Business Magnate. Self-made man with only a very basic formal education. When his father's brewery burned in 1811 and he discontinued business, Matthew Vassar started his own brewery independently. As business increased he became involved in many things. Among others, in 1842 he became President of the Hudson River Railroad. In 1861, inspired by a niece, he endowed the first women's college in the United States, with $408,000 and 200 acres of land east of Poughkeepsie which is where present-day Vassar College still stands. A lasting legacy for him which is also humorously embodied in an old song, And so you see, to old V.C. Our love shall never fail. Full well we know that all we owe To Matthew Vassar's ale.
Business Magnate. Self-made man with only a very basic formal education. When his father's brewery burned in 1811 and he discontinued business, Matthew Vassar started his own brewery independently. As business increased he became involved in many things. Among others, in 1842 he became President of the Hudson River Railroad. In 1861, inspired by a niece, he endowed the first women's college in the United States, with $408,000 and 200 acres of land east of Poughkeepsie which is where present-day Vassar College still stands. A lasting legacy for him which is also humorously embodied in an old song, And so you see, to old V.C. Our love shall never fail. Full well we know that all we owe To Matthew Vassar's ale.
Bio by: Edmond Spaeth
Family Members
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See more Vassar memorials in:
Records on Ancestry
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Matthew Vassar
Geneanet Community Trees Index
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Matthew Vassar
U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930
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Matthew Vassar
U.S., Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current
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Matthew Vassar
1850 United States Federal Census
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Matthew Vassar
1860 United States Federal Census
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