Carrie Astor Wilson
Born
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor

(1861-10-10)October 10, 1861
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 13, 1948(1948-09-13) (aged 86)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Burial placeWoodlawn Cemetery
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1884)​
ChildrenImay Backhouse Astor-Gurung
Orme Wilson Jr.
Richard T. Wilson III
Parent(s)William Backhouse Astor Jr.
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor
RelativesSee Astor family

Caroline Schermerhorn Astor Wilson (October 10, 1861 – September 13, 1948)[1] was an American heiress, social leader,[2] and prominent member of New York society.

Early life

Caroline Schermerhorn Astor was born in New York City on October 10, 1861, and was known as "Carrie". She was the fourth of five children born to William Backhouse Astor Jr. and Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, leader of the "Four Hundred". Her three elder sisters were Emily Astor, who married socialite James Van Alen; Helen Astor, who married diplomat James Roosevelt Roosevelt (the elder half-brother of future president Franklin D. Roosevelt); and Charlotte Astor, who married James Coleman Drayton and, after his death, George Ogilvy Haig. She had one younger brother, Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, who died aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912.[3]

Carrie was a descendant of many prominent Americans. Her paternal grandparents were William Backhouse Astor Sr. and Margaret (née Armstrong) Astor while her maternal grandparents were Abraham Schermerhorn and Helen Van Courtlandt (née White) Schermerhorn. She was also a great-granddaughter of John Jacob Astor, America's first millionaire, wealthy merchant Peter Schemerhorn, and Continental major and U.S. Senator John Armstrong Jr. and Alida (née Livingston) Armstrong.[4] Her uncle John Jacob Astor III was the father of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor.[1]

Carrie grew up at her parents' New York brownstone, 350 Fifth Avenue, at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street,[5] known for its ballroom.[6]

Society life

The Wilsons' residence at 3 East 64th Street.

In 1883, wealthy socialite Alva Vanderbilt, the then wife of railroad tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt, planned an elaborate masquerade ball for 1,000 guests (reportedly costing $3 million) to celebrate the opening of her new home at 660 Fifth Avenue, known as the William K. Vanderbilt House. The ball was to feature entertainment given by young society figures, including a dance which young Carrie was to participate in. However, at the last minute, Carrie learned that she was not invited, because Carrie's mother, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor - the Mrs. Astor and the undisputed head of New York society, had never formally "called upon" Alva.[7] In order to appease Carrie and allow her to attend the ball, Mrs. Astor proceeded to send her calling card to the Vanderbilts' residence prior to Alva's lavish ball.[8] Alva then extended an invitation to the Astors and they attended the ball. Reciprocally, Mrs. Astor invited the Vanderbilts to her annual ball, which was considered a formal acknowledgement of the Vanderbilts' full acceptance into the upper echelon of New York society.[7]

After her 1884 marriage, Carrie became a noted society hostess in her own right. Despite her family's initial reluctance at the marriage, her father purchased them a new home at 414 Fifth Avenue (not far from her parents at 350 Fifth) as a wedding present, which was furnished by Wilson's father.[9]

For many years, Carrie and her sister-in-law, Grace Vanderbilt, shared Box 3 at the Metropolitan Opera House, "alternating as hostess on opening night."[1]

Move uptown

After her mother's fallout with Carrie's cousin William Waldorf Astor over the use of the name "Mrs. Astor", which led to the construction of the opulent Waldorf Hotel next to her mother's residence, Mrs. Astor decamped from 34th Street and tore down Carrie's childhood home to build the larger and even more grand Astor Hotel.[10] Her mother also built a new Astor residence uptown, at the northeast corner of Fifth and East 65th Street, for Mrs. Astor and Carrie's brother, John Jacob Astor IV, at 841 and 840 Fifth Avenue and designed by society architect Richard Morris Hunt. At the inaugural ball at her mother's new residence on February 3, 1896, Carrie led the cotillion in the new ballroom while her brother's wife (the former Ava Lowle Willing) led the cotillion from the other side.[1]

The feud with Carrie's cousin extended to Carrie as well and led her husband to hire Warren and Wetmore to design an uptown residence for the couple on East 64th Street.[11] Wilson bought the property in 1896, began construction in 1900, and the six-story limestone mansion with forty rooms was completed in 1903.[12] Carrie's house was around the corner from her mother and located at the northeast corner of Fifth and East 65th Street.[13] The sixty-five feet wide residence had a Beaux Arts facade of Indiana Limestone and a mansard roof of blue slate and featured five bays and featured a circular atrium.[9] On January 21, 1904,[13] Carrie hosted the first large party in their new house, which featured a performance by opera singers Mme. Lillian Nordica and Enrico Caruso.[12]

A member of the Colony Club, Carrie served as the vice-president of the New York Women's