William Henry Vanderbilt

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William Henry Vanderbilt (May 8, 1821 - December 8, 1885) was a businessman and a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family.

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William Henry Vanderbilt inherited nearly $100 million from his father Cornelius Vanderbilt and had increased it to about $200 million at his death less than nine years later. At the time, he was the richest man America had ever seen, and by some measures is perhaps still the richest man in American history. In 1841 he married Maria Louisa Kissam (1821-1896).

He had worked with his father and following his death, actively expanded the family's railroad empire. In 1883, his elder sons assumed key positions. It was in his time that the Vanderbilt women demanded recognition from the older but less moneyed leaders of New York City society, centered on the Astor family, whom the Vanderbilts had by then far outstripped in wealth.

William Henry Vanderbilt is perhaps most remembered for snapping "the public be damned" at an interviewer..in context, an irritated reaction to the other's suggestion that the New York Central Railroad system, which Vanderbilt controlled, ought to be operated as if it were a public trust.

He was an active philanthropist as well as builder of opulent Fifth Avenue mansions.

On his passing, he was interred in the Vanderbilt family mausoleum at the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp on Staten Island, New York. His estate was divided among his four sons, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, William Kissam Vanderbilt, Frederick William Vanderbilt, and George Washington Vanderbilt.

His last home is on the left in the image linked at the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church article.