John Jacob Astor III

John Jacob Astor III
Born	June 10, 1822(1822-06-10) New York City
Died	February 22, 1890(1890-02-22) (aged 67) Manhattan, New York
Resting place	Trinity Church Cemetery
Spouse	Charlotte Augusta Gibbs
Children	William Waldorf Astor
Parents	William Backhouse Astor, Sr. and Margaret Rebecca Armstrong
Relatives	John Jacob Astor, grandfather
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John Jacob Astor III (June 10, 1822 New York City – February 22, 1890 New York City) was the elder son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. and the wealthiest member of the Astor family in his generation. He was the founder of the English branch of the Astor family.

Biography

Astor studied at Columbia College and the University of Göttingen, following which he went to Harvard Law School. He practised law for a year, solely to qualify himself for assisting in the management of the immense estate, one half of which later descended to him.

During the American Civil War he served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General George B. McClellan. For his services during the Peninsular Campaign he was brevetted brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers. He always regarded this period as the best of his life, and attended the reunions of the Loyal Legion with zeal.

As a businessman, he dabbled in railroad investment, but was forced to yield control of the original New York Central Railroad line (from Albany to Buffalo) to Cornelius Vanderbilt. His principal business interest was of course the vast Astor Estate real estate holdings in New York City, which he managed profitably and parsimoniously.

In 1846, he married Charlotte Augusta Gibbs (27 February 1825 - 12 December 1887) of South Carolina. They had one son, William Waldorf Astor. In 1859 he built a home at 350 Fifth Avenue, which is today the street address of the Empire State Building. Later, he added an imposing vacation home, Beaulieu, in Newport, Rhode Island.

John Jacob Astor III continued the charitable works made by his ancestors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (in 1887 he presented it with his wife's collection of costly laces and left a bequest of $50,000), Trinity Church (with his brother he presented as a memorial to their father a sculptured reredos and altar costing $80,000), and the Astor Library (he left a bequest of $450,000, bringing the family benefactions to the institution up to about to $1,500,000). He also gave freely to the New York Cancer Hospital ($100,000 bequest), the Woman's Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital ($100,000 bequest) and the Children's Aid Society.

He took an active interest in the Astor Library beyond monetary donations. He was treasurer of its board of trustees, and in 1879 deeded to it the three lots on which the northern wing of the present building was afterward erected by him. He presented it with his collection of early books and rare manuscripts.

Charlotte Astor, deeply religious, supported the newly formed Children's Aid Society and sat on the board of the Women's Hospital of New York, an institution that to her dismay refused to accept cancer patients. Deciding to do something about it, she persuaded her husband to donate the money ($225,000) to erect the New York Cancer Hospital's first wing, the "Astor Pavilion." For twenty years, she supported a German industrial school, and from 1872 until her death she was a manager of the Woman's Hospital, besides taking an active part in the Niobrara League to aid the Indians and in many other charities. She bequeathed $150,000 to charitable organizations.

Aristocratic by inclination, John Jacob Astor increasingly visited London in his later years, and his only child, William Waldorf Astor, would move there permanently with his family in 1891. John Jacob Astor III died on February 22, 1890 and was interred in the Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan, New York.

External links

• "John Jacob Astor III". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2304. Retrieved 2008-02-14.