1.
Rhinebeck, New York
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Rhinebeck is a village in the town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census and it is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The village of Rhinebeck is the community in the town. The postal ZIP code is 12572, U. S. Route 9 passes through the village. European settlement in the Rhinebeck area dates to 1686, when a group of Dutch crossed the river from Kingston, later, Henry Beekman obtained a patent for the land and saw a need for development to begin. He brought into the area Casper Landsman, a miller, and William Traphagen, in 1703, the New York colonial assembly approved money for the construction of the Kings Highway, later known as the Albany Post Road and today most of Route 9. Three years later Traphagen bought a tract of land in Beekmans patent where the Kings Highway intersected the Sepasco Indian Trail and he built a house and tavern on the trail a short distance west of the Kings Highway. This was the beginning of Rhinebeck, the village grew with the new arrivals. New trades established themselves, and in 1733 the Reformed Dutch Church was built and its first building was on the site of its current one at Mill and South streets. In 1766 the beginnings of the current Beekman Inn were erected and it has remained in operation as a hotel ever since. In the mid-1770s, a soldier named Richard Montgomery moved from Knights Bridge into the Rhinebeck village with his new wife. He had just begun to settle into life as a farmer when the American Revolution began, after being elected to the New York Provincial Congress, he was commissioned a general in the Continental Army, and died at the end of 1775 in the Battle of Quebec. After independence, the continued to grow. The town of Rhinebeck, which contains the village, was organized in 1788, the current Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1802, making it the oldest church in the village. The current route of East Market Street was laid out the year during construction of the Ulster-Saulsbury Turnpike. George Washington visited in 1796, dining at Bogarduss, the second Traphagen Tavern, during the 1804 gubernatorial election, both Aaron Burr and Morgan Lewis used taverns in Rhinebeck as campaign headquarters. The village was incorporated in 1834, ten years later, Alexander Jackson built the Henry Delamater House at 44 Montgomery Street. It still stands today, one of the best examples of the use of the Gothic Revival style in American residential architecture
Rhinebeck, New York
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Beekman Arms Inn, the oldest continually operating inn in America
Rhinebeck, New York
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Seal
Rhinebeck, New York
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John
Benner House Historic Site.
Rhinebeck, New York
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The Henry Delamater House, in the
Rhinebeck Village Historic District.
2.
RMS Titanic
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Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. Thomas Andrews, her architect, died in the disaster, the first class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. A high-power radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger marconigrams and for the operational use. Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—slightly more than half of the number on board, after leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading west to New York. On 14 April, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, the collision caused the ships hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea, she could only survive four flooding. Meanwhile, passengers and some members were evacuated in lifeboats. A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a women and children first protocol for loading lifeboats, at 2,20 a. m. she broke apart and foundered—with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic sank, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived at the scene, where she brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors. The disaster was greeted with shock and outrage at the huge loss of life. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which still governs maritime safety today. Additionally, several new regulations were passed around the world in an effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have saved many more passengers. The wreck of Titanic, first discovered over 70 years after the sinking, remains on the seabed, since her discovery in 1985, thousands of artifacts have been recovered and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory is kept alive by numerous works of culture, including books, folk songs, films, exhibits. Titanic is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister HMHS Britannic, the name Titanic was derived from Greek mythology and meant gigantic. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Lines fleet, Teutonic was replaced by Olympic while Majestic was replaced by Titanic. Majestic would be back into her old spot on White Stars New York service after Titanics loss. The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin
RMS Titanic
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RMS Titanic departing
Southampton on 10 April 1912
RMS Titanic
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Rudder with central and port wing propellers for scale note the man at bottom of the photo
RMS Titanic
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Marconi company receiving equipment for a 5 kilowatt ocean liner station.
RMS Titanic
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The gymnasium on the Boat Deck, which was equipped with the latest exercise machines
3.
Trinity Church Cemetery
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Trinity Church Cemetery consists of three separate burial grounds associated with Trinity Church in New York City, New York, US. The first was established in the Churchyard located at 74 Trinity Place at Wall Street, a third burial place is the Churchyard of St. Pauls Chapel. A no longer extant Trinity Church Cemetery was the Old Saint Johns Burying Ground for St. Johns Chapel and it was in use from 1806–52 with over 10,000 burials, mostly poor and young. In 1897, it was turned into St. Johns Park, the park was later renamed Hudson Park, and is now James J. Walker Park. The burial grounds have been the resting place for many historic figures since the Churchyard cemetery opened in 1697. A non-denominational cemetery, it is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places and is the remaining active cemetery in Manhattan. There are two plaques at the Church of the Intercession cemetery commemorating the Battle of Fort Washington. Trinity Church Cemetery, along with Broadway, marks the center of the Heritage Rose District of NYC, general Philip Schuyler John Sloss Hobart, U. S. senator William Hogan, U. S. S. representative Thomas Jackson Oakley, U. S. S. Navy commodore, second captain of the USS Constitution John Watts, U. S. real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor, Jr. Koch, Mayor of New York City James Monroe, Trinity Tombstone & Churchyard Gallery Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum records at Trinity Wall Street Archives
Trinity Church Cemetery
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Church of the Intercession and Trinity Church Cemetery
Trinity Church Cemetery
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A
cenotaph marker erected by the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers honoring Robert Fulton at Trinity Church.
Trinity Church Cemetery
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Grave of Lt. Colonel Franklin Wharton, USMC
Trinity Church Cemetery
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153rd Street
4.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
Harvard University
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Engraving of
Harvard College by
Paul Revere, 1767
Harvard University
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Harvard University
Harvard University
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John Harvard statue,
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
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Richard Rummell's 1906 watercolor landscape view, facing northeast.
5.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883. The Republicans supported the pietistic Protestants who demanded Prohibition, nevertheless, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers
Republican Party (United States)
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Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican U.S. President (1861–1865).
Republican Party (United States)
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Theodore Roosevelt,
26th President of the United States (1901–1909)
Republican Party (United States)
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Dwight Eisenhower,
34th President of the United States (1953–1961)
Republican Party (United States)
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Richard Nixon,
37th President of the United States (1969–1974)
6.
