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Biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt
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Cornelius Vanderbilt was a captain of industry. He came from a poor family and turned into a captain of industry controlling 85% of rail road and inspiring others to follow suit. He did many great things and not so great. Went from making a steamboat ferry to Grand Central Station. By the end of his life he had more than $100 million dollars. He is a captain of industry because he is a natural entrepreneur at heart. First he was a steam boat ferry for a while then he transferred interest for the railroad. He sold everything to make and build to his new railroad. He had a natural want to be above everyone and pushed him to great things. He worked hard and at the end he controlled 85 to 90% of the railroads. His biggest thing was the Grand
Staion Dipore. He made huge contributions to great causes. He donated to many good things Vanderbilt gave$1 million, the largest charitable gift in American history to that date. He also bought a church for $50,000 for his second wife's congregation, the Church of the Strangers. He also donated to churches around New York, including a gift to the Moravian Church on Staten Island of 8½ acres (34,000 m2) for a cemetery in which he was later buried. So he did many great things as a captain of industry. He did wise spending he was once embarrassed and after that he grew to the top of all captain of industry. He taught his son everything he knew so he would continue as a captain of industry. BY the the end of his life he was worth 200 Million dollars.
Hill a market engineer was known best for being the builder of the Great Northern railroad. He was the onl y entrepreneur in the ninetiinth century who did not get any goverment funds to build his rail roads. His philosophy guided him to succeed and flourish through all the depression and fierce competion, receiving no tax payers dollars. He build the most efficient railroad lines, building the line straight as possible, taking in consideration the best elevations and useing the highest quality bessemer rails. Because he took no Federal aid he formed private contracts with Indian reservations in North Dakota and Montana. Doing this let him cut fuel costs alot and made rail repairs very low. He also Promoted exports, by giving land to immigrant along the line and showed them how to farm. He did experiments on what could be grown and how to produce it in the best way and the best quality. Doing this he was able to export wheat from the farms and also increase the population of the region. Then another thing that made him strive was he only expanded as profits allowed. He moved way slower than the other railroad companys, but when he was done his finances were well in order and sound. He was able to buy out St. Paul and Pacific Rail, also he invested 6 million dollars into 2 steamships and began exporting products from america to china, India, and Japan. this increased Us exports to japan from 7.7 million dollars to 51.7 million dollars in nine years. Also supplying
Robert Fulton, Edward K. Collins and Samuel Cunard are a few political entrepreneurs, that Folsom tells about. All three of these men worked in the steamboat industry and received federal aid to run their businesses. Also, they all had high prices for passenger fair and mail postage. Unfortunately, Cornelius Vanderbilt, a market entrepreneur, defeated Fulton, Collins and Cunard.
Another example of him being a robber baron is because of how he ran his railroad. His disregard for worker safety was very poor. The poor railroad working conditions made for underpaid workers and safety hazards for everyone working for him. It would cost him money to provide safety measures and precautions in the railways. This is how he treated his workers and this shows how greedy and conservative he was with his money. His workers deserved at least a little more safety than what he was providing. His cheap ways were very detrimental to his workers in those conditions. This is a clear example of how he had no consideration for his employers and installed no safety precautions.
Jay Gould, other than a financial mogul, was a railroad executive. He managed the several railways in the 1860s. Around 1867, Jay Gould began to manage the Erie Railroad along with his partners Daniel Drew and Jim Fisk. The trio struggled to keep control of the railroad because of a certain individual by the name of Cornelius Vanderbilt. In order to get the stocks to be legal, they participated in despicab...
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in Port Richmond on Staten Island, N. Y. in 1794. Cornelius at the age of 16 had already stepped into the busniess world and he didn’t even know it. At 16 he entered into the steamboat business when he established a freight and passenger service between Stanton Island and Manhattan. Little did Cornelius know this would be one of the key ways he would make his millions upon millions. Cornelius entered the steamer business in 1818, and bought his first steamship in 1829. Cornelius was not a laid back guy nothing was ever good enough for him. If you had and Cornelius Vanderbilt wanted it there wasn’t much you could do to keep him from getting it. This is the kind of attitude that put him on top of the world. After establishing his steamboat Vanderbilt became a very vigorous competitor, lowering his rates while also making his ships top of the line. Vanderbilt the entrepuner himself soon controlled must of the Hudson River. After awhile his fellow competitors in the steamboat business paid him to take some of his traffic elsewhere so that he wouldn’t get all the work. By 1846 Vanderbilt was a very wealthy man and with wealth he learned cam power. He became widely know as the Commodore Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt sold his steamboats in 1862 and began buying railroad stocks. In a mere 5 years Vanderbilt used his power to uphold most of the New York Central Railroad system. Vanderbilt like in his steamboats strived to be the best in the railroads now. Vanderbilt established many railway systems during his railroad career maybe his most famous was that of the one that connected New York and Chicago in a direct rail route in 1873. At the time of Vanderbilt’s death in 1877 he was worth over 100 million dollars the most at that time.
