William Cornelius Van Horne
| William Cornelius Van Horne | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
February 3, 1843 near Frankfort, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | September 11, 1915 (aged 72) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Spouse(s) | Lucy Adaline Hurd (m. 1867 - 1915, his death) |
| Children | Lucy Adaline Van Horne (1868-1941) William Cornelius Van Horne, Jr (1871-1876) Richard Benedict Van Horne (1877-1931) |
William Cornelius Van Horne, KCMG (February 3, 1843 – September 11, 1915) succeeded Lord Mount Stephen as President of Canadian Pacific Railway in 1888. He was a prominent member of the Whitney syndicate that created the Cuba Railroad Company, incorporated at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1900 with a capitalization of $8,000,000. He lived at the Van Horne Mansion in Montreal's Golden Square Mile.
Born in 1843 in rural Illinois, Van Horne moved with his family to Joliet, Illinois, when he was eight years old.
He was the eldest child of Cornelius Covenhoven Van Horne (1794-1854) by his second wife Mary Minier Richards of Sandusky, Ohio. Cornelius studied law at Union College, but took his family out west to seek his fortune farming. Misfortune followed as his house, barns and law books were destroyed by fire, and his first wife died shortly afterwards. Abandoning farming, he returned to the law and became Recorder of Will County, Illinois, moving his family to Joliet, Illinois. Cornelius was active in getting the city its first charter, and because of this he was elected Joliet's first Mayor. When the city later built a new bridge it was named The Van Horne Bridge.
Van Horne's grandfather, Abraham Van Horne graduated from Queens College (now Rutgers) with avocation for the ministry, and received his license to preach in 1792 from the Reformed Church of America. He held three pastorates, one at Warwarsing, one near Kingston, New York and his last at Caughnawaga (now Fonda, New York), from 1796 to 1833.
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