of the compound engine in steamships, and built the engines for two winners of the coveted Blue Riband . The company also supplied

8649-607: Was the patriarch of the wealthy and influential Vanderbilt family . He provided the initial gift to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee . According to historian H. Roger Grant : "Contemporaries, too, often hated or feared Vanderbilt or at least considered him an unmannered brute. While Vanderbilt could be a rascal, combative and cunning, he was much more a builder than a wrecker [...] being honorable, shrewd, and hard-working." Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertson or Aertszoon ("Aert's son"),

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