Ava Lowle Willing
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Ava Lowle Willing was an American socialite. She was the first wife of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV and later married Thomas Lister, Ava Lowle Willing was born on September 15,1868 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Edward Shippen Willing and Alice Bell Barton. They went on a 5-week honeymoon in Europe, the newlywed couple was given, among many lavish gifts, a furnished townhouse on Fifth Avenue in New York City. By 1896, Mrs. Ava Astor had become active in England. She had an estate, Sutton Place in Guildford, Surrey. In 1909, after returning from England, Ava sued Jack for divorce on November 19 and she received a $10 million settlement. Their son lived with his father leaving to attend Harvard University. While Ava got custody of their seven-year-old daughter and this event left young Vincent as one of the wealthiest men in the United States. In September 1911, Ava and her daughter moved to England and they lived in her townhouse on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, London and her country estate, Sutton Place in Guildford, Surrey. On June 3,1919, Ava married Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale at St Marys, Bryanston Square in London, Lister died six years later on October 21,1925 at their townhouse on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, London. They had no children together and after Baron Ribblesdales death, she did not remarry and he was buried in the Lister vault at St Mary the Virgin Churchyard in Gisburn, Lancashire. In June 1940, she returned to the United States on the liner USS Roosevelt as a war refugee, reclaimed her American citizenship, and became known as Mrs. Ava Willing Ribblesdale. On June 9,1958, Ava died in her apartment at 720 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York and she was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery
Ava Lowle Willing
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Ava Lowle Willing
7.
Madeleine Astor
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Madeleine Talmage Force Astor was an American socialite and a survivor of the RMS Titanic. She was also the wife and widow of businessman John Jacob Astor IV. Madeleine Talmage Force was born on June 19,1893, in Brooklyn and she was the younger daughter of William Hurlbut Force and Katherine Arvilla Talmage. Madeleines elder sister Katherine Emmons Force was a real estate businesswoman, through father William, she and Katherine had French ancestry and were grandnieces of builder Ephraim S. Force. William Hurlbut Force was a member of an established business family. He owned the shipping firm William H. Force and Co. In 1889, Force married Katherine Talmage who was the granddaughter of Thomas Talmage, the Forces were part of the Brooklyn high society, while William Force was a member of numerous prestigious clubs in this city. He also owned an art collection. The family were members of the Episcopal Church which was also the church of the Astor family and she was educated at Miss Ely’s School and then for four years at Miss Spences School, which was located at West 48th Street in Manhattan. According to one report she was “counted an especially brilliant pupil” at this school and she was also taken abroad with her sister Katherine by her mother and toured Europe several times. When she was introduced to New York social life she was adopted by the Junior League which was a clique of debutantes. She appeared in several New York society plays and attracted quite a following and she was known to be a very competent horsewoman and enjoyed yachting. One report said that she was bright and good with drawing-room conversation and she met Colonel John Jacob Jack Astor IV, the only son of businessman William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and socialite Caroline Webster Lina Schermerhorn. During their courtship he took her on automobile drives and yacht trips and they became engaged in August 1911 and were married on September 9,1911. There was an amount of opposition to his marriage not only because of their age difference. Many were opposed to divorce at this time and felt that if people were divorced they should not be allowed to remarry, some Episcopalian Ministers refused to perform the ceremony. The couple were married at Beechwood which was his mansion in Newport. His son William Vincent Astor served as best man, after their marriage, they had an extended honeymoon
Madeleine Astor
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Madeleine Talmage Force
Madeleine Astor
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Katherine (left) and Madeleine Force.
Madeleine Astor
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Madeleine with Colonel Astor.
Madeleine Astor
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Newspaper report of the sinking of the Titanic. Most reports featured the Astors in the headlines.
8.
Vincent Astor
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William Vincent Astor was a businessman, philanthropist, and member of the prominent Astor family. Called Vincent, he was born in New York City on November 15,1891 and he was the son of John Jacob Astor IV, millionaire and inventor and his first wife, Ava Lowle Willing, an heiress from Philadelphia. He graduated from St. Georges School, in Middletown, Rhode Island, in 1910 and attended Harvard University from 1911 to 1912, like his father, Vincent belonged to the New York Society of Colonial Wars. He served as commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1928 to 1930, in the early 1930s, he established an estate in Bermuda which included a private narrow-gauge railway and union station with the Bermuda Railway. The estate is now divided between private owners, none of whom are part of the Astor family. As recently as 1992, the remains of some of his stock were visible. Vincent Astor was, according to Astor family biographer Derek Wilson, an unknown phenomenon in America. He was 20 when his father died and having inherited a massive fortune and he set about to change the family image from that of miserly, aloof slum landlords who enjoyed the good life at the expense of others. Over time, he sold off the familys New York City slum housing and reinvested in reputable enterprises while spending a great deal of time, Vincent Astor appeared as No.12 on the first list of Americas richest people, compiled by Forbes magazine. His net worth at the time was estimated at $75 million, amongst his holdings was Newsweek magazine which had for a time its headquarters in the former Knickerbocker Hotel that had been built by Vincent Astors father, he was the magazines chairman. He also inherited Ferncliff, the Astor familys 2, 800-acre estate near Rhinebeck, New York, in 1963 Homer Staley, a local retired businessman in the area, asked Brooke Astor to preserve the remaining natural acreage of woodlands from development. She donated the land to the Rotary Club of Rhinebeck, to become the Ferncliff Forest Game Refuge, Helen Dinsmore Huntington Astor married Helen Dinsmore Huntington, on April 30,1914. A year later, Helen became the wife of Lytle Hull. Mary Benedict Cushing Shortly after his divorce, Astor married Mary Benedict Cushing, marys sisters were Betsey Maria Cushing and Barbara Babe Cushing. They divorced in September 1953, and the month, Mary wed James Whitney Fosburgh. Roberta Brooke Russell On October 8,1953, several weeks after divorcing his second wife, according to an oft-told story in society circles, Astor agreed to divorce his second wife only after she had found him a replacement spouse. Her first suggestion was Janet Newbold Ryan Stewart Bush, the divorced wife of James Smith Bush II. Astor proceeded to tell her that he was not well and, though only in his early 60s, he could not be expected to live for very long, at that, Janet Bush reportedly replied, What if you do live
Vincent Astor
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Vincent Astor
Vincent Astor
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Helen Dinsmore Huntington
Vincent Astor
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Manhattan town house on
East 80th Street
9.
