The Commodore’s Strange Gift HOW TWO MEN OF GOD, TWO SHADY SISTERS, AND A WOMAN NAMED FRANK INFLUENCED THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN TO FOUND VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY. By MICHAEL MCGERR he founding of Vanderbilt University is an extraordinary story, T an unexpectedly salacious tale worthy of a primetime soap opera. Sex plays a leading role; so does sanctity—enough for a contemporary presidential campaign. And there are spirits: Ghosts flit in and out of the founding of a Methodist university in Nashville in 1873. Then there is the founder himself: Cornelius Vanderbilt, the grasp- ing, hard-driving Commodore, richest man on earth, and one of the This page, clockwise from least likely benefactors of higher education. The Commodore’s found- top: Holland McTyeire, ing donation to his namesake university was truly a strange, fortunate Charles Force Deems, Victoria Woodhull, Frank gift—a reminder of the complexity of the human mind and heart and, Crawford Vanderbilt, Tennessee Claflin ultimately, the best investment this great speculator ever made. V anderbilt Magazine 47 Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in the right tatious charitable gifts. Like most wealthy Sophia gone, with his old friends dying off, and messages from the dead to ease his mind. Fortune Tellers and place at the right time—on a Staten Island men of the day, the Commodore believed the new widower was lonely. He had little inter- Vanderbilt’s longing for contact with the Fortune Hunters farm in 1794, across the bay from what would charity sapped the morals of its supposed est in spending much time with his children. departed was hardly unusual in post-Civil piritualism had a further appeal for become the leading city of the United States beneficiaries. His gift to the public was the But Vanderbilt was still “wonderfully well pre- War America. Like the Commodore, mil- SVanderbilt, who remained, as a reporter on the leading edge of the industrial revo- ships he launched, the trains he sped, the cargo served,”a reporter noted in the summer of lions of his countrymen mourned the death delicately observed, “much of a ladies lution. Starting as a teenager with a simple he carried, the jobs he created. 1869.“He steps as light as a shadow, and looks of family members on the nation’s battle- man”: The movement was largely dominated one-masted periauger, Vanderbilt built a That was an increasingly controversial posi- more fresh than some man of fifty.”With- fields. Told by their ministers that the dead by women. Séances usually took place in the fleet of sailing vessels and then an armada tion. In “An Open Letter to Com.Vanderbilt” out a wife, the Commodore had more free- were near at hand, many people wanted to woman’s sphere, the home, because 19th- of steamboats and steamships. By the 1850s in 1869, Mark Twain sarcastically abused the dom than ever to pursue his fancies and his believe those spirits could communicate with century Americans typically died there, rather his ships cruised as far west as California and millionaire. “Go, now, please go, and do one appetites. The result was a period of instabil- the living through mysterious rappings and than in hospitals. In Victorian eyes, women— as far east as England; the title “Commodore,” worthy act,”the writer begged. “Go, boldly, ity and experimentation. Ouija boards. seemingly so passive, so spiritual, so angelic once a sarcastic putdown, had become an grandly, nobly, and give four dollars to some Sophia’s death intensified the Commodore’s Vanderbilt was a bit skeptical about the themselves—were ideal vessels for com- awed tribute to this capitalist worth more The Commodore’s great public charity. It will break your heart, interest in the spirit world, the place where spirits. He enjoyed the spiritual physicians’ munications from the dead. Some women than $10 million. no doubt; but no matter, you have but a little his mother, Phebe, and his one beloved son, ministrations without having to trust their found service as spiritual physicians and Typically, that wasn’t enough for Cornelius willingness to drive while to live, and it is better to die suddenly George, a victim of the Civil War, already communications from the dead. The Com- mediums attractive because it was a rare Vanderbilt. Getting out of the ship business, and nobly than live a century longer the same dwelled. More than ever the widower con- modore sometimes asked his mother and chance to cast off their seeming passivity and he transferred his energies to railroads, the competitors to the wall Vanderbilt you are now.” sulted “spiritual physicians,”who used the his wife for advice about the children. seek careers, influence and power. newest edge of the industrial revolution. By