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. 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 male line of American Astors.
Early life
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn, called "Lina", was born on September 22, 1830, into a wealthy family who were part of New York City's Dutch aristocracy, descendants of the city's original settlers. Her father, Abraham Schermerhorn (1783–1850), and the extended Schermerhorn family were engaged in shipping. At the time of Lina's birth, Abraham was worth half a million dollars (equivalent to $ million in ). Her mother was Helen Van Cortlandt (née White) Schermerhorn (1792–1881). Lina was the couple's ninth child. Her older sister Elizabeth married General James I. Jones, who owned a vast farm in upper Manhattan called Jones's Wood.
Her maternal grandparents were Henry White and Anne (née Van Cortlandt) White while her paternal grandparents were Peter Schermerhorn and Elizabeth (née Bussing) Schermerhorn. Among her extended Schermerhorn family was first cousin, William Colford Schermerhorn, the father of Annie Schermerhorn Kane, wife of John Innes Kane (a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor).
At the time of her birth, her family lived at 1 Greenwich Street, near the Bowling Green, but the population growth and increasing urbanization of lower Manhattan in the 1830s led her family to move farther north to 36 Bond Street, near the ultra-fashionable "Lafayette Place," which had been developed by her future husband's paternal grandfather, fur-trader John Jacob Astor.
Young Lina was educated at a school run by Mrs. Bensee, a French emigrée. There, she learned to speak French fluently.
Marriage and 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.
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. 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.
Together, they had five children: Emily Astor (1854–1881), who married James John Van Alen (1848–1923), a sportsman/politician, and had three children. Helen Schermerhorn Astor (1855–1893), who married James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt (1854–1927), a diplomat and the elder half-brother of future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and had two children. Charlotte Augusta Astor (1858–1920), who married James Coleman Drayton and had four children. She later married George Ogilvy Haig. Caroline Schermerhorn "Carrie" Astor (1861–1948), who married Marshall Orme Wilson, the brother of banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. and socialite Grace Graham Wilson, in 1884 and had two sons. John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV (1864–1912), who married Ava Lowle Willing (1868–1958), a socialite, and had two children, later married socialite Madeleine Talmage Force (1893–1940), sister of real estate businesswoman/socialite Katherine Emmons Force, and had one son, born after he died in the Titanic sinking.
Socialite
Although popularly imagined as wholly preoccupied with "Society", for the first several decades of her married life, Lina Astor was principally occupied with raising her five children and running her household, as was typical of women of her class in mid-19th-century New York City. Due to an inheritance from her parents, Lina had her own money, thus she was far less dependent on her husband than most American women of the time.