Ava Alice Muriel Astor
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Ava Alice Muriel Astor was an American heiress, socialite, and member of the Astor family. She was the daughter of John Jacob Astor IV and Ava Lowle Willing, Ava was born on July 7,1902 in Manhattan, New York. She was the daughter of Colonel John Jacob Jack Astor IV. On July 24,1924, Ava Astor married Prince Sergei Platonovich Serge Obolensky, son of General Platon Sergeyevich Obolensky and Maria Konstantinovna Naryshkina, the marriage was considered the event of the season in England that year. Her brother Vincent gave her a Palladian Revival stone residence on his estate near Rhinebeck, the house was north of his own Ferncliff Casino and also overlooked the Hudson River. Ava named it Marienruh and retained it through her life, before divorcing Serge in 1932, they had two children, Prince Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky Princess Sylvia Sergeyevna Obolensky, who first married Jean-Louis Ganshof van der Meersch in 1950. After their divorce in 1957 without issue, she then in 1957 she married Prince Azamat Kadir Guirey, on January 21,1933, she married Raimund von Hofmannsthal, son of Gertrud Schlesinger and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, an Austrian novelist, librettist, and dramatist. The couple was married in the city court of Newark, New Jersey, together, the couple had a daughter, Romana von Hofmannsthal, who married Roderick McEwen, son of Sir John McEwen, 1st Baronet. From 1936–1937, she had an affair with English choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton, after the affair ended, her love for him continued, though she had two subsequent marriages, both to gay Englishmen. Ava and Raimund eventually divorced in 1939, and Raimund later married Lady Elizabeth Paget, on March 27,1940, she married Philip John Ryves Harding, a journalist, in Faversham, England. At the time of their wedding, Harding, a cousing of Maxwell Eley, was serving with a battery in the British Army. Pleydell-Bouverie was an architect who studied at Charter House College in England, the couple resided in New York City and Glen Ellen, California, before divorcing in 1952. Astor died of a stroke in her East Sixty-First Street apartment, Manhattan, New York City and she predeceased her mother by two years. She was a patron of the arts, including the companies of London. Her will was admitted to probate on November 5,1956 and her assets, totaling $5,305,000, were divided among her four children
Ava Alice Muriel Astor
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Ava Alice Muriel Astor
10.
John Jacob Astor VI
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John Jacob Jakey Astor VI was an American socialite, shipping businessman, and member of the Astor family. John Jacob Astor VI was born at 840 Fifth Avenue in New York City on August 14,1912 and he was the son of Colonel John Jacob Jack Astor IV and socialite Madeleine Talmage Force. His godmother was Colonel Astors sister, philanthropist Caroline Schermerhorn Carrie Astor, while his godfathers were Carries son Marshall Orme Wilson, Jr. the newlyweds were returning home aboard the Titanic after about three months of honeymooning in Egypt and Europe. Madeleine was five months pregnant with Jakey when her husband put her in one of the ships lifeboats and she was rescued eight hours after her husband went down with the ship. After Jacks death, Madeleine raised their son at the Astors Newport, Rhode Island, mansion, Beechwood and she would later remarry to banker William Karl Dick in June 1916, and boxer Enzo Fiermonte in November 1933. Through Dick, she would have two sons, William Force Dick and John Henry Dick II. Jakey, who had close to Dick, highly opposed the union with Fiermonte. He and his mother frequently argued over the union and this caused a rift between the two, though they later reconciled within several months of the marriage. When asked if his mother was marrying Fiermonte, he responded Unfortunately, Jakey graduated from St. Georges School in Middletown, Rhode Island and from Harvard University. Under the terms of Colonel Astors will, Madeleine received relatively little from her husbands $85 million estate and this value included his estate in Rhinebeck and his yacht, the Noma. William Vincent Astor, the Colonels son from his first marriage, received $69 million, while the Colonels daughter from his first marriage, Ava Alice Muriel Astor, Jakey inherited the $3 million on his 21st birthday, which by that point had grown to $5 million. When Madeleine died in late March 1940, she left him a diamond ring worth $50,000. Elder half-brother Vincents contempt for Madeleine led him to believe that Jakey was not even a biological Astor, having despised his younger half-brother since birth, Vincent left him nothing in his will. Jakey felt cheated and resentfully stated Vincent had the legal, not the right to keep all the money. After Vincent died childless in early February 1959, Jakey sued Vincents widow Roberta Brooke Russell to inherit his money and he was convinced that Vincent was mentally incompetent when signing his last will in June 1958 due to alcoholism, though Brooke insisted Vincent was fully competent. While Vincent was hospitalized, Brooke would often bring him liquor, Jakey accused her of using the liquor to influence the will in her favor. Jakey ended up settling for $250,000, the rest of money remained with the Vincent Astor foundation and Brooke. Astor became engaged to Eileen Sherman Gillespie, the daughter of Lieutenant Lawrence Lewis Gillespie and Irene Muriel Augusta Sherman
John Jacob Astor VI
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John Jacob Astor VI
11.
William Backhouse Astor, Jr.
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William Backhouse Astor Jr. was a businessman, racehorse breeder/owner, and yachtsman. He was also a prominent member of the Astor family, while his elder brother financier/philanthropist John Jacob Astor III was head of the English line of Astors, William Jr. was the patriarch of the male line of American Astors. William Backhouse Astor Jr. was born on July 12,1829, in New York City and he was the middle son of real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor Sr. and Margaret Rebecca Armstrong. William Sr. was a son of fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox Todd while Margarets parents were Senator John Armstrong Jr. in addition to John Jacob III, William Jr. s siblings were Emily, Laura, Mary, Henry, and Sarah. William Sr. s elder brother was occasional poet John Jacob Astor Jr, a well-liked man, Astor graduated from Columbia College in 1849. On September 23,1853 at Trinity Church he married the socially ambitious Caroline Webster Lina Schermerhorn and her parents were Abraham Schermerhorn and Helen White. William Jr. had little interest in society parties, and Lina would try to keep him at his club late to prevent him coming home and sending the orchestra out and his children to bed. He supported the abolition of slavery before the American Civil War, unlike his business oriented father, William Jr. Astors horse Vagrant won the 1876 running of the Kentucky Derby. William Jr. often spent winters in Jacksonville, Florida aboard his yacht and was responsible for the construction of a number of prominent buildings in the city. He and sixteen other businessmen founded the Florida Yacht Club in Jacksonville in 1877, the club is now the oldest social club in Jacksonville and one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States. Liking the area, in 1874, he purchased a tract of around 80,000 acres along the St. Johns River north of Orlando, Florida in an area now called Lake County. There he and two partners used 12,000 acres to build a town that he named Manhattan but was later changed to Astor in his honor. His project, which would come to include hotels, began with the construction of wharves on the river to accommodate steamboats. These steamboats attracted a steamship agency that could bring in the necessary materials, William Astor enjoyed his development and purchased a railroad that connected the town to the Great Lakes Region of Florida. He donated the towns first church and the land for the local non-denominational cemetery, in 1875, one of the many nearby lakes was named Lake Schermerhorn after William Jr. s wife, Lina Schermerhorn. But William Jr. did not live enough to see the orchard grow to production. Following his death on April 25,1892, the property fell to his son Jack, by then though, rapid changes were taking place throughout Florida. New railroads had built in 1885 through the central and western part of the state
William Backhouse Astor, Jr.
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William Backhouse Astor, Jr.
12.
