| William Backhouse Astor, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 12, 1829 Manhattan, New York |
| Died | April 25, 1892 (aged 62) Paris, France |
| Net worth | 72,000,000 |
| Political party | Republican |
| Children | John Jacob Astor IV |
| Parents | William Backhouse Astor, Sr. |
| Relatives | John Jacob Astor III, brother |
William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (July 12, 1829 – April 25, 1892) was a businessman and a member of the prominent Astor family. He was the ancestor of the U.S. branch of the Astor family, which came to an end in the male line at the end of the 20th century.
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He was born on July 12, 1829, the youngest son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr.. His brother was John Jacob Astor III.
Astor graduated from Columbia College in 1849. 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 American 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. Astor's horse "Vagrant" won the 1876 running of the Kentucky Derby.
William Astor often spent winters in Jacksonville, Florida aboard his yacht and was responsible for the construction of a number of prominent buildings in the city. He and sixteen other businessmen founded the Florida Yacht Club in Jacksonville in 1877, though he was the only person in Florida to actually own a yacht. The club is now the oldest social club in Jacksonville and one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States. Liking the area, in 1874, he purchased a land tract of around 80,000 acres (320 km²) along the St. Johns River north of Orlando in an area now called Lake County, Florida. There he and two partners used 12,000 acres (49 km²) to build an entire town that he named Manhattan but was later changed to Astor in his honor.
His project, which would come to include several hotels, began with the construction of wharves on the river to accommodate steamboats. These steamboats 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. He donated the town's first church and the land for the local non-denominational cemetery, and he also helped build a schoolhouse, both of which 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 did not live long enough to see the orchard grow to production. Following his death in 1892, the property fell to his only son, John Jacob Astor IV. 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 it was all but abandoned after train service to Astor was discontinued.
William Backhouse Astor, Jr. died of a aneurysm in 1892 in Paris, France. He was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in Washington Heights, New York.[1]
William Backhouse Astor, Jr. married 1953 Caroline Webster Schermerhorn (1830-1908) and they had 5 children: