Association in Boston, September 13, 1838: "Few
persons, I believe, enjoyed less personal popularity in the community in
which he lived and to which he bequeathed his personal fortune.... A
citizen and a patriot he lived in his modest dwelling and plain garb;
appropriating to his last personal wants the smallest pittance from his
princely income; living to the last in the dark and narrow street in
which he made his fortune; and when he died bequeathed it for the
education of orphan children. For the public I do not believe he could
have done better," etc., etc.--Hunt's "Merchant's Magazine," 1830, 1:35.

[67] "The Public Charities of Philadelphia."

PART II

THE GREAT LAND FORTUNES

[Illustration: GEN. STEPHEN VAN RENSSLAER.
The Last of the Patroons.
(From an Engraving.)]

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF HUGE CITY ESTATES

In point of succession and importance the next great fortunes came from
ownership of land in the cities. They far preceded fortunes from
established industries or from the control of modern methods of
transportation. Long before Vanderbilt and other of his contemporaries
had plucked immense fortunes from steamboat, railroad and street railway
enterprises, the Astor, Goelet, and Longworth fortunes were counted in
the millions. In the seventy years from 1800 the landowners were the
conspicuous fortune possessors; and, although fortunes of millions were
extracted from various other lines of business, the land fortunes were
preeminent.

At the dawn of the nineteenth century and until about 1850, survivals of
the old patroon estates were to be met with. But these gradually
disintegrated. Everywhere in the North the tendency was toward the
partition of the land into small farms, while in the South the condition
was the reverse. The main fact which stood out was that the rich men of
the country were no longer those who owned vast tracts of rural land.
That powerful kind of landowner had well-nigh vanished.

THE MANORIAL LORDS PASS AWAY.

For more than two centuries the manorial lords had been conspicuous
functionaries. Shorn of much power by the alterations of the Revolution
they still retained a part of their state and estate. But changing laws
and economic conditions drove them down and down in the scale until the
very names of many of them were gradually lost sight of. As they
descended in the swirl, other classes of rich men jutted into strong
view. Chief among these nascent c