Cornelius Vanderbilt was definately not a woman. He was one of the richest men in American History. No doubt that his fortune led to family members, if not himself, building the Biltmore Estate.
A few years ago I read an article that stated that Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and JP Morgan were so rich during their time (Later 1800's), that if you transferred their wealth back then to modern dollars, all of them would be richer than Bill Gates. That is to say, that their fortunes were larger for their era...than Bill Gates is now. That is incredible, but your talking about people who owned Railroads, Steel, Oil, Banking. Pretty incredible. I believe that article was in Forbes.
Either way, cool find you have there.
Deerhunter24