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The younger son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr., he was joint heir to the Astor real estate empire, though he left its active management to his elder brother John Jacob Astor III ( 1822- 1890).
In 1853 he married the socially ambitious Caroline Webster Schermerhorn, who reigned over New York and Newport society as simply "the Mrs. Astor". William, however, had little interest in society parties, and his wife would try to have him kept late at his club to prevent him coming home and throwing the orchestra out and sending his children to bed.
He supported the abolition of slavery before the Civil War, and during the war, he personally bore the cost to equip an entire Union Army regiment.
Unlike his business oriented father, William Backhouse Astor, Jr. did not aggressively pursue an expansion of his inherited fortune, preferring life aboard the "Ambassadress," at the time the largest private yacht in the world, or horseback riding at "Ferncliff," the large estate he had built on the Hudson River. Neverheless, William Astor often spent winters in Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville redirects here. Alternate meanings: Jacksonville (disambiguation Jacksonville is a city located in Duval County, Florida, USA. It is the county seat of Duval County 6. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 735,617. Geograp aboard his yacht and was responsible for the construction of a number of prominent buildiungs in the city. Liking the area, in 1874 he purchased a land tract of around 80,000 acres (320 kmē) along the St. Johns RiverFlorida rivers The St. Johns River (commonly misspelled as the St. John's River is the longest river in the U. state of Florida, stretching 310 miles (500 km) from Indian River County to the Atlantic Ocean in Duval County. It is one of only a handful of N north of Orlando in an area now called Lake County, FloridaLake County is a county located in the U. State of Florida. As of 2000, the population is 210,528. Its county seat is Tavares, Florida 6. History Lake County was created in 1887. It was named for the numerous lakes in the area. There are approximately 1,4. There, on what had once been a 16th century HuguenotIn the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. Origin of the Name Originally a term of derision, the origin remains uncertain. It may have derived from the personal name of Besan settlement destroyed by the SpanishThe Kingdom of Spain is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It inc, he and two partners used 12,000 acres (49 kmē) to build an entire town that he named Manhattan but was later changed to Astor in his honor.
His project, that would come to include several hotels, began with the construction of wharves on the river to accommodate steamboats that attracted a steamship agency that could bring in the necessary materials and supplies. William Astor enjoyed his development and purchased a railroad that connected the town to the "Great Lakes Region" of Florida. As well, he donated the town’s first church and the land for the local non-denominational cemetery plus he helped build a schoolhouse. Both the church and schoolhouse are still standing today. In 1875, one of the many nearby lakes was named Lake Schermerhorn after William Astor's wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.
The town of Manhattan, Florida boomed, and William Astor, with an eye on the large New York market, expanded his interests to a grapefruit grove, a fruit that at the time was only available on a very limited basis in other parts of the United States. But William Astor never lived long enough to see the orchard grow to production and following his death in 1892 the property fell to his son, John Jacob Astor IVJohn Jacob Astor IV ( July 13, 1864 April 15, 1912) was a businessman, inventor, and writer and a member of the prominent Astor family. A great-grandson of the fur trader John Jacob Astor, he was born at "Ferncliff," the family's estate in Rhinebeck, New. By then though, rapid changes were taking place throughout Florida. New railroads had been built in 1885 through the central and western part of the state, and in the late 1890s, Henry Flagler built a railroad line running down Florida's east coast from Daytona Beach. All this expansion left the town of Astor isolated and the place was all but abandoned after the reduced usage meant that railway to Astor was no longer economically viable and had to shut down.
William Backhouse Astor, Jr. died of a heart attack in 1892 in Paris, France.
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