Sir William Cornelius Van Horne

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne (1843-1915) was an American-born Canadian railroad entrepreneur who supervised the building of the trans-Canadian railroad.

William Van Horne was born in Will County, Ill., the eldest child of Cornelius Covenhoven Van Horne, a struggling farmer-lawyer, and his second wife, Mary Minier Richards Van Horne. In 1851 the family moved to Joliet, where the father became the first mayor and William attended his first school. After his father's death 3 years later, poverty allowed William only 3 further years of schooling.

At 14 Van Horne quickly achieved advancement as a telegraph operator successively with the Illinois Central, the Michigan Central, and the Chicago and Alton railroads. In 1864 Van Horne became the Chicago and Alton's Bloomington train dispatcher, in 1868 its superintendent of telegraph, and in 1870 superintendent of transportation. In 1874 he rose to general manager of the Southern Minnesota Railroad; later he became its president. In 1879 he returned briefly to the Chicago and Alton as general superintendent before assuming the same position with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul.

Van Horne was appointed general manager of the Canadian project to build a transcontinental railroad from Montreal to the Pacific in 1881. His driving leadership and formidable organizing ability reached their peak in forcing the pace of construction. His sound employee relations supplemented the directors' tireless efforts to raise funds in hard times, and Van Horne was significantly complemented by his purchasing agent, T. G. Shaughnessy, formerly his general storekeeper on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul. Although the contract called for the railway's completion in 1891, the last spike was driven on Nov. 7, 1885.

Van Horne's role in this extraordinary achievement had been recognized in his appointment as vice president in 1884 and was confirmed in 1888, when he became president, with Shaughnessy succeeding him as general manager. Van Horne's presidency was marked by further construction, early profits, and the projection of auxiliary services, such as a shipping fleet. Failing health dictated his retirement in 1899, although he assumed the titular dignity of chairman of the board and member of the executive committee until his full withdrawal in 1910.

In retirement, characteristically Van Horne built a railroad in eastern Cuba in 1901 and Guatemalan line between 1903 and 1908 and forthrightly opposed reciprocity with the United States in 1911. He also produced many competent watercolors. He was a trustee of McGill University and a director or officer of many trusts, urban transport companies, and industries in Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Brazil. His magnificent homes in Montreal, in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and in Cuba consumed much of his interest, as did his large collections of paintings, rare Japanese pottery, and fossils. He lived richly and dealt generously with his loyal employees. He died on Sept. 11, 1915, in Montreal.

Further Reading

Walter Vaughan, The Life and Work of Sir William Van Horne (1920), is a full-length study. Van Horne also figures in Henry James, ed., The Canadian Men and Women of the Time (1898; 2d ed. 1912). □

Lely, Sir Peter (1618–80). Painter of Dutch origin who spent almost all his career in England and was naturalized in 1662. His family name was originally van der Faes, and the name Lely is said to have come from a lily carved on the house in The Hague where his father was born. Lely was born at Soest in Westphalia (where his father, a captain of infantry, was stationed) and trained in Haarlem. He moved to England in the early 1640s (early biographers say 1641 or 1643), and although he first painted figure compositions in landscapes (Sleeping Nymphs, c.1650, Dulwich Picture Gal.), he soon turned to the more profitable field of portraiture. Fortune shone on him, for within a few years of his arrival the best portraitists in England disappeared from the scene; van Dyck and William Dobson died in 1641 and 1646 respectively, and Cornelius Johnson returned to Holland in 1643. In 1654 he was described as ‘the best artist in England’. Lely portrayed Charles I and his children, Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, and other leading figures of the Interregnum, but he is associated chiefly with the Restoration court of Charles II. He was made principal painter to the king in 1661 and was able to enjoy a lavish lifestyle, described in the Diary of Samuel Pepys, who called him ‘a mighty proud man, and full of state’. With the aid of a team of assistants he maintained an enormous output, and his fleshy, sleepy beauties clad in exquisite silks and his bewigged courtiers have created the popular image of Restoration England. Van Dyck was the strongest influence on his style, but Lely was more earthy and less refined. Much of his work is repetitive (it is sometimes hard to tell sitters apart), but he was a fluent and lively colourist and had a gift for impressive composition. He completely dominated English painting in his time, and the tradition of society portraiture that he consolidated, developed by Kneller, Jervas, and Hudson, endured for almost a century until it was challenged by Hogarth. He was a notable connoisseur and amassed one of the finest collections of Old Master drawings ever assembled; it was sold after his death.

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne 1843–1915, president (1888–99) and chairman of the board (1899–1915) of the Canadian Pacific Railway, b. Illinois. He worked on U.S. railways before becoming (1881), on the recommendation of James J. Hill, general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He supervised its construction (1881–85) and was active in the development of Canadian transportation in general. A naturalized citizen, he was knighted in 1894.