Home > John Jacob Astor III

John Jacob III studied at Columbia College and Göttingen following which he went to Harvard Law School. He volunteered in the Union Army in the American Civil War and proved an efficient and capable soldier, rising to the rank of colonel and was brevetted Brigadier General for his service during the Peninsular campaign to capture Richmond, Virginia.

As a businessman, he dabbled in railroad investment, but was forced to yield control of the original New York Central Railroad line (from AlbanyAlbany is the capital of the state of New York in the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 95,658. It is the county seat of Albany County. The City of Albany lies 145 miles (233 kilometers) north of and slightly east fro to BuffaloSee Buffalo for other places with this name. Buffalo is an American city located in western New York. With about 300,000 residents, it is the state's second largest city, after New York City, and is the county seat of Erie County 6. In the early 20th cent) to Cornelius VanderbiltCornelius Vanderbilt ( May 27, 1794 January 4, 1877), was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads and is the founder of the renowned Vanderbilt family. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the fourth of nine children born in Port Richm. His principal business interest was of course the vast Astor Estate real estate holdings in New York CitySkyline, with Statue of Liberty New York, New York" redirects here. For alternate meanings, see New York, New York (disambiguation). New York — officially named City of New York and often called New York City to distinguish it from the state of New York,, which he managed profitably and parsimoniously.Unfortunately, some of his properties were an exploitation of the poor in an era when municipal authorities rarely enforced building codes.

In 1846 he married Charlotte Augusta Gibbes (c.1825-1887) of South CarolinaSouth Carolina ( In Detail) (Full size) State nickname: Palmetto State Other U. States Capital Columbia Largest City Columbia Governor Mark Sanford Area Total Land Water % water Ranked 40th 82,965 km² 78,051 km² 4,915 km² 6% Population Total ( 2000) Densi and in 1859Events January 2 Erastus Beadle publishes The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette''. February 14 Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U. February 16 George Washington Gale Ferris Jr born February 16, 1859 Galesburg, Knox, IL March 26 French amateur astronomer clai he built a home at 350 Fifth AvenueFifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New York City. It runs through the heart of Midtown and along the eastern side of Central Park and is a symbol of ritzy New York. Fifth Avenue extends from the north side of Washington Square Park through Greenwich, which is today the street address of the Empire State BuildingDavid's Day The Empire State Building a 102-story Art Deco building in New York City, was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates and built in 1930. Its history and statistics It is 390 m to the 102nd floor observatory; it is the tallest building in. Later, he added an imposing vacation home, Beaulieu, in Newport, Rhode Island.

John Jacob Astor III had little inclination to do much in the way of charitable works beyond continuing gifts made by his ancestors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Trinity Church, and the Astor Library. However, his deeply religious wife had quite a different attitude. Charlotte Astor 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 to erect the New York Cancer Hospital's first wing, appropriately named the "Astor Pavilion." By a twist of fate, Charlotte Astor died of uterine cancer.

Aristocratic by inclination, he increasingly visited London in his later years, and his only child, son William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), would move there permanently with his family in 1891.

John Jacob Astor III is interred in the Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan, New York.