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor
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Caroline Webster Lina Schermerhorn was a prominent American socialite of the last quarter of the 19th century. Famous for being referred to later in life as the Mrs. Astor or simply Mrs. Astor, she was the wife of businessman, racehorse breeder/owner and their son, Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, perished on the RMS Titanic. Through her marriage, she was a prominent member of the Astor family, Lina was born on September 21,1830 into New York Citys Dutch aristocracy, descendants of the citys original settlers. Her father, Abraham Schermerhorn, and the extended Schermerhorn family were engaged in shipping, at the time of Linas birth, Abraham was worth half a million dollars. Lina was the ninth child. Young Lina was educated at a run by Mrs. Bensee. There she learned to speak French fluently, on September 23,1853, she married William Backhouse Astor Jr. at Trinity Church. Her husband was the son of real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor Sr. His paternal grandfather was John Jacob Astor and his grandparents were Senator John Armstrong Jr. and Alida Livingston. Despite the wealth of the Astor family, Lina had the superior pedigree as a member of an old Knickerbocker family. The Astors also maintained a cottage in Newport, Rhode Island, a mansion called Beechwood. They were the champions of old money and tradition, mcAllister once stated that, amongst the vastly rich families of Gilded Age New York, there were only 400 people who could be counted as members of Fashionable Society. He did not, as is written, arrive at this number based on the limitations of Mrs. Astors New York City ballroom. Her husbands lack of interest in the social whirl did not stop but instead fueled her burgeoning social activities, Lina was the foremost authority on the Aristocracy of New York in the late nineteenth century. She held ornate and elaborate parties for herself and other members of the elite New York socialite crowd, none was permitted to attend these gatherings without an official calling card from her. Linas social groups were dominated by strong-willed aristocratic females and these social gatherings were dependent on overly conspicuous luxury and publicity. More so than the gatherings themselves, importance was placed upon the group as the upper-crust of New Yorks elite. She and her ladies therefore represented the Aristocratic, or the Old Money, the Mrs. Astor found railroad money distasteful
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor
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Schermerhorn Astor, c. 1850s
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor
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Portrait of Astor by
Carolus-Duran, which was placed prominently in her house. She would stand in front of it when receiving guests for receptions.
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor
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Astor would throw lavish parties and receptions at her house on Fifth Avenue
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor
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Caroline Astor arranged for a cenotaph at Trinity Church cemetery
13.
Astor family
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The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With ancestral roots in the Italian Alps, the Astors settled in Germany, first appearing in North America during the century with John Jacob Astor. John Jacob Astor was the youngest of four born to butcher Johann Jacob Astor. John and his eldest brother George, known as George & John Astor, were flute makers, while working in England, he learned to speak English and anglicized his name. In 1783, John Jacob left for Baltimore, Maryland, and was active first as a dealer in woodwind instruments, then in New York as a merchant in furs, pianos, after moving to New York, John met and married Sarah Cox Todd. Sarah was the daughter of Scottish immigrants Adam Todd and Sarah Cox and she worked along side her husband as a consultant, and was accused of witchcraft after her success with the company in 1817. The accusations never led to legal action and he financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–1812 to reach the outpost, which was in the then-disputed Oregon Country. Control of Fort Astoria played a key role in English and American territorial claims on the region, John and Georges brother Henry also emigrated to America. He was a racing enthusiast, and purchased a thoroughbred named Messenger. The horse became the sire of all Standardbred horses in the United States today. The third brother Melchior remained in Germany, during the 19th century, the Astors became one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Toward the end of century, some of the family moved to England. During the 20th century, the number of American Astors began to decline, English descendants of the Astors hold two hereditary peerages, Viscount and Baron. While many of Astor members had joined to the Episcopal Church, for many years, the members of the Astor family were known as the landlords of New York. Their New York City namesakes are the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, an Astor Row, Astor Court, Astor Place, and Astor Avenue in the Bronx, the neighborhood of Astoria, Queens, is named after the family as well. Beyond New York City, the Astor family name is imprinted in a deal of United States history. There are towns of Astor in the states of Florida, Georgia, Iowa, there is a neighborhood called Astor Park just south of downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin. At the heart of neighborhood is a park, the Astor family donated this land for the building of a trade school
Astor family
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Henry Astor III c. 1875
14.
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
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The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23,40 on Sunday,14 April 1912. Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling near her maximum speed when her lookouts sighted the iceberg, unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen compartments to the sea. Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four of her forward compartments flooded but no more, and they used distress flares and radio messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. Compounding this, poor management of the evacuation meant many boats were launched before they were completely full, thus, when Titanic sank, over a thousand passengers and crew were still on board. Almost all those who jumped or fell into the water drowned within minutes due to the effects of hypothermia. RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued the last of the survivors by 09,15 on 15 April, some nine and a half hours after the collision. The disaster caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, at the time of her entry into service on 2 April 1912, Royal Mail Ship Titanic was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liner sister ships, and was the largest ship in the world. She and her sister, RMS Olympic, were almost one and half times the gross tonnage of Cunards RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania, the previous record holders. Titanic could carry 3,547 people in speed and comfort and her reciprocating engines were the largest that had ever been built, standing 40 feet high and with cylinders 9 feet in diameter requiring the burning of 600 long tons of coal per day. The Parlour Suites with private promenade cost over $4,350 for a transatlantic passage. Titanics maiden voyage began shortly after noon on 10 April 1912 when she left Southampton on the first leg of her journey to New York, a few hours later she called at Cherbourg in northern France, a journey of 80 nautical miles, where she took on passengers. Her next port of call was Queenstown in Ireland, which she reached around midday on 11 April and she left in the afternoon after taking on more passengers and stores. By the time she departed westwards across the Atlantic she was carrying 892 crew members and 1,320 passengers. This was only half of her full passenger capacity of 2,435, as it was the low season. The ship was commanded by 62-year-old Captain Edward John Smith, the most senior of the White Star Lines captains and he had four decades of seafaring experience and had served as captain of RMS Olympic, from which he was transferred to command Titanic. The ice conditions were attributed to a winter that caused large numbers of icebergs to shift off the west coast of Greenland. This caused exceptionally high tides that may have resulted in a number of icebergs than usual reaching the shipping lanes a few months later. A fire had begun in one of Titanics coal bunkers approximately 10 days prior to the departure, and continued to burn for several days into its voyage
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
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Untergang der Titanic ("Sinking of the Titanic") by
Willy Stöwer, 1912
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
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Titanic on her
sea trials, 2 April 1912
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
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The iceberg thought to have been hit by Titanic, photographed by the chief steward of the liner
Prinz Adalbert on the morning of 15 April 1912. The iceberg was reported to have a streak of red paint from a ship's hull along its waterline on one side.
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
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Edward J. Smith, captain of Titanic, in 1911
15.
John Jacob Astor
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Born in Germany, Astor emigrated to England as a teenager and worked as a musical instrument manufacturer. He moved to the United States after the American Revolutionary War and he entered the fur trade and built a monopoly, managing a business empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast. Seeing the decline of demand, he got out of the fur trade in 1830, diversifying by investing in New York City real estate and he was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. Johann Jakob Astor was born in Walldorf near Heidelberg in the old Palatinate and he was the youngest son of Johann Jakob Astor and Maria Magdalena Vorfelder. His three elder brothers were Georg Peter, Heinrich, and Melchior, Astors father was a butcher, Johann first worked in his fathers shop and as a dairy salesman. In 1779, at the age of 16, he moved to London to join his brother George in working for a piano and flute manufactory. While there, he learned English and anglicized his name and his intent was to join his brother Henry, who had established a butcher shop there, but a chance meeting with a fur trader on his voyage inspired him to join the North American fur trade as well. After working at his brothers shop for a time he began to purchase raw hides from Native Americans, prepare them himself and he opened his own fur goods shop in New York in the late 1780s and also served as the New York agent of his uncles musical instrument business. Astor took advantage of the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1794, which opened new markets in Canada and the Great Lakes region. In London, Astor at once made a contract with the North West Company, Astor imported furs from Montreal to New York and shipped them to Europe. By 1800, he had amassed almost a quarter of a million dollars and his agents worked throughout the western areas and were ruthless in competition. In 1800, following the example of the Empress of China, the first American trading vessel to China, Astor traded furs, teas, and sandalwood with Canton in China, embargo Act in 1807, however, disrupted Astors import/export business because it closed off trade with Canada. With the permission of President Thomas Jefferson, Astor established the American Fur Company on April 6,1808 and he later formed subsidiaries, the Pacific Fur Company, and the Southwest Fur Company, in order to control fur trading in the Great Lakes areas and Columbia River region. His Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria was the first United States community on the Pacific coast and he financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–12 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover South Pass, through hundreds of thousands of settlers on the Oregon, Mormon. Astors fur trading ventures were disrupted during the War of 1812, in 1816, he joined the opium-smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of Turkish opium, then shipped the contraband item to Canton on the packet ship Macedonian, Astor later left the China opium trade and sold solely to the United Kingdom. Astors business rebounded in 1817 after the U. S. Congress passed a protectionist law that barred foreign fur traders from U. S. territories, the American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes
John Jacob Astor
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Portrait by
John Wesley Jarvis (c. 1825)
John Jacob Astor
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John Jacob Astor
16.
William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
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William Backhouse Astor Sr. was an American property tycoon who inherited most of his father John Jacob Astors fortune. He worked as a partner in his fathers export business. His massive investment in Manhattan real estate enabled major donations to the Astor Library in East Village, William was born in New York City to fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox Todd. His seven siblings were Magdalena, Sarah, John Jr. Dorothea, Henry, Eliza, and his spare hours and vacations were employed in assisting his father in the store. He chose as his tutor a student, afterward known as the Chevalier Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen, with whom he also traveled. In 1815, he returned to the United States and entered partnership with his father, Williams elder brother, occasional poet John Jacob Astor Jr. was sickly and mentally unstable. John Jr. was left incapable of working in the firm and he worked there until his fathers death. Although Williams fortunes grew with his fathers company, he became a wealthy man when he inherited the estate, worth around $500,000. When John Jacob Astor Sr. died in 1848, William became the richest man in America, following the example of his father, he invested in real estate, principally situated below Central Park, between 4th and 7th Avenues, which rapidly increased in value. For about 13 years prior to 1873 he was engaged in building until much of his hitherto unoccupied land was covered by houses. He was said to own in 1867 as many as 720 houses, and he was heavily interested in railroad, coal. His management of the real estate holdings succeeded in multiplying their value. His house at Barrytown, New York, known as Rokeby, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, during the American Civil War he successfully brought a case against the income tax imposed by the United States government, which was ruled unconstitutional. On May 20,1818, William married Margaret Alida Rebecca Armstrong, John Armstrong Jr. was President James Madisons second Secretary of War. Alida was a member of the Livingston family, William and Margaret had seven children, Emily Astor, who m. April 16,1850 John Carey and had three children Laura Eugenia Astor, who m, september 17,1844 Franklin Hughes Delano, William Backhouse Astor Jr. who m. September 20,1853 socialite Caroline Webster Lina Schermerhorn, and had five children Henry Astor III, the edifice was completed under his directions in May,1853. In 1855 he presented to the trustees the adjoining lot, and erected thereon a similar structure and he next gave $50,000 for the purchase of books
William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
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Astor, c. 1850
William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
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William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
17.
John Armstrong, Jr.
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John Armstrong Jr. was an American soldier and statesman who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, U. S. Senator from New York, and Secretary of War, Armstrong was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the younger son of General John Armstrong and Rebecca Armstrong. John Armstrong, Sr. was a renowned Pennsylvania soldier born in Ireland of Scottish descent, John Jr. s older brother was James Armstrong, who became a physician and U. S. Congressman. After early education in Carlisle, John Jr. studied at the College of New Jersey and he broke off his studies in Princeton in 1775 to return to Pennsylvania and join the fight in the Revolutionary War. The young Armstrong initially joined a Pennsylvania militia regiment and the year he was appointed as aide-de-camp to General Hugh Mercer of the Continental Army. In this role, he carried the wounded and dying General Mercer from the field at the Battle of Princeton, after the general died on January 12,1777, Armstrong became an aide to General Horatio Gates. He stayed with Gates through the Battle of Saratoga then resigned due to problems with his health, in 1782 Gates asked him to return. Armstrong joined General Gates staff as an aide with the rank of major, while in camp with Gates at Newburgh, New York, Armstrong became involved in the Newburgh Conspiracy. He is generally acknowledged as the author of the two anonymous letters directed at the officers in the camp, the first, titled An Address to the Officers, called for a meeting to discuss back pay and other grievances with the Congress and form a plan of action. After George Washington ordered the meeting canceled and called for a meeting on March 15. Washington successfully defused this protest without a mutiny, while some of Armstrongs later correspondence acknowledged his role, there was never any official action that connected him with the anonymous letters. Later in 1783 Armstrong returned home to Carlisle and he was named the Adjutant General of Pennsylvanias militia and also served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under Presidents Dickinson and Franklin. In 1784, he led a force of four hundred militiamen into a controversy with Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. His tactics enraged the nearby states of Vermont and Connecticut, which sent their own militia into the area, timothy Pickering was dispatched to forge a solution to the difficulty, and the settlers were able to keep title to the land they had tamed. In 1787 and 1788 Armstrong was sent as a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Congress of the Confederation, the Congress offered to make him chief justice of the Northwest Territory. He declined this, as well as all public offices for the next dozen years. In 1789, Armstrong married Alida Livingston, the sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, one of their daughters, Margaret, married William Backhouse Astor, Sr. of the wealthy Astor family. John Armstrong moved to New York and took up life as a farmer on a farm purchased from her family in Dutchess County
John Armstrong, Jr.
