and the sellers could only make their deliveries by paying him double the prices that he had contracted to pay them. He began in the same year to purchase the shares of the Hudson River railroad, a competing line, and, when he had obtained the control, procured the introduction of a bill for the consolidation of this and the Harlem road. Members of the legislature entered into a combination with stock-jobbers to defeat the measure, after promising their support, and in this way to cause Harlem stock, which had risen from $75 to $150 a share in anticipation of the consolidation, to fall below the former price, enabling them to make profits by selling while it declined. With the aid of financial allies, Vanderbilt was able to take all bids of stock, effecting a “corner” of much greater dimensions than the former one. The speculators for a fall had agreed to deliver 27,000 more shares than the entire stock of the road, and, when the time for settlement came, the Vanderbilt “pool” could make the price what they chose, but did not venture to raise it above $285 for fear of precipitating a general panic. After this stroke, by which he gained many millions, he purchased large amounts of New York Central railroad stock. Fearing that the road would pass into his hands, the managers in 1864 made secret arrangements to have freight and passengers forwarded to New York city by river steamers, instead of by the Hudson river railroad. In retaliation, in the second winter after the discriminations began, Vanderbilt changed the terminus of the Hudson river railroad at Albany to the eastern side of the river, and ordered the employés to receive no freight from the Central railroad. The stock of the New York Central railroad fell in the market, and Vanderbilt and his associates gradually increased their holdings. In 1867 Vanderbilt was elected president of the company. The Harlem and Hudson river railroads had improved greatly in efficiency and economy under Vanderbilt's administration. He now applied the same methods of reform to the New York Central road, increasing the rolling-stock, improving the tracks, systematizing the service, and increasing the connections. In order to put an end to unprofitable competition in rates, he next sought to obtain control of the New York, Lake Erie, and Western railroad (then called the Erie), and bought freely, while Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, and James Fisk sold “short” for a fall, winning the contest by flooding the market with new shares, illegally issued. They obtained from Vanderbilt about $7,000,000, but, after a legal controversy over the fraudulent issue, were willing to repay nearly $5,000,000. In 1869 he procured an act for the consolidation of the New York Central and Hudson River companies, and in the same year divided new shares among the stock-holders, adding 107 per cent, to the nominal capital of the New York Central and 80 per cent. to that of the Hudson River road. Notwithstanding the doubling of the stock, the market value of the shares, which in 1867 had ranged from $75 to $120, reached $200 in 1869. By purchasing a controlling interest in the Lake Shore, the Canada Southern, and the Michigan Central railroads, he extended his system to Chicago, making it a trunk-line for western traffic. He erected the Grand Central station in New York city, with viaducts and tunnelled approaches, for building which the city paid half of the cost. Four tracks were laid on the New York Central line. Of the capital stock of the railroads that composed the trunk-line, amounting to $150,000,000, Vanderbilt owned one half. Although he had never contributed to benevolent enterprises, toward the close of his life he gave $50,000 to Rev. Charles F. Deems to purchase the Church of the Strangers, and $1,000,000 to found Vanderbilt university at Nashville, Tenn. He had a fortune generally estimated at $100,000,000, all of which he left to his eldest son, William Henry, except $11,000,000 bequeathed to the latter's four sons, and $4,000,000 to his own daughters. His voyage to England and along the coasts of Europe from Russia to Turkey was recounted by Rev. Dr. John O. Choules in “The Cruise of the Steam Yacht ‘North Star’ ” (Boston, 1854). Mr. Vanderbilt was an extremely handsome man, with a beautiful complexion. He was tall and graceful, and to the last retained an erect figure and an elastic step. —
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His son, William Henry, financier, b. in New Brunswick, N. J., 8 May, 1821; d. in New York city, 8 Dec., 1885, was educated at Columbia grammar-school. Leaving school at the age of seventeen, he engaged in business as a ship-chandler, and a year later became a clerk in the banking-house of which Daniel Drew was the senior partner. He married in his twentieth year, and, his health failing, settled in 1842 on a small farm in New Dorp, Staten island, that his father gave him. This he cultivated profitably, enlarging and improving it with but slight aid from his father, who at that time had a poor opinion of his financial ability. This estimate was altered when the son managed with great success the Staten Island railroad, of which he was made receiver. When “Commodore” Vanderbilt engaged in railroad financiering at the age of seventy, he intrusted the business management of the railroads that came into his control to William H., who was chosen vice-president of the Harlem and Hudson River corporations in 1864, and afterward of the New York Central. To these great establishments he applied the same watchful attention and frugal economies which had restored to prosperity the bankrupt Staten Island road, and with the same success. While participating no more in the speculative plans of his father than he formerly had in his steamship enterprises, he aided materially toward their success by his efficient management. When he succeeded to the control of the railroad property he averted the consequences of a protracted war of rates and of a
