John Jacob Astor IV

John Astor’s first marriage was to Ava Lowle Willing and the couple got married in the year 1891. Though the couple had two children from this marriage (Vincent and Alice), apparently it was an unhappy marriage.

John and Ava divorced in the year 1909 and he remarried just two years later in 1911 to Madeleine Talmage Force. The couple had a huge age difference between them and Madeleine was about 30 years younger than John Astor. Madeleine was only18 years old when she got married to John Astor.

The newlywed couple had gone to Europe for a holiday and had made a fateful decision of returning to the United States of America on the RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage in the year 1912.

John Jacob Astor IV was born on 13th July, 1864 at Rhinebeck in New York. He was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor whose fortunes earned him the distinction of being one of the wealthiest persons in America and thus John was brought up in an influential and rich family.

He was the only son of William Backhouse Astor Jr. and his socialite wife Caroline Webster “Lina” Schemerhorn and the youngest of the couple’s five children. He had four elder sisters - Emily, Helen, Charlotte and Caroline.

He initially attended St. Paul’s School at Concord, New Hampshire.

John was called “Jack” by many and attended Harvard University. Thereafter, he started managing his family estate.

He had several accomplishments in his illustrious career. He wrote a science fiction novel ‘A Journey in Other Worlds’ (1894) about life in the year 2000 on the planets Saturn and Jupiter.

Astor also patented several inventions, including a bicycle brake in 1898, a "vibratory disintegrator" and a pneumatic road-improver. He also helped in the development of turbine engine.

Astor made great fortune in real estate and built the famous Astoria hotel in New York in the year 1897 which was considered as the most luxurious hotel in the world. It was located at a close proximity to his rival and Cousin William’s Waldorf Hotel. The complex was soon called the “Waldorf-Astoria Hotel”.

On 10th January, 1899, John Jacob Astor IV became one of the early investors in the then newly created Tesla Motor Company. John had invested an amount of $100,000 in lieu of which he got 500 shares in the company and became one of the directors on the board.

John Astor also constructed many other famous hotels in New York City that included the St. Regis Hotel and some even say that this was John’s biggest achievement.

Astor was the author of a famous science fiction titled “A Journey in Other Worlds” that was published in the year 1894 and speaks about possibility of life on planets such as Jupiter and Saturn in the year 2000.