Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
The secretary of the faculty tells a characteristic incident of this
noble man. "He once cordially thanked me for conducting through the
University building a company of plain country people, among whom was a
woman with a baby in her arms. 'Who knows what may come of that visit?'
said he. 'It may bring that baby here as a student. He may yet be one of
our illustrious men. Who knows? Who knows? Such people are not to be
neglected. Great men come of them.'"
Vanderbilt University now has over seven hundred students, and is
sending out many capable scholars into fields of usefulness.
Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, the son of Cornelius, gave over $450,000 to
the University. His first gift of $100,000 was for the gymnasium,
Science Hall, and Wesley Hall, the Home of the Biblical Department.
Another $100,000 was for the engineering department. At his death, Dec.
8, 1885, he left the University by will $200,000.
Mr. Vanderbilt's estate was estimated at $200,000,000, double the amount
left by his father. It is said that he left $10,000,000 to each of his
eight children, the larger part of his fortune going to two of his sons,
Cornelius and William K. Vanderbilt.
He gave for the removing of the obelisk from Egypt to Central Park,
$103,000; to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City,
$500,000. His daughter Emily, wife of William D. Sloan, gave a Maternity
Home in connection with the college, costing $250,000. Mr. Vanderbilt's
four sons, Cornelius, William, Frederick, and George, have erected a
building for clinical instruction as a memorial of their father.
Mr. Vanderbilt gave $100,000 each to the Home and Foreign Missions of
the Primitive Episcopal Church, to the New York Missions of that church,
to St. Luke's Hospital, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the United
Brethren Church at New Dorp, Staten Island, and to the Young Men's
Christian Association. He gave $50,000 each to the Theological Seminary
of the Episcopal Church, the New York Bible Society, the Home for
Incurables, Seamen's Society, New York Home for Intemperate Men, and the
American Museum of Natural History.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, has given
$10,000 for the library, and $20,000 for the Hall of Mechanical
Engineering of Vanderbilt University. He has also given a building to
Yale College in memory of his son, a large building at the corner of
Madison Avenue and Forty-fifth Street to his railroad employees for
reading, gymnasium hall, bathrooms, etc., $100,000 for the Protestant
Cathedral, and much to other good works.
Another son of William H., George W. Vanderbilt, who is making at his
home in Asheville, N.C., a collection as complete as possible of all
trees and plants, established the Thirteenth Street Branch of The Free
Circulating Library in New York City, in July, 1888, and has supported a
normal training-school.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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