Henry Ford was a captain of industry. He owned Ford Motors, which was an automobile company. Ford was a man who always wanted his own way and he got it most of the time. The creation he is most famous for is the FORD MODEL T, the car for the commoners. His car became an instant hit amongst the people- the local people and the working class of people because it was very affordable and was not just for the rich. Ford was a very successful businessman but not particularly a nice guy. He expected a lot from his workers but thing is that he also cared for his workers, because he knew that not only were they dependent on him but also that he depended upon them, they were the ones due to which he was gaining popularity and success throughout America. Ford’s great strength was the manufacturing process for his cars. Instead of having people put together the entire car he created organized teams that added parts to the Model T as it moved down the assembly line, this lowered the production prices and also the time and energy required to put together the cars.
The industrial leaders, Robber Barons, of the 19th century are men who are very respected and admired. Andrew Carnegie was a boy from Scotland who came over to this country with nothing. He continued to save and work his way up in the industry until he had complete control over the steel industry. John D. Rockefeller was also one who came from an ordinary home. When he saw an opportunity, he took it, along with the risks. He came to control the oil industry. Another man that took many opportunities to expand and grow was Cornelius Vanderbilt. These men saw what they needed to do to become successful and they did it. These men's' lives reflected the Darwinian ideology of the times, "survival of the fittest".
As mentioned, it is accurate to allot the title of “robber baron” to the industrial leaders of the time in that they employed various, considerably unethical, methods in order to obtain untold riches. Such a notion is quite evident in William H. Vanderbilt’s own words, that, “[t]he railroads are not run for the benefit of the ‘dear public’-that cry is all nonsense they are built by men who invest their money”. (Document A) Vanderbilt even goes so far as to say something such as, “[t]he public be damned”, so to demonstrate he does not care for the opinion and state of the public, but rather only of his own and of his fellow financiers. Such statements prove that Vanderbilt sought to further his wealth, whether or not ...
The Gilded Age marked a period of industrial growth in America. Mark Twain termed the period of 1865 to 1896 as the “Gilded Age” to {indicate} the widespread corruption lying underneath the glittering surface of the era. Known as either “captains of industry” or “robber barons,” several prominent figures shaped this time period; these capitalists gained great wealth and success with their industries. Corrupt and greedy are two words associated with the term “robber barons,” which referred to the capitalists who acquired their great wealth in less than admirable and ethical ways. On the other hand, many referred to the capitalists as the “captains of industry” that were celebrated as admirable philanthropists; their way of acquiring extreme
Andrew Carnegie was a man who was born poor, but wanted to change many lives for those who were like him. Since he was able to walk, he started to work he was a bobbin boy in Pittsburg. Carnegie would work 12 hours a day to
George M. Pullman is best remembered for his contributions to the railroad industry through the invention of his Pullman Cars. The cars sold well and the railroad industry flourished with this new invention. Although the success attached to his name, not many people know the real truth behind this robber baron. His greed for money took him to extreme measures as his workers were seriously mistreated and put under strict
The want for wealth saturates everyone’s mind at one point or another. Almost everyone dreams of having the large mansion near the beach, the multiple cars, etc., but this money does not just come, it either has to be inherited or earned. During the 1800s, most wealth was inherited, but there were a few self-made men that worked their way from the bottom to the top in order to become wealthy. One man in particular influenced wealthy men to come like Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller. He was able to begin many of the ideas brought about during the Gilded Age because not only was he a major influence in society, but he greatly changed the economy and the industries he was involved in during that time. Lastly, he modernized commerce for businessmen to come. Cornelius Vanderbilt has become one of the most famous names in American history because of the everlasting positive changes he introduced to the country. Cornelius Vanderbilt was an inspiration for future wealthy personas of the Gilded Age because he fought to limit competition in the developing railroad and steamboat industries; his tactics in these industries lead him to great wealth, which helped him wield enormous power and influence over the American economy and politics.
Smart, powerful, wealthy, a promoter, a contributor, but most importantly, a businessman. These are all words that describe Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a well known and very successful person in the shipping and railroad industry. He always sought out new business oppurtunities, and was always thinking a step ahead on how he was going to make money next. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s business strategies and immense skills in the industry made him over 100-million-dollars throughout his lifetime.
He was already in his later years by the time the Gilded Age rolled around and didn't even get to see the uprising of some of the greatest leaders of the time. The railroad companies took advantage of their necessity by constantly overcharging customers, especially farmers. This led to one of the first labor unions in the United States, an organization known as the Grange.... ... middle of paper ...
Carnegie's first job was a telegraph messenger boy, and later upgraded to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a telegraph operator. His persevering work allowed him to quickly advance through the company, and he became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division. He continued making investments and made good profits throughout the civil war, and finally left Pennsylvania Railroad and started his own iron companies, eventually Keystone Bridge Works and Union Ironworks.