Caroline Schermerhorn Astor
Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn Astor (September 22, 1830 – October 30, 1908) was a prominent American socialite of the second half of the 19th century who led the Four Hundred.[1] Famous for being referred to later in life as "the Mrs. Astor" or simply "Mrs. Astor", she was the wife of yachtsman William Backhouse Astor Jr. They had five children, including Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, who perished on the RMS Titanic. Through her marriage, she was a prominent member of the Astor family and matriarch of the American Astors.
"Caroline Astor" redirects here. For her daughter, see Carrie Astor Wilson.
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor
October 30, 1908 (aged 78)
self-proclaimed "the Mrs. Astor", matriarch of the American Astors
5
- Helen Van Courtlandt White
- Abraham Schermerhorn
See Astor family
On September 23, 1853, she married William Backhouse Astor Jr. (1829–1892) at Trinity Church. Her husband was the middle son of real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor Sr. and Margaret Alida Rebecca Armstrong. His paternal grandfather was John Jacob Astor and his maternal grandparents were Senator John Armstrong Jr. and Alida (née Livingston) Armstrong, daughter of Robert Livingston of the Livingston family.[9]
Her husband's family, the Astors, had made a fortune initially through the fur trade, and later through investing in New York City real estate.[10] Despite the wealth of the Astor family, Lina had the superior pedigree as a member of an old Knickerbocker (original 1600s Dutch settlers of Manhattan) family.[11]
Together, they had five children:
Death[edit]
By the time she moved into her new house facing Central Park, at the corner of 65th Street, Mrs. Astor's husband had died, and she lived with her son and his family. Spending her last several years suffering from periodic dementia, she died at age 78 on October 30, 1908, and was interred in the Trinity Church Cemetery in upper Manhattan.[29]
Her youngest daughter, Carrie, erected a commemorative 39-foot-tall (11.9 m) cenotaph in her memory, in addition to her uptown burial plot. The inscription is dated A.D. MCMXIV and the cenotaph is located within the small churchyard cemetery at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street, in which many prominent early Americans are buried.[30][31][32]
Following Mrs. Astor's death, it reportedly took three women to fill her role in New York Society: Marion Graves Anthon Fish, the wife of Stuyvesant Fish, Theresa Fair Oelrichs, the wife of Hermann Oelrichs, and Alva Belmont, by then the wife of Oliver Belmont.[25]
Mrs. Astor has been portrayed by Donna Murphy in the HBO drama The Gilded Age.
