Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-04-21
VINCENT ASTOR
SUCCESSOR TO
HIS FATHER
WILL SHARE GREAT WEALTH
With the BridG-W idOWCr Of
Colonel AStOF

New York, April 20.-William Vim
cent Astor, who will become head of
the American branch of the Astor fam
lily, is not yet q years old. He was
born on November Is, 1891, in the old
William Astor mansion, at Fifth ave-
nue. and Thirty-fourth street, New
ork, where the Waldorf-Astoria now
stands, and from which his parents
moved shortly after his birth to the
then new Astor residence at Fifth av-
enue and Sixty-sixth street
He was a delicate child, and until
he entered Harvard last autumn he
spent about six months of each year
at his fathers country house, at Fern
cliff, on the Hudson, three months at
Newport and three months at the town
house. He was always somewhat tall,
with dark, straight hair and dark
blue eyes, resembling his father, es-
pecially as to the lower part of the
face He is fond of yachting and au-
tomobiling.
He accompanied his father on the
trip to the West Indies two years ago
in which the Astor yacht, NourmahaI
was not heard from for several weeks
John Jacob Astor and his son Vincent
were believed to have been drowned
and their vessel wrecked at that time.
Vincent Astor has been thrown
particularly into his fathers COM
pany since his mother, Mrs. Ava
Willing Astor, obtained her divorce
from John Jacob Aston, in November,
1909. Under the divorce decree which
was granted by Supreme Court JUS
tice Mills in Rockland county, New
York, the papers being sealed, John
Jacob Aston was to have custody OF
Vincent and Mrs. Astor of the only
other child of the marriage, Muriel,
now 10 years old. At the time of the
divorce the amount of John Jacob AS
tors settlement on his wife was not
made public, but it was said to be
$10,000,000 in cash, on the provision
that this sum would later revert to
Muriel
Vincent Astor's rumored engagement
to various young society girls, nota-
bly, Miss Margaret Andrews, the
daughter of Paul Andrews, of New
port, has been made the subject of
gossip for the last year or two. The
young man, just before going to Har-
ward last autumn, however, said he
wasn't engaged to anyone and that his
only interest was in his studies. M
Andrews last autumn also denied his
daughters engagement.
Estimate Made of Fortune.
The John Jacob Astor fortune, which
Vincent Astor would share with his
step-mother and perhaps with his sis
ter Muriel, has been estimated at
500, 100000. John Jacobm Astor's
real property holdings in New York
alone were stated authoritatively last
autumn to be worth more than SAL,
100000 The Thirty-fourth street
half of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
part of his estate, is assessed at more
than $S,3OO,OOO.
At the time that Mrs. Ava Willing
Aston obtained her divorce no infor-
nation was given out concerning the
| financial settlement, but it has since
been rumored that Muriel Aston, hay
ing been placed by the court in heI
mothers custody, will not be amons
her fathers heirs. The $100,000,00t
estate will, it has been said, be divid-
ed between Vincent Astor and Mrs
John Jacob Astor. Just how it will
be devided, Mr.. Dobbyn, John Jacos
Astor's secretary, refused to say
John Jacob Aston was born at Fern.
cliff. Rhinebeck, n Y, July 10, 1864
He was the son of William and Car },
line Astor and the great-grandson Of
John Jacob Aston, who at the age u
| 0 years come to New York in 178S
and laid the foundations of the great
| house of Astor. The Astor family are
descendants of diff Stevenson Val
Courtlandt, the last Dutch Mayor o
New Amsterdam. They are also des'
cended from Col John Armstrong, one
of the heroee of the French and In.
dian War, and from Robert Living
ston.
John Jacob Aston 1st left two sons
William B. Astor and John Jacob AS
tor I'd. William B. Astor inherited
the bulk of the fortune.
He had three sons, john Jacob Sd
| William and Henry married against
the wishes Of abe family and went b
live in Beclusion on the banks OF the
Hudson river, with only small slice
of the AsAor millions to his account
Two FavOrite Sons Heirs.
william B. Astor upon his death
left his property in equal shares to
his two favorite sons, John Jacob AS
tor Sd and William Astor. John JAG
OBJ was the elder and by far the richer
of the two brothers when he died in
1880.
He left one son, William Waldorf
Aston. who later uprooted his house