John Jacob Astor IV IV was born on July 13, 1864 at his parents' country estate Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, New York. He was the youngest of five children and only son of businessman, collector, and race horse breeder/owner William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and socialite Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn. His four elder sisters were Emily, Helen, Charlotte, and Caroline ("Carrie"). He was a great-grandson of fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox Todd, whose fortune made the Astor family one of the wealthiest in the United States. Astor's paternal grandfather William Backhouse Astor, Sr. was a prominent real estate businessman. Through his paternal grandmother, Margaret
William Backhouse Astor Jr. William Backhouse Astor Jr. William Backhouse Astor Jr. (July 12, 1829 – April 25, 1892) was a businessman, racehorse breeder/owner, and yachtsman who was a prominent member of the Astor family. Astor's elder brother financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III became head of the English line of Astors, and William Jr. was head of the male American line of Astors with his wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, serving as the head of New York society during the Gilded Age. William Backhouse Astor Jr. was born on July 12, 1829, in New York City, New York. He was the middle son