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John Armstrong
John Armstrong, Jr.
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Alida Livingston Armstrong and Daughter,
Rembrandt Peale, ca. 1810
John Armstrong, Jr.
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John Armstrong Jr.,
Rembrandt Peale, 1808
18.
Livingston family
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The Livingston family of New York is a prominent family that migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from William, 4th Lord Livingston, its members included signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, several members were Lords of Livingston Manor and Clermont Manor, located along the Hudson River in 18th-century eastern New York. Descendants of the Livingstons include Presidents of the United States George H. W. Bush, the eccentric Collyer brothers are alleged to have been descended from the Livingston family. The Livingston family burial crypt was established in 1727 at Livingston Memorial Church, Liberty Hall is the home built by New Jersey Governor William Livingston, a signatory of the Constitution. Located in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, it has designated as a National Historic Landmark. Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources #69 by Gary Boyd Roberts from the New England Historic Genealogical Society, genealogy of the Livingston Family by Timothy Alden, published in 1814. Finding aid for the Livingston Family Papers, 1719-1929 at the Museum of the City of New York The Livingstons of Livingston Manor by Edwin Brockholst Livingston
Livingston family
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Arms of Livingston of Callendar
19.
Concord, New Hampshire
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Concord /ˈkɒŋ. kərd/ is the capital city of the U. S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695, Concord includes the villages of Penacook, East Concord, and West Concord. The area that would become Concord was originally settled thousands of years ago by Abenaki Native Americans called the Pennacook, the tribe fished for migrating salmon, sturgeon, and alewives with nets strung across the rapids of the Merrimack River. The stream was also the route for their birch bark canoes. The broad sweep of the Merrimack River valley floodplain provided good soil for farming beans, gourds, pumpkins, melons and maize. On January 17,1725, the Province of Massachusetts Bay and it was settled between 1725 and 1727 by Captain Ebenezer Eastman and others from Haverhill, Massachusetts. On February 9,1734, the town was incorporated as Rumford, from which Sir Benjamin Thompson, citizens displaced by the resulting border adjustment were given land elsewhere as compensation. In 1779, New Pennacook Plantation was granted to Timothy Walker, Jr. and his associates at what would be incorporated in 1800 as Rumford, Maine, the site of Pennacook Falls. Concord grew in throughout the 18th century, and some of its earliest houses survive at the northern end of Main Street. In 1808, Concord was named the seat of state government. The 1819 State House is the oldest capitol in the nation in which the legislative branches meet in their original chambers. The city would become noted for furniture-making and granite quarrying, in 1828, Lewis Downing joined J. Stephens Abbot to form Abbot-Downing Coaches. Their most famous coach was the Concord Coach, modeled after the coach of King George III. In the 19th century, Concord became a hub for the railroad industry, today, the city is a center for health care and several insurance companies. It is also home to Concord Litho, one of the largest independently owned commercial printing companies in the country, Concord is located at 43°12′24″N 71°32′17″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 67.5 square miles. 64.2 square miles of it is land and 3.2 square miles of it is water, Concord is drained by the Merrimack River. Penacook Lake is in the west, the highest point in Concord is 860 feet above sea level on Oak Hill, just west of the hills 970-foot summit in neighboring Loudon
Concord, New Hampshire
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The
New Hampshire State House as seen from Eagle Square
Concord, New Hampshire
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State House c. 1906
Concord, New Hampshire
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Main Street c. 1908
Concord, New Hampshire
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City Hall in 1913
20.
John Jacob Astor III
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John Jacob Astor III was an American financier, philanthropist and a soldier during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the Astor family, becoming the wealthiest family member in his generation and his younger brother, businessman William Backhouse Astor, Jr. became the patriarch of the male line of American Astors. John Astor studied at Columbia University and the University of Göttingen and he practiced law for a year, to qualify for assisting in the management of his familys immense estate, one half of which later descended to him. It was based on his paternal grandfathers achieving a monopoly in the fur trade in the early nineteenth century. Astor was elected lieutenant colonel of the 12th Regiment of the New York Militia and he resigned from the office in 1853. During the American Civil War, Astor served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to Major General George B. McClellan from November 30,1861 to July 11,1862. In recognition of his services during the Peninsular Campaign, Astor was brevetted as a general of Volunteers in March 1865. In 1880 he became a companion of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States—a military society of officers who had served in the Union armed forces and he was assigned insignia number 1909. He regarded his Civil War service as the best of his life, in business, Astor dabbled in railroad investment, but was outsmarted by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and forced to yield control of the original New York Central Railroad line to him. His principal business interest was the vast Astor Estate real estate holdings in New York City, which he managed profitably and parsimoniously. William was married on December 9,1846 at Trinity Church in New York City to Charlotte Augusta Gibbes of South Carolina, daughter of Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes, Jr. and they had one son, William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor. In 1859 he built a home at 350 Fifth Avenue, today the street address of the Empire State Building. Later, he had a vacation home, Beaulieu, built in Newport, Rhode Island. John Jacob Astor III donated objects and funds to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and he and his brother presented Trinity Church with a memorial to their father, a sculptured reredos and altar costing $80,000. He left a bequest of $450,000 to the Astor Library and he also gave generously to the New York Cancer Hospital, the Womans Hospital, St. Lukes Hospital and the Childrens Aid Society. He took an active interest in the Astor Library beyond funding and he was treasurer of its board of trustees, and in 1879 deeded to it the three lots on which the northern wing of the present building was later constructed by him. He presented it with his collection of books and rare manuscripts. She persuaded her husband to donate the money to erect the New York Cancer Hospitals first wing, for twenty years, she supported a German industrial school
John Jacob Astor III
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John Jacob Astor III
21.
