Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt, known for most of his life as the Commodore, is perhaps the best known of American rags to riches stories. Lacking any real education, the hard work, personality, and keen business sense possessed by Vanderbilt catapulted him from being a poor child on a farm to being the wealthiest industrialist in America. Vanderbilt was born the fourth child to a poor farmer and his wife during America?s early, agrarian society of 1794 in …

…them. He went into railroading for the sake of having another area in which to prove himself and exert his force, as well as to further tighten his control on the transportation of Americans; he did it to make more money with which to defeat others. Thanks to a minor setback during his vacation, the Commodore continued to aggressively shape the route of American history by forcing potential competitors to compete, or to be exterminated.