Family: From Rags to Riches

 You could probably track my family line very far back.  We were one of the best known family lines in America. 

Jan Aertsen van der Bilt (1627-1705)- my great great great grandfather

He was born in 1627 and moved to the village of de bilt, Netherlands as an indentured servant.  He left der Bilt, in the 1650s and settled down near Brooklyn.  (Vander means from) His great great grandson, my father, was a farmer and a waterman.  He was not a wealthy man.  In fact I grew up in a rather poor family.  My father sold his produce to the New York Market.

Sophia Johnson ( 1795-1868)- My wife

I married my neighbor and first cousin, the daughter of my aunt Elizabeth Hand Johnson.  We moved into a boarding house in Manhattan.  Together we had 13 children.  When she died in 1868 I was devastated.  She had been a good businesswoman and gave me many suggestions and support.  Before my wife’s death, she had been a part of every aspect of my life including business.

Frances Armstrong Crawford - My second wife

After the death of my first wife, Sophia, I remarried a distant cousin.  I was 73 years old at the time and she was 34 years younger.  Several of my children disapproved because many of them were older than her.  But my marriage with her gave me a new perspective on life.  She made me feel younger and feel like my life was longer.

My Children

1.     Phoebe Jane (Vanderbilt) Cross (1814–1878)

2.     Ethelinda (Vanderbilt) Allen (1817–1889)

3.     Eliza (Vanderbilt) Osgood (1819–1890)

4.     William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885)

I used to call him “blockhead” or “blatherskite”.  He was called Billy by many of his friends.  Living to prove that he was neither a "blockhead" nor "blatherskite."  I trained him in business from the age of 19.  He worked as a clerk in a New York banking house and became president of the Staten Island, New York Central, and Hudson River Railroad.  He took over my Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, Canada Southern Railway, and Michigan Central Railroad.  He nurtured the business and accumulated more wealth.  He married the daughter of a Presbyterian minister; Maria Louisa Kissam (1821-1896).William inherited all my estate after much debate over my will.  He is the eldest son of the family and still has many descendants living to this day.

5.     Emily Almira (Vanderbilt) Thorn (1823–1896)

6.     Sophia Johnson (Vanderbilt) Torrance (1825–1912)

7.     Maria Louisa (Vanderbilt) Clark Niven (1827–1896)

8.     Frances Lavinia Vanderbilt (1828–1868)

9.     Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt (1830–1882)

Cornelius was diagnosed with Epilepsy and committed suicide in 1882.

10. George Washington Vanderbilt (1832–1836)

11. Mary Alicia (Vanderbilt) LaBau Berger (1834–1902)

12. Catherine Juliette (Vanderbilt) Barker LaFitte (1836–1881)

13. George Washington Vanderbilt (1839–1864)

George died during the Civil War.