John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV (born July 13, 1864 in Rhinebeck , New York , † April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic when the Titanic sank ) was an American businessman , inventor and writer .
origin
John Jacob Astor IV was a great-grandson of the fur trader Johann Jakob Astor (1763–1848), who came from Walldorf in the Electoral Palatinate , and was the founder of the Astor family . He was the only son of the wealthy businessman William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1830-1892) and his wife Caroline Webster Schermerhorn (1830-1908). John Jacob (called JJ) had four older sisters: Emily Astor (1854-1881), Helen Schermerhorn Astor (1855-1893), Charlotte Augusta Astor (1858-1920) and Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1861-1948).
Life
John Jacob Astor IV attended St. Paul's School in Concord , New Hampshire , and then studied at Harvard University , from which he graduated in 1888 after a scientific degree. Before taking over the management of the family estate, he traveled to Europe, America, Mexico and Cuba . He tried himself successfully as an inventor and writer. His science fiction - novel A Journey in Other Worlds was published in 1894. His inventions included a bicycle brake , he was also to develop a turbine involved.
On May 1, 1891, he married Ava Lowle Willing (1868-1958), the daughter of Edward Shippen Willing from Philadelphia . The marriage resulted in two children: William Vincent Astor (born November 15, 1891 - † February 3, 1959) and Ava Alice Muriel Astor (* July 7, 1902, † July 19, 1956).
In 1897 he built the Astoria Hotel, which was merged with the Waldorf Hotel - built in 1893 by his cousin William Waldorf Astor (1848–1919) - to form the Waldorf Astoria Hotel .
1898 Astor participated in the Spanish-American War in part and attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel ( Lt. Col. ).
In 1904 he built the St. Regis Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan . On the occasion of his participation in a car race on Long Island and the car race around the world from New York to Paris in 1908, Karl Gustav Vollmoeller and Astor became friends. A good two decades later, this led Raimund von Hofmannsthal, the son of the Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal , to meet Ava Alice Muriel Astor through Karl Vollmoeller's mediation and to get married in 1933.
He has served on the boards of a number of leading corporations including the National Park Bank, Title Guarantee and Trust Company, Mercantile Trust Company, Plaza Bank, Illinois Central Railroad Company , Western Union Telegraph Company , New York Life Insurance and Trust Company and the Astor National Bank.
In 1910, Astor divorced his first wife. It hadn't been a happy marriage from the start, and in the end there was insults in public, which was scandalous at the time. A little later, on September 9, 1911, he married Madeleine Talmage Force (1893–1940), who was just 18 years old , a girl of simple origin who did not think much of wealth and high society. For that Madeleine was all the more grateful and honest - qualities that Astor loved her for. They went on a honeymoon trip to Europe for several months , which also took them to Egypt .
Titanic
Astor and his wife booked a passage as passengers from Cherbourg on board the Titanic for themselves and the three employees Rosalie Bidois (maid), Caroline Endres (nurse) and Victor Robbins (valet) to return to America . The couple lived in the Parlor Suite C 62/64, one of the most opulent accommodations on the ship . When the Titanic collided with an iceberg on April 14, 1912 at 11:40 p.m. , Astor was in the first class smoking room on the A deck. In response to the collision and the huge amount of ice that fell on the forward well deck , Astor reportedly exclaimed, "It's true, I ordered ice for my drink, but that's really an exaggeration."
The hotelier and his wife finally found themselves on the port side of the promenade deck, where Madeleine and other women boarded lifeboat No. 4. In this boat she sat next to other millionaire wives such as Emily Ryerson , Lucile Carter or Marian Thayer . Astor asked to join his wife as she was pregnant, but the second officer in charge, Charles Lightoller, did not allow men in the lifeboats. He asked for the number of the boat in order to be able to lodge a complaint later through the responsible second officer Charles Lightoller. At 2:20 a.m., 25 minutes after the boat was deflated , the Titanic sank . The front chimney broke off and killed many passengers, probably including Astor.
The surviving Madeleine later reported on the last words he is said to have uttered: “The sea is calm, nothing will happen to me. I'm in good hands See you tomorrow morning. "
His body was found floating in the sea during rescue work on April 22nd. The salvage work was carried out with the help of the Mackay-Bennett ship , which had set course for the site of the accident from Halifax, Canada . His cargo consisted of 100 pine coffins and 100 tons of ice. The dead should be identifiable on land, although many were already puffed up beyond recognition. The recovery ship then returned to Canada.
Astor's first marriage son, 20-year-old Vincent Astor, clung to hope that his father survived in mid-April. Since his father's name was not on the lists posted in the White Star Line's New York office, he traveled to Halifax to receive his father's body. He could be identified thanks to a platinum ring and the 4,000 dollars that were in his pocket.
Astor was given an honorable funeral in New York. On Saturday, May 4, 1912, his funeral took place in Trinity Cemetery near Washington Heights . He was buried next to his mother.
Karl Gustav Vollmoeller wrote a poem about the Titanic and its sinking, which he dedicated to his drowned friend John Jacob Astor.
In the later film adaptations of the shipwreck, John Jacob Astor by Karl Schönböck ( Titanic , 1943), William Johnstone ( The sinking of the Titanic , 1953), David Janssen ( SOS Titanic , 1979), Scott Hylands ( Titanic , TV two-part 1996) and Pictured Eric Braeden ( Titanic , 1997).
heritage
His wife inherited a large part of his vast fortune. On August 14, 1912, four months after Astor's death, they gave birth to their son John Jacob Astor VI († June 26, 1992).
Vincent Astor inherited $ 78 million. In 1925 he sold his half of the Waldorf Astoria for $ 7.5 million. The proceeds of the other half went to the two sons of William Waldorf Astor , who had died in 1919: Waldorf Astor (1879–1952) and John Jacob Astor V (1886–1971), each with 3.75 million dollars . The hotel was demolished in 1929, giving way to another 20th century landmark: the Empire State Building was built on this site in 1931 .
Web links
- John Jacob Astor IV in the Encyclopedia Titanica
- Project Gutenberg e-text from A Journey in Other Worlds
Individual evidence
- Citation: Astor, John Jacob, page 400 in: Dictionary of American Biography. Edited by Allen Johnson. Volume 1. Publisher: C. Scribner's Sons New York, 1943
- ^ A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future . by John Jacob Astor
-
↑ Patent No. US 514805 A, 1894 “Pneumatic road cleaning machine”
Patent No. US 940493 A, 1909 “Vibratory disintegrator for gas producers”
Patent No. US 961093 A, 1909 “Securing device for chairs” - ↑ The Evening News ( Providence , Rhode Island), May 7, 1912, front cover excerpt
- ^ See obituary, New York Times, June 27, 1992
- ↑ Herbert C. Ebeling. William Waldorf Astor . Walldorf. Astor Foundation, 2007, p. 39.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Astor, John Jacob IV |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American businessman, inventor and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 13, 1864 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rhinebeck , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 1912 |
| Place of death | North Atlantic when the Titanic sank |