Though They Roam 'Midst Pleasures and Palaces The Vanderbilts Lie at Last in Quaint New Dorp A Quiet Hillside on Statten Island Is the Burial Plot of the Family By Arnold Prince similar residence on ANOTHER of the Vander- and Fifty-second Street. bilts has been placed beside Cornelius was an aristocratic look¬ his fathers in the family ing man, with fair features and a mausoleum in the placid, narrow, finely modeled head. But inconspicuous little hamlet of New for the fact that he wore no side Dorp, . whiskers he would have looked much like the old and this When alive he in a sense, a Commodore, was, may be said also of William. Wil¬ citizen of the world, although, of liam never severed his alle¬ was, perhaps, better looking course, he than either of giance to the , the the others, and, in land of his birth. His great wealth fact, had little of the appearance of the business man and enabled him to move about at wilL. financier. He looked more like a man For this good fortune he was in¬ destined the thrift and of for society than the money marts, debted to energy and this his sturdy grandfather of Dutch an¬ impression was heightened tecedents, who piled up an amazing by the slight wave of his abundant lot of in a few years. He hair, the part in the middle of it, money and the smooth was able to go where he liked, and fresh, complexion. home of the Van- he liked the interesting places. In Home To Be Buried *piRSTderbilts at New Dorp, he had a home built after But a strain as as that Staten Island a famous château which is still sturdy pointed out by megaphone to visitors laid by the old Commodore and his on sightseeing busses. He had an¬ tenacious forbears cannot be ex¬ other at Newport, the social capital tinguished by any manner of wear¬ of the and a on country, ^hird Long ing the hair or the color of a tie, Island. He had a residence in Paris and when Cornelius passed on and and two estates in France outside Willie K. succeeded to the the capital. leader- Knew the World's Capitals He was familiar with the capi¬ tals of Europe, had more than a speaking acquaintance with royalty, and in his more youthful days at least, when he desired to make a trip across any of the seven seas, did not have to wait for the car¬ riers catering to ordinary travelers. He had a yacht generally described in the newspapers as a K. "floating pal¬ ff\Y* ace," and could go where and when watchingVANDERBILj]a race at Av? he liked, without stopping to make teuil, France reservations or troubling to find out whether his stateroom had a port tensively aboard this yacht, touchinf opening on the ocean or was too at many ports in interesting lands, near the propeller to be comforta¬ ble. His later years, however, were de¬ He lived in the voted to winning triumphs in other splendid places mausoleum at the old family home at New of the world, but after death his THEStaten in which the Dorp, fields. He became a patron oí tí» body, in with the family Island, body of W. K. French and keeping was * turf, his entries wot was taken back to New laid traditions, many notable prizes, tin Dorp, the small community on the including outskirts of Staten Island where he withdrawn because of the Crimean business leadership of the family. Grand Prix de Paris and the Prend was born. It rests there now in a War, and built three of the finest He built two princely mansions, the Derby. He had a superb stud firs tomb whieh is impressive enough in gate at Idle and fastest steamers between New one on Fifth Avenue and the other called Le Quesnoy in Normandy así appearance, but in *-*PNTRANCE surroundings Hour, one of the Vander- York City and Havre. in Newport. That on Fifth Avenue racing stables at Poissy-St. Look contrasting sharply with the bril¬ He to invest in the stocks bilt homes began is He went about a great deal in so¬ liance usually associated with the of the New York & New Haven elaborate wich carvings, decora¬ name of Vanderbilt. tions and furnishings selected ciety, and the entertainments gira ship, he himself a true Van- Railroad, and gradually transferred by proved by hira were never in sump From New Dorp he had come derbilt. A touch of reserve in his his capital from shipping to rail¬ experts. The exterior is of brick lacking and to New he returned. road He tuousness of detail or il Dorp manner kept him from being as enterprises. bought heavily and light Bedford stone, the archi¬ costliness The name of this of the shares of the New York & Vanderbilt was popular in his young days as some tecture being u graceful reproduc¬ arrangement. William Kissam Vanderbilt. He died of the other members of the Harlem Railroad, the family, tion of the French château. It re¬ The Finest in his home at Paris on July 22 last. and he never aspired to be known Railroad and the New ifork Central Farm in France father was William Railroad. Several mains one of the few homes of the His Henry Van¬ as particularly democratic; but still stocîV transac¬ He was frequently at his place it derbilt, eldest son of that Commo¬ tions in which he rich on Fifth Avenue which has re¬ afterward, when society and horse 1NTtKN¿T°M- flHOJO badly squeezed Normandy, and those who had ti» dore who built racing in Paris claimed most of his his competitors in the market added sisted conversion into a business good fortune to be admitted wen up the transportation system and attention, he never forgot to pay AND MRS. largely to his fortune. He procured establishment. with the wealth. W. K. warm in their to it family