The Astor Family

Several of the Astor family came to this country from Germany. Henry Astor led the way, and after him came John Jacob, and two sisters. The first of the sisters, Catherine, had been married to George Ehninger, a cordial distiller in Germany. Her husband continued his chosen calling after his arrival in America, but met his death through an accident in the distillery.

His widow was married a second time, to Michael Miller, to whom she taught the business, after which they carried it on together. Catherine Astor had several children by her first husband, one of whom joined the expedition to Astoria, going out on the Beaver.

The second sister married John D. Wendel, who was for some time in John Jacob Astor's employ, but eventually embarked in the fur business for himself, in a store in Maiden Lane. His son, John D. Wendel, Jr., also started with his uncle.

Mr. Astor himself had seven children. His eldest daughter, Magdalen, married Adrian B. Bentzen, in 1807, a native of Denmark, and Governor of the Island of Santa Cniz. Several years later being left a widow, she married a second time, Rev. John Bristed of Dorchester, England. Mr. Bristed had studied law, and practiced the profession to some extent in his native land. He continued his practice in partnership with Beverley Robinson after coming to New York, attaining in the profession both distinction and success. He was also an author of considerable note, when he found the consummation of his life work in the Gospel ministry.

The second child in the Astor family, and eldest son, who was his father's namesake, was a great grief to both parents, since he early showed signs of arrested development, caused by an unfortunate accident. To a man whose heart was bound up in his children, this was a crushing blow. The boy was most tenderly cared for, and sometimes is said to have had periods of restored mentality, when he wrote verses of some merit.

Before long other children came to brighten the Astor home, till the house was full of young faces and happy voices. In all, there were four girls and three boys, two of whom, a boy and a girl died in childhood. William B. Astor thus became his father's heir from his boyhood days. The youth on which so much depended, was educated at Gottingen. His tastes drew him toward the society of literary men, and he showed some talent in this direction himself. Had not so large a business fallen upon his hands, his life might have had quite a different outcome.

Father and son were most congenial. Their first office in Vesey Street, extended back so that the rear wall was on the line with the north side of their old home in Broadway. The firm carried the name of "John Jacob Astor and Son".

At this time William B. lived at 17 State Street. Later, when the houses on Broadway, and the office in Vesey Street, were torn down to make room for the new hotel, the firm moved their office to Prince Street. Meanwhile, Henry Astor had died childless, and left his nephew a large amount of valuable property. William B. was a very rich man even during his father's lifetime.

After both father and son retired from the China trade in 1827, William B. Astor devoted himself to operations in real estate, lending his aid generously, to the great charities of the city. His gifts to hospitals, churches, asylums, and charitable societies during his lifetime, were said to be over a million dollars. He married in 1818, Margaret, daughter of General John Armstrong and Alida Livingston.

During the war of 1812, the third daughter, Dorothea, married Walter Langdon of New Hampshire. Eliza, the last to marry and leave the home nest, followed in her mother's footsteps, and was noted for her piety and benevolence. She was greatly missed, both in her own home and the city, when she married Count Vincent Rumpff, of Switzerland.

The Count was minister of the German Free Cities, at Paris. Here he met, and fell in love with Miss Astor. Afterward Count Rumpff came to America as minister from the Hanseatic towns, and negotiated a commercial treaty with Mr. Clay, who was Secretary of State under President Adams. Eliza had no children.

The wife of John Jacob Astor, and mother of his children, was a most devoted helpmeet, working side by side with her husband during the strenuous years of their early married life, sharing with him griefs, anxieties, and disappointments; and rejoicing, with the whole hearted sympathy of a generous nature, in his successes.

Her piety was sincere and ardent. Next to her Bible, which she read daily, she was devoted to "Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul."

Mrs. Astor's life closed several years before that of her husband. She passed to her reward in 1834, in her seventy-third year, after fifty years of an unusually happy life.

Those bound to him by blood held a warm place in John Jacob Astor's heart. His children found him a loving father. Each of his daughters, on her marriage, received from him a liberal marriage portion. Mr. Astor had several grandchildren before he died, and these, in their turn, discovered the path to their grandfather's heart to be an easy incline.

Julia Ward Howe tells in her "Reminiscences", of the marriage of John Jacob Astor 's granddaughter, Emily, a daughter of William B. Astor, to her eldest brother, Samuel Ward. Julia Ward officiated as bridesmaid, and describes gracefully the rich white silk which the bride wore, a scarf of some rare lace in place of a veil, and her forehead glistening with a diamond star, the gift of her grandfather Astor.

Mr. Astor was a warm lover of music, and occasionally gave musical entertainments, when some noted singer could be procured. Mrs. Howe also speaks of visiting his house frequently, after marriage had united the two families. Both Julia Ward and Emily Astor had cultivated musical voices, and the old gentleman enjoyed listening to their singing. After taking part one evening at one of his musical entertainments, and greatly pleasing their host, he said to them: "You are my singing birds."

Listening to a brilliant waltz on another occasion, he observed: "I heard that at a fair in Switzerland years ago. The Swiss women were whirling about in their red petticoats."

The young women were able to sing in Mr. Astor's native tongue, and occasionally it was his pleasure to join them.

The old custom of New Year's calls was still at its height in these days, and Julia Ward Howe remembered a New Year's day early in the thirties, when a gorgeous yellow chariot drew up before their door, from which John Jacob Astor, a stout, elderly gentleman, alighted, and came in to pay his compliments to her father. The ladies of the family received on these occasions, and it was a day of generous hospitality, and a reviving of pleasant associations and memories.

The living descendents of the first John Jacob Astor, who carry his name in the United States to-day, are William Vincent Astor, Ava Alice Muriel Astor, and John Jacob Astor, children of the late Colonel John Jacob Astor, who perished in the sinking of the Titanic, and Henry Astor of an earlier generation.

William Waldorf Astor, a cousin of Colonel John Jacob Astor, resides in England, as do also his sons, William Waldorf Astor, Jr., and John Jacob Astor, and his daughter, Pauline Astor, wife of Captain H. Spender Clay. These families also have children. William Waldorf Astor, eldest son of the eldest son, owns the larger part of the Astor estate in New York.

Besides these, the descendents of John Jacob Astor bear the names of Aldrich, Boreel, Bristed, Carey, Carroll, Chanler, Chapman, de Groenice, Delano, de Notbeek, de Steurs, Drayton, Emmet, Jay, Kane, Keefer, Langdon, Lowndes, Phillips, Pallandt, Phelps, Roosevelt, Rumpff, Stevens, Townsend, Tyler, Van Alen, Ward, Wilks, Wilson, and Zborowski.