The stubborn railroad king never would magnetic power of their hands to ease his body Not long after Sophia’s death, the Com- the late 1860s, well into his 70s, the Com- was frightening. have said it out loud, but he had already begun modore had become a “railroad king,”ruler to come to the same conclusion. At an age of an iron empire stretching from Manhat- He had little time for when men hardly ever changed, the Com- tan across New York State towards Chicago. modore had begun one last effort to remake His pride and joy, the New York Central Rail- his eight daughters and himself. Without knowing it, he had already road, helped make him fabulously rich. At set out on the route to Vanderbilt University. some point in the 1870s, his fortune reached little patience with two In the summer of 1868, the Commodore $90 million to $100 million, the largest in and Sophia had gone their separate ways as America and most likely the world. of his three sons. so often before. He had headed north for his annual stay at fashionable Saratoga, with its A Hard Man in Love When his wife balked at round of horse races and card games; she, feel- with His Own Name ing unwell, had traveled to the quiet waters of hen and now, the Commodore was a moving to Manhattan, Lebanon Springs at the eastern edge of the Tdifficult man to like. Pursuing profit state. There were waters in Saratoga, too, remorselessly, he reveled in risk and he put her in an asylum but by then the Vanderbilts had been married loved economic combat. His willingness to for nearly 55 years. drive competitors to the wall was frighten- until she changed her mind. The waters didn’t help, so the 73-year-old ing. He was no more lovable at home. A stern Sophia journeyed back to New York where father and a misogynist, he had little time for she suffered a stroke. Racing back on his spe- his eight daughters and little patience with drove himself hard, even in old age. Self-con- cial train at the unheard-of speed of nearly two of his three sons. When his wife, Sophia, trolled, he lived fairly plainly; his only extrav- a mile a minute, the Commodore stayed with balked at moving to Manhattan, he put her agance was his speedy trotting horses. his wife until a second, unexpected attack in an asylum until she changed her mind. His obsession, especially in old age, was killed her on Aug. 17. But, as I’ve found in researching a history keeping the name Vanderbilt alive. The Com- However strained their relationship, mar- of the Vanderbilt family, the Commodore was modore had a peculiar fascination with his riage had helped structure Cornelius Vander- also a compelling figure, frequently misunder- own blood; his wife, Sophia, was his first cousin bilt’s life for more than half a century. With stood. In an age of unregulated economic com- not once but twice over, the blood relative of petition, he had an essential integrity. Rather both the Commodore’s father and mother. An 1870 cartoon depicts the Commodore stand- old-fashioned, he offered no sanctimonious Obsessed with his name, Cornelius Van- ing astride two railroads competing with indus- MPI/GETTY IMAGES platitudes about the virtues of capitalism. derbilt had not done the obvious thing to trialist James Fisk (1835–1872) for control of Strong, courageous and incisive, Vanderbilt memorialize it: He hadn’t made large, osten- the Erie Railroad. 48 Summer 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 49 modore met two of the most attractive spir- skipped town to avoid the trial, so she was ford was the widow of a well-respected mer- Tecumseh Hotel in London, Ontario, mid- kers” early in 1870. Supposedly the world’s itualists of them all—Mrs. Victoria Wood- never convicted.) chant and federal marshal from Mobile, Ala. way between Niagara Falls and Detroit. There first women stockbrokers,“Woodhull, Claflin hull and her unmarried sister, Tennessee When Vickie had a vision to head for New Martha’s 30-year-old daughter, Frank Arm- a Methodist clergyman married him—not & Co.”caused an immediate sensation. Thou- Claflin. Vickie and Tennie were the extraor- York City in 1868, Tennie went along. By strong Crawford, had been divorced before to Tennie Claflin, not to Martha Crawford, sands flocked to get a look at “The Bewitch- dinary daughters of Roxanna “Roxy” Claflin, October, less than two months after Sophia the Civil War, her marriage the victim of but to Frank Crawford. ing Brokers.” a religious fanatic and mesmerist, and her Vanderbilt’s death, the sisters had opened interference from her own family. Like many Woodhull, Claflin & Co. made much of its brutal husband, Reuben “Buck” Claflin, a their “Magnetic Healing Institute and Con- Southerners, these husbandless Crawfords The Commodore and apparent connection to Cornelius Vanderbilt.