Cornelius Roosevelt

Cornelius Van Schaack "C.V.S." Roosevelt (January 30, 1794 – July 17, 1871) was an American businessman from New York City. He was a member of the prominent Roosevelt family and the paternal grandfather of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Early life Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1794, in New York City, to James Jacobus Roosevelt and Maria Helen Van Schaack. He was the last full-blooded Dutch Roosevelt of his line. His great-grandfather was Johannes Roosevelt, the founder of the Oyster Bay branch of the Roosevelt family. Through his grandfather Cornelius Van Schaack Jr., he was a grandnephew of Peter van Schaack and great-great-grandson of Maria Schuyler from the Schuyler family. Through Maria, he was a great-great-great-grandnephew of Dutch-American settler Philip Pieterse Schuyler and a great-great-great-grandson of David Pieterse Schuyler. Cornelius's younger brother, James John Roosevelt, served as a United States Congressman from New York from 1841 until 1843. He attended Columbia College but academic life did not suit him, and he did not graduate. Career In 1818, after leaving college, Roosevelt became his father's partner in importing hardware. "Economy is my doctrine at all times," he once said, "at all events till I become, if it is to be so, a man of fortune." At his insistence, the focus of the business changed from hardware to plate glass. After his father's death in 1840, he inherited a large fortune and was one of the five richest men in New York City. He continued to work in the business until his retirement in 1865.