Bishop McTyeire’s Sermon [for Cornelius Vanderbilt]

This is an excerpt from Bishop Holland McTyeire’s funeral sermon for Cornelius Vanderbilt, as published in The Daily American. In the second paragraph of this column, Bishop McTyeire recounts that upon learning that a medal had been created to be presented on Founder’s Day, Mr. Vanderbilt responded, “That ought not to fall on you. What will it cost to endow a medal?” McTyeire’s reconstruction of the Founder’s Medal endowment conceals Frank’s role in proposing that her husband sponsor the medals and highlights the way that the profound female influence in Vanderbilt’s founding often remains obscured.