John Jacob Astor IV
- Bobby Kelley
- Sep 21
- 3 min read
John Jacob “Jack” Astor IV was born July 13, 1864, at Ferncliff, the Astor family estate in Rhinebeck, New York. He was the youngest child of William Backhouse Astor Jr and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, remembered as “the Mrs. Astor,” the social leader of New York’s Gilded Age. Jack’s childhood was one of wealth and expectation.
He was raised in the family’s brownstone at 350 Fifth Avenue, educated at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and later at Harvard University. After graduation he traveled in Europe, gaining the polish expected of a young man in his position. He wrote a futuristic novel, patented mechanical inventions, and later volunteered as a colonel during the Spanish American War.
On February 17, 1891, he married Ava Lowle Willing of Philadelphia in a society wedding that joined two old-money families. They returned to live in New York, surrounded by the rituals of high society. Together they had three children, William Vincent Astor, an infant son who died in 1896, and Ava Alice Muriel Astor.
After the death of his father in 1892, Jack inherited Ferncliff in Rhinebeck. There he made additions and built new wings, hosting guests for country weekends. When his mother chose to leave the old mansion at 350 Fifth Avenue, she commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design a new house on Fifth Avenue at 65th Street. Completed in 1896, it was a double mansion with identical wings, one side for Mrs. Astor and one side for Jack and his family. It became one of the architectural marvels of New York society, with Mrs. Astor holding court in her famous ballroom and Jack entertaining in his own wing. When she died in 1908, Jack inherited her Newport estate, Beechwood, and had Hunt’s double mansion renovated into one vast residence, uniting the two houses into a single palatial home that became his main residence in the city.
Their marriage grew cold, and after nearly two decades Ava filed for divorce, granted in 1910, an event that filled newspaper columns with scandal and speculation. By then Jack was regarded as one of the richest men in America, with homes in New York and Newport, Ferncliff in the country, and vast real estate holdings.
In 1910, at Bar Harbor, Maine, Jack met the young debutante Madeleine Talmage Force while she was playing tennis with her sister. Despite their nearly thirty-year age difference, the two fell in love. Their wedding on September 9, 1911, at Beechwood in Newport was one of the most controversial unions of the age, condemned in society columns for its haste after his divorce and for Madeleine’s youth. Yet Jack and Madeleine left it all behind, traveling together on a grand honeymoon through Europe and Egypt. By the time they prepared to return in the spring of 1912, Madeleine was expecting their first child.
They booked passage on the RMS Titanic, boarding at Cherbourg. On the night of April 14, 1912, after the collision with an iceberg, Jack assisted his young wife to the lifeboats. He asked if he might accompany her because she was with child, but was refused. Madeleine was placed in a boat and survived, but Jack remained on deck. He was last seen calm, smoking a cigarette as the great liner settled lower in the sea. He perished in the early hours of April 15.
His body was recovered a week later by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, identified as Body No. 124. The discovery was front-page news.
On May 4, 1912, a funeral service was held at the Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck, where Jack had served as a Warden. The church was filled with lilies, roses, and palms, and society mourners crowded the pews. Dr. Ernest C. Saunders, the rector, conducted the service, assisted by Dr. William T. Manning of Trinity Church, New York. The service drew neighbors, friends, and notables from far beyond Dutchess County.
Afterward, the casket was carried to Rhinecliff Station, where a special funeral train awaited. This train bore the casket and mourners down the Hudson to Manhattan, where waiting automobiles carried them to Trinity Church Cemetery. At the Astor family mausoleum, clergy and family gathered as Dr. Manning read the Episcopal burial office. The final commendation was spoken and Jack was laid to rest beside his mother and other Astor kin. The press described the scene in vivid detail: the special train, the veiled widow, the quiet dignity of Vincent Astor, and the hush among the crowd of hundreds who watched America bury one of its richest and most famous men.
In August 1912 Madeleine gave birth to his son, John Jacob Astor VI, remembered as the “Titanic Baby.”
Great read!