Caroline Schermerhorn Wilson

William Backhouse Astor Jr 1830 – 1892 Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn 1830 – 1908

In 1884 became the wife of Marshall Orme Wilson 1860 – 1926

Mother of: Marshall Orme Wilson Jr 1885 – 1966 Richard Thornton Wilson 1886 – 1977

Of William Backhouse Astor and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, Caroline was the last of their children to pass away.

“Caroline Astor

(September 22, 1830 - October 30, 1908)

Socialite. Daughter of a wealthy merchant family whose ancestors were among New York's first Dutch settlers. After finishing her education in Europe, she married William Backhouse Astor Jr., a son of one of America’s richest families, in 1853. The couple had five children. Mrs. Astor created "the Four Hundred," a social list comprised of a carefully selected group of upper-class families. The Astor’s purchased Beechwood in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1881. Beechwood became the center of Newport social life during the Astor’s' eight-week summer season. In 1883, Alva Vanderbilt organized a masquerade ball in New York during the winter season, shunned by Alva Mrs. Astor called on the Vanderbilt’s in return for an invitation to the Vanderbilt ball. In 1892 her husband William Astor died leaving her son John Jacob Astor IV the richest man in America. in 1893 Caroline and her son moved into a Richard Morris Hunt designed Italianate double mansion at 840 Fifth Avenue at 65th Street, it was there in 1905 that Mrs. Astor gave her last great party. A few days after the party, Caroline Astor, dowager queen of New York society, fell on her staircase and broke her hip. She was 75. The fall broke her spirit as well. Confined to a wheelchair, she died three years later in 1908.

The Astor Double Mansion

840 Fifth Avenue, in the Upper East Side of New York City, New York, U.S., which stood roughly between 1893-1927. The mansion's architect, Richard Morris Hunt designed the house in 1893 to be a twin residence, that John Jacob and his family would shared with his mother, Caroline Astor, THE Mrs. Astor, who was considered the Queen of Gilded Age Society. The Grand Staircase upon which Mrs. Astor descended before parties, glittering like the great chandelier, since she was so heavily covered with diamonds. According to legend, Mrs. Astor in the last years of her life, would get all dressed up in her finest Worth gowns and put on her jewels and descend her stair and receive her guests, now long gone. Living in a dreamlike trance of her past great social events. These plans show it as two houses, the corner one was for John Jacob Astor and his family, while the top part was for his mother. You can see twin grand staircases side by side. Both houses shared the Ballroom, which was the scene of Mrs. Astor's parties for New York Society's famous "400". After Mrs. Astor died in 1907, John Jacob Astor, hired the architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings to renovate the two houses into one. They removed the two staircases and made one large entrance hall, with smaller staircases on either side. The main rooms of his mothers half were redone and the whole house became one of the largest mansions in New York. In 1910 he gave a party to unveil to, New York Society's 400 the newly transformed house, but unfortunately was not able to enjoy it for for long, dying on the Titanic in 1912. The house was then used by John Jacob Astor's son, Vincent and also by John Jacob Astor's widow Madeline who survived the sinking. Vincent Astor sold it in 1926 and the magnificent mansion was torn down and replaced by the ,Temple Emanuel.

Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor

is entombed in the Astor Family Mausoleum at Trinity Cemetery.” Bobby Kelly, Famous Graves Facebook Group, October 4. 2019