Jacob Hand Vanderbilt

VANDERBILT, Jacob Hand, steamboat manager, was born on the eastern shore of Staten Island, N.Y., Sept. 2, 1807, son of Cornelius and Phoebe (Hand) Vanderbilt. The common ancestor of the family, Jan A. Van der Bylt, arrived in America about 1650, and took up his residence neat Flatbush, L.I. His grandson, Jacob Van der Bilt, purchased from his father of the same name, a farm on Staten Island and removed there from his wife, Eleanor, in 1718. He was the founder of the Staten Island branch of the Vanderbilt family. A few years before the birth of Jacob Hand, his father removed from the north to the east shore of the island and located in a settlement afterward known as Stapleton, where he owned a farm of forty acres of land. he operated one of the two ferry boats that were the means of communication with New York city, the boats being undecked periaugers with two long sails, which, if favored with a brisk breeze, made the direct route across the harbor to Whitehall slip, a distance of six miles, or if confronted by a calm or unfaborable winds would make their way by oars and poles over the jersey shallows. The rival boat of the time was owned by his near neighbor Van Duzer. The mother of young Jacob was a woman of ability, force of character, and piety. She actively co-operated with her husband in all his enterprises, and to the qualities which she trans mitted to her sons they were largely indebted for the prominence and influence which they subsequently attained. They received a fair common-school education and at an early age began to "follow the water." At the age of eighteen, Jacob had the command of a steamboat, and from that time Capt. Vanderbilt was a prominent factor in the conduct of steamboat lines on the Hudson river and on Long Island Sound and the connecticut river. In 1834 he was married to Euphembia Maria Banta, a descendent of Gen. Israel Putnam. She was a leader in society, beloved by the poor, and a woman of extraordinary personal and mental charms. She died in 1877. Capt. Vanderbilt lived in a beautiful home known as "Clove Hill," on the heights overlooking New York harbor and city. From 1864 to 1884 he was president of the Staten Island East Shore Railroad and Ferry. He was a man of action, of sturdy integrity, modest disposition, yet great force of character; kind of heart although brusque in speech, and always a comforter of the desponding. He was a great lover of fast horses, and was well known on the road both on Staten Island and in upper New York, where he was as prominent a figure as his brother, the commodore; Robert Bonner; or his nephew, William Henry Vanderbilt. Capt. Vanderbilt died at his home in Staten Island, March 19, 1893.

The National cyclopaedia of American biography, Vol 6, pg 211* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 17 2021, 4:16:14 UTC