his home land a visit at least once MR.VANDERBILT. Above an act in the Legislature for the The other home in Newport, description of Loyal to Staten Island a year, and his last journey was is an iyidividual photograph consolidation of the New York Cen- known as The Breakers, was built beauty. The farm was nst only tie made a few months before his death. finest in France W Although Willie K., as he wat of Mrs. Vanderbilt <*,- in appointments, He was in his seventy-first year it was also the in «extoat called in former days, traveled about when he largest died, and when he was in The a great deal and lived most of hit his final illness he directed that his hills in this part of the count! later years in Paris and other Euro¬ body be taken overseas and placed are strikingly berautifu!, and tb pean cities, he remained loyal tc in the sepulchre at New Dorp, a wide acres of Le Quesnoy were «ni- America and New Dorp. In this h« place which comparatively few New ditionally decorated by the wonder- displayed some of the Dutch char¬ Yorkers know very much about. fui château. acteristics which distinguished hit As to this fidelity to New Dorp, Here the American millionsi» father and grandfather. There was the of is that explanation, course, would much of his Sw¬ a great similarity between the three it saw the beginning of the Van- spend time, men, and, in fact, they looked much derbilts as a family of great wealth ing exhilaration in thft landicsp» alike. They were good looking, and and social position. It was there and surroundings. it was this very fact, perhaps, thai that some of the earliest Vander- A visitor who spent some time ¦ caused the old commodore to enter¬ bilt settled more than 200 pioneers the château this w tain some doubts as to the business; years ago, and it was the home of recently gave capacity of Willie K. and his broth« the hard-headed old Commodore scription of it: Cornelius, who died twenty-one yean when he began his career by ferry¬ "Gracefully proportioned pe# ago. . ing passengers and goods in his menta and tourelles and a miniat*» The old commodore was own boat between New York and what we S>-' donjon tower, windows of cha* in this age are pleased to call an old- Staten Island. portation along the shores of New IDLE HOUR, W. K. Van- ing outline and a terrace of di» . fashioned man, with Tenacious of its trait» as 1 on the site of the wêoden mansion old-fashioned the Van- derbilt's home » 1 ideas as to York Bay and the Hudson River. at Oakdale, tinctly Italian suggestion, are " thrift and and derbilt family itself, New has of the same name which Mr. Vander- character, Dorp In 1827 he leased the ferry be¬ Long Island atom onoe, when discussing his two grand- clung to its site on the island across bilt bought from Pierre Lorillard. in a softly luminous white sons in the tween and Elizabeth, fot general and his views oh bay; not particularly beautiful N. tral and the Hudson which dark masses of luxuriant boys in he said: to look nor nor J., thereby materially increasing River com¬ William K. Becomes Head particular, upon, fashionable, his income. He to build 'age set off behind and on eith* a in full began ships panies; he bought a controlling in¬ All "If boy is good for anything you distinguished, but posses¬ of the latest which he the riches and splendors that side, and which contrasts again wi» can stick him down and sion of its native virility and ancient design, placed terest in the Lake Shore, the Can¬ anywhere into competition with those of the money' could command went into a great of shaded ft** hell earn his and some characteristics. ada Southern and expanse living lay up then wealthier who were Michigan Cen¬ these and brilliant were ta thing; if he can't do it he ain't wortli capitalists houses, the sward relieved near at hand Of Dutch trying ta capture the water trade on tral railroads, and extended his line saving and you can't save him." Origin gatherings which assembled there, parterres of flowers in the rick*1 New Dorp li Dutch in its origin, the Hudson and . to Chicago, making it a trunk line but when Cornelius châte* Trae to 'THE Duchess of nee Consuelo Vanderbilt died hues. The interior of the Family Traditions as Is the name of which ¦*¦ Marlborough, Vanderbilt, A Ri«ch Man at for the Western traffic. . Vanderbilt, while in New Forty his body was takea to the cemetery contains a remarkable collection The old commodore had no reasor before photographed York for W. K. Vanderbilt's being modernized was It was through his success as a Left 100 Millions at New Dorp. the pW to worry about either Willie K. 01 funeral furniture and art objects of hi« spelled Van der Bilk The Bilt in builder and manager that When he died iii 1877 he With his William brother, Cornelius, however, foi the had a death, Kissam Revolutionary periods." each, when in his name is said to come from the grandfather; of Commodore Van- lution and energy the son had he won his title of and fortune Vanderbilt * turn he became th« derbilt and his in commodore, generally estimated at $100,- became the head of the Mr. Vanderbilt became $ head at the conducted village of Bilt, a suburb of wife, Nietje, were plenty, but of love for by the time he was old family, him Utrecht, devout members of this church and education forty years 000,000, all of which he bequeathed family. Like his brother Cornelius, April 15 at Auteuil. He wasrepori self as became a Vanderbilt. Eacl in the Province of Friesland, Neth¬ such as may be in he was to be worth dö contributed to it as as acquired school widely reported to his eldest son, William he had served his as ed afterward as being put of took care of the family re where in the liberally he Henry apprenticeship fortune, erlands, remote past they could. had not a whit. He preferred to as much as $500,000, ä rather stag¬ with the a salaried in the even* mained faithful to the standards es¬ Vanderbilt, exception of employee the offices of ger, but at 6 o'clock in the Bilts had their beginning. operate his father's sum in those tablished by the old commodore an¿ When the family became rich it sailboat, and gering days. fll,000,000, which he left to William the New York Central system, and of July 22 he died. The first to the name faithful also to the bring tq continued to grive, and much of the when sixteen years old he bought a He established steamboat service was tiny, inconspicu this land in the Henry Vanderbilt's four sons, and ready to take control when tht Asked To Be Han* eus hamlet that saw their birth. country was Jan AertBen Van came boat of his own and went into busi¬ between New York City and Bridge¬ time Brought from that source. $4,000,000 to his own daughters. arrived. He had previousij Cornelius was the older of th« der Bilt, who was a farmer and set¬ The Vanderbilt ness for himself. port, Norwalk, Derby, New Haven, By his direction, and in accc* tled near mausoleum is in a tract ad¬ He was sixty-three years old wher, operated a little in Wall Street, bu1 brothers, and while he lived William Brooklyn about 1650. For just Staten Island is only twenty min¬ Hartford, New London, anco with the ancient tradition the next sixty-five years this emi¬ joining it. Providence, he died and his body was placed in the «Bxperimojot .teaf been anc * Kissam remained somewhat in the utes now from Newport, Boston and other costly, his family, his body, instead of as grant ancestor and his descendants Fountl«ed by ferry, cities, the family mausoleum at New after losing several millions he nevei background, is the case in Eng. the Family Fame but in those Dorp some lived near Brooklyn, tilling the soil days the trip was some¬ and when the rush to the California William it. ing interred in splendid c**| laad and new generally in thia But as it was Commodore of an Henry Vanderbilt man¬ repeated For several years h< with and living the quiet, frugal lives of Van¬ thing adventure, which, how¬ gold fields began he shared in the tery near the scene of his man/* eoaatry great families, in their kind. But derbilt who laid the ever, held no terrors for the future aged his inheritance with entire suc< remained in active control of th< .* which the in 1715 the great¬ foundation for rich harvest by a line umphs, was brought oversea» eldest son succeeds to th« Tiew commodore. He his boat establishing cess, and even contrived to increas« many Vanderbilt railroad of grandfather of the future Commor Dorp's present fame, as well managed to the Far West by way of Lake properties taken to the little common leadership his kin and to most oí so skillfully and won so placid the dore forsook the attractions of as that of its greatest he much traffic . it by several millions. He lived as but finally the actual managemen bee« money. It was Cornelius who family, that by the time he was of New Dorp, which had built the Brooklyn for those of Staten Island deserves first in eighteen The story of the Vanderbilt for¬ became one of the world's richesi went to what was called the Rocke beautiful mansion at the and moved to New place any article he was the owner of two boats and tune final station in the material pro»1* The is - northwest corner of Fifth Dorp. touching on either subject. the voluminous and could not be men, but when he died his body wai feller combi Avenue change, at first, had little effect on captain of a third. told in one Morgan-Pennsylvania of his distinguished ancestors. and Fifty-seventh The commodore's father, like the A newspaper article, but taken back to New and Street, which re¬ the manner of year later he had grown pros¬ mention Dorp and en nation, Mr. Vanderbilt began t< It was in the *.*¦ mains one of family living, the fathers of the Vanderbilts before may bo made of the fact there placed the show places of incident of perous enough to afford a and tombed beside that of his father spend more and more of * the only importance occur¬ him, was a farmer in moderate wife, that the Nicaraguan line alone his time ii vault and the mantle of splendor» efty. William X., following the when cir¬ married his cousin, Sophia Johnson. The bulk of the ring religious exiles from Bo¬ cumstances, who carried his brought the commodore Vanderbilt"wealtl foreign lands and aboard his yachts on the the next »«». tawUj style ta architecture, es in hemia converted the Van produce He kept on extending his interest in in "eleven $10,000,000 shoulders of do? Bilts to market in a sailboat, which the years. Then he engaged now went to William Henry's twi He had two of these craft, one at nota»! HlMI qporytfetas else, not u» a te Moravian boats, sloops and schooners until he in ocean derbilt, to be worn by him ¿to faith. Tto gnat- ms also learned to Beso- transportation at a time eldest sons, Cornelius and the manage. had cuite a fleet engaged in trans- when the British Willian taining proportions almost of ai too, has ended life's journey .*¦"¦ ships were being K., with Cornelius taking over th ocean , Une*. He cruised about eat ready for his final resting P^|