James Roosevelt Roosevelt
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James Roosevelt Rosy Roosevelt was an American heir, diplomat and the older half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. James Roosevelt Roosevelt was born on April 27,1854 and he was the son of James Roosevelt I and his first wife, Rebecca Brien Howland, who were second cousins. He was described as an aimless if charming member of New York societys sporting set, when his father died in 1900, the estate was split between Rosy and FDR. Roosevelt served as Secretary of the United States Legation in Vienna, on November 18,1878, Rosy married Helen Schermerhorn Astor, the second daughter of businessman William Astor, Jr. and socialite Caroline Schermerhorn. Roosevelt and Helen had two children, James Roosevelt Tadd Roosevelt, Jr. Roosevelt died on May 7,1927 and his second wife outlived him, and died in 1948. Notes Further reading Black, Conrad Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Champion of Freedom Miller, Nathan Theodore Roosevelt, A Life Moffat, R. com
James Roosevelt Roosevelt
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James Roosevelt Roosevelt
22.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and emerged as a figure in world events during the mid-20th century. He directed the United States government during most of the Great Depression and he is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U. S. Presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in 1882 to an old, prominent Dutch family from Dutchess County and he attended the elite educational institutions of Groton School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law School. At age 23 in 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, and he entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Roosevelt was presidential candidate James M. Coxs running mate and he was in office from 1929 to 1933 and served as a reform governor, promoting the enactment of programs to combat the depression besetting the United States at the time. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency, Roosevelt took office while in the United States was in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history. Energized by his victory over polio, FDR relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to labor union growth while more closely regulating business. His support for the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, the economy improved rapidly from 1933–37, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court, when the war began and unemployment ended, conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC. However, they kept most of the regulations on business, along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security. His goal was to make America the Arsenal of Democracy, which would supply munitions to the Allies, in March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to Britain and China. He supervised the mobilization of the U. S. economy to support the war effort, as an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented a war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and initiate the development of the worlds first atomic bomb. His work also influenced the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelts physical health declined during the war years, and he died 11 weeks into his fourth term. One of the oldest Dutch families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished themselves in other than politics. One ancestor, Isaac Roosevelt, had served with the New York militia during the American Revolution, Roosevelt attended events of the New York society Sons of the American Revolution, and joined the organization while he was president
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1884, 2 years old.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The birthplace of FDR at Springwood.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt sailing with half-niece Helen and father James, 1899.
23.
Roosevelt family
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Roosevelt, whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodores niece. It has been suggested that Claes van Rosenvelt could have related to the Van Roosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer. It may simply be a coincidence, or Claes van Rosenvelt may have chosen the name purposely because of its origins or to honor his local amt lord. Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, the immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family, around the year 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh comprising 24 morgens in what is now Midtown Manhattan, including the present site of the Empire State Building. His children Johannes and Jacobus were, respectively, the progenitors of the Oyster Bay, by the late 19th century, the Hyde Park Roosevelts were generally associated with the Democratic Party and the Oyster Bay Roosevelts with the Republican Party. President Theodore Roosevelt, an Oyster Bay Roosevelt, was President Franklin Roosevelts fifth cousin, despite political differences that led family members to actively campaign against each other, the two branches generally remained friendly. Franklin Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodores niece and his own fifth cousin once removed, james Roosevelt met his wife at a Roosevelt family gathering in the home of Theodores mother. In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname and it would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones. Also, grassy mounds or fields of green would be a familiar attribute, a traditional blazon suggested would be, Per fess vert a chevron between three roses argent and Or a lion rampant gules. The Roosevelts -2014 PBS documentary Notes Further reading Cobb, William T, the Strenuous Life, The Oyster Bay Roosevelts in Business and Finance. The Merchants National Bank of the City of New York, the Old Merchants of New York City. Booknotes interview with Peter Collier on The Roosevelts, An American Saga, booknotes interview with Betty Boyd Caroli on The Roosevelt Women, May 9,1999. Booknotes interview with Susan Dunn on The Three Roosevelts, Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America, May 6,2001
Roosevelt family
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Theodore Roosevelt and family in 1903.
24.
Grace Vanderbilt
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Grace Graham Wilson Vanderbilt was an American socialite. She was the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt III and she was one of the last Vanderbilts to live the luxurious life of the head of society that her predecessors such as Alice and Alva Vanderbilt enjoyed. Born on September 3,1870, Grace was the youngest child of New York banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Sr. graces sister Mary married Ogden Goelet and her sister Belle married Sir Michael Henry Herbert, younger brother of the 13th Earl of Pembroke. The sisters were known in London society as the marrying Wilsons, one of her brothers was banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. Another brother, Marshall Orme Wilson, married Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, youngest daughter of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and she eloped with Cornelius Neily Vanderbilt III, son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Claypoole Gwynne of the Vanderbilt family, in 1896. This led to a violent disagreement between Neily and his father, which lasted many years, Neily and Grace remained married for the rest of their lives and had two children, Cornelius IV and Grace. Grace lived another eleven years, and she died on January 7,1953 and they are buried together in the Vanderbilt family mausoleum in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp on Staten Island, New York. Fortunes Children, The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt, the Barons of Newport, A Guide to the Gilded Age
Grace Vanderbilt
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Grace Graham Wilson
25.
William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor
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William Waldorf Willy Astor, 1st Viscount Astor was a wealthy American-born attorney, politician, businessman, and newspaper publisher. He moved with his family to England in 1891, became a British subject in 1899 and he was a prominent member of the Astor family. William Waldorf Astor was born in New York City and he was the only child of financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III and Charlotte Augusta Gibbes. His childhood was spent in Germany and in Italy under the care of private tutors and he grew up in a cold and distant household. In his early years, Astor returned to the United States. He was called to the United States Bar in 1875 and he worked for a short time in law practice and in the management of his fathers estate of financial and real estate holdings. Astor married Mary Dahlgren Paul on 6 June 1878 and she is buried in Trinity Church Cemetery. They had five children, Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor Hon Pauline Astor, John Rudolph Astor, buried in Trinity Church Cemetery. Lt Col John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever Gwendolyn Enid Astor, no issue, after some time practising law, Astor thought he had found his true calling and an opportunity to make a name for himself outside of his familys fortune by entering the political realm. In 1877, with his eyes set on the United States Congress and he was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1878, and of the New York State Senate in 1880 and 1881. Astor was likely supported by the boss of the New York State Republican machine, in 1881, Astor was defeated by Roswell P. Flower as a candidate for the United States Congress, a second attempt at the seat also resulted in defeat. He could not compete with his Democratic opponent, Flower, and this was the end of his political career. The press used his political failures as fodder for more harsh criticisms, the press had already publicized his vast inheritance. The coverage of his political defeats weakened his desire to remain in the United States, in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur appointed Astor Minister to Italy, a post he held until 1885. He told Astor, Go and enjoy yourself, my dear boy, while living in Rome, Astor developed a lifelong passion for art and sculpture. Upon the death of his father in February 1890, Astor inherited a fortune that made him the richest man in America. That year, he initiated construction of the luxurious Waldorf Hotel and his cousin and rival Colonel John Jacob Jack Astor IV built the adjoining Astoria Hotel in 1897, and the complex became the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor
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William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor
26.
Henry IV of France
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Henry IV, also known by the epithet Good King Henry, was King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon, baptised as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother Jeanne dAlbret, Queen of Navarre, he inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on the death of his mother. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomews Day massacre, and later led Protestant forces against the royal army. Henry, as Head of the House of Bourbon, was a direct descendant of Louis IX of France. Upon the death of his brother-in-law and distant cousin Henry III of France in 1589 and he initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear Frances crown as a Protestant. To obtain mastery over his kingdom, after four years of stalemate, as a pragmatic politician, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants and he was assassinated in 1610 by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII. Considered a usurper by some Catholics and a traitor by some Protestants, an unpopular king immediately after his accession, Henrys popularity greatly improved after his death, in light of repeated victories over his enemies and his conversion to Catholicism. The Good King Henry was remembered for his geniality and his concern about the welfare of his subjects. He was celebrated in the popular song Vive le roi Henri, Henry was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Joan III of Navarre and her consort, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, although baptised as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion, on 9 June 1572, upon his mothers death, he became King of Navarre. At Queen Joans death, it was arranged for Henry to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II, the wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572 on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral. On 24 August, the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre began in Paris, several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henrys wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and he was made to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and he named his 16-year-old sister, Catherine de Bourbon, regent of Béarn. Catherine held the regency for nearly thirty years, Henry became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the Catholic Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Because Henry of Navarre was the senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice
Henry IV of France
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Henry IV
Henry IV of France
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Henry III of France on his deathbed designating Henry IV of Navarre as his successor in 1589.
Henry IV of France
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Henry at the
Battle of Arques
Henry IV of France
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Henry IV at the
Battle of Ivry, by
Peter Paul Rubens
27.
Katherine Emmons Force
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Katherine Emmons Force was an American real estate investor and socialite. She was a member of the board for Newport, Rhode Island. Katherine Emmons Force was born on March 12,1891 in Brooklyn and she was the elder daughter of William Hurlbut Force and Katherine Arvilla Talmage. Her sister Madeleine was the widow of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV of the Astor family, Force married Lorillard Suydam Spencer on December 6,1922. Together they had two sons, Stephen Wolcott Spencer and William Hurlbut Force Spencer and she died on September 8,1956 of a heart attack at her cottage, Chasteullux, in Newport, Rhode Island
Katherine Emmons Force
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Katherine Emmons Force circa 1915
28.
Beechwood (mansion)
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Beechwood is a Gilded Age estate located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Built in 1851 for New York merchant Daniel Parrish by architects Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux, before moving in, Mrs. Astor hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to do many renovations including the addition of a ballroom to fit the famous Four Hundred. Beechwood became the place for many of Mrs. Astors dinner parties. Beechwood also boasts a library, dining room and a room with wallpaper imported from Paris. When Mrs. Astor died she left it to her son John Jacob Astor IV, after Johns death on the Titanic in 1912, it passed to his widow Madeleine, who turned the entire third floor into her own personal walk-in closet. After she died it was turned into Newports only living history museum and featured actors portraying the lives of those who inhabited, ran. While run as a tourist attraction, the estate was marketed as Astors Beechwood Mansion, during off-season months, servants of the Astor family provided tours of the estate as if they were still living in 1891. Visitors were considered to be applicants for a job on Mrs. Astors staff. Positions included, gardener, footman, butler, chef, housemaid, during the summer months while the Astor family was living in the mansion, Astor family members gave tours to guests. Everyone living and working in the acted as though it was 1891. Children of the family lived with the servants until the age of 17, children of the family were quickly wed at the age of 18, or as soon as possible after reaching 18. Beechwood was featured in a two episode of Ghost Hunters in which the TAPS team investigated claims of paranormal activity. Ellison, who was in Newport during the summer of 2009 for training with his BMW/Oracle Racing, is linked to a deed filed at City Hall that documents the $10.5 million sale of the 39-room estate. As of 2012, Ellison plans to convert the mansions first floor into Beechwood Art Museum, displaying his collection of 18th and 19th century art
Beechwood (mansion)
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Beechwood
Beechwood (mansion)
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Preservation Society mansions
29.
Newport, Rhode Island
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Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The City of Newport is located approximately 37 miles southeast of Providence,21 miles south of Fall River and it is known as a New England summer resort and famous for its mansions. It was a major 18th-century port city and also contains a number of surviving buildings from the colonial era of the United States. The city is the county seat of Newport County and it was known for being the city of some of the Summer White Houses during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The population was 24,027 as of 2013 and its eight founders and first officers were Nicholas Easton, William Coddington, John Clarke, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Jeremy Clark, Thomas Hazard, and Henry Bull. They left Portsmouth, Rhode Island after a fallout with Anne Hutchinson. As part of the agreement, Coddington and his followers took control of the side of the island. They were soon joined by Nicholas Easton, who had recently expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding heretical beliefs. The settlement grew to be the largest of the four settlements of Rhode Island. Many of the first colonists in Newport became Baptists, and the second Baptist congregation in Rhode Island was formed in 1640 under the leadership of John Clarke, peace did not last long in Newport, as many did not like Coddingtons autocratic style. As a result, a counter-faction was formed by 1650, led by Nicholas Easton, Newport became the most important port in colonial Rhode Island, and a public school was established in 1640. In 1658, a group of Jews were allowed to settle in Newport who were fleeing the Inquisition in Spain, the Newport congregation is now referred to as Congregation Jeshuat Israel and is the second-oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. It meets in Touro Synagogue, the oldest standing synagogue in the United States, in 1663, the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations received its Royal Charter, and Benedict Arnold was elected its first Governor at Newport. The commercial activity which raised Newport to its fame as a port was begun by a second wave of Portuguese Jews who settled there about the middle of the 18th century. They brought with them experience and connections, capital. Most prominent among those were Jacob Rodrigues Rivera who arrived in 1745, Rivera introduced into America the manufacture of sperm oil, which became one of the leading industries and made Newport rich. Newports inhabitants who were engaged in whaling developed 17 manufactories of oil and candles, Aaron Lopez fled to Newport from Lisbon in 1752 and is credited with making Newport an important center of trade. To him in a degree than to any one else was due the rapid commercial development which made Newport for a quarter of a century afterward the most formidable rival of New York
Newport, Rhode Island
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Newport, Rhode Island aerial view
Newport, Rhode Island
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Seal
Newport, Rhode Island
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Touro Synagogue, America's oldest existing synagogue
Newport, Rhode Island
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Some of the historic buildings in Newport, near the coast
30.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
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Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
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A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
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Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
US $87 million (equivalent to $2.16 billion in 2016)[1]
Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Astor, John Jacob. An American capitalist, inventor, and soldier". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
Texts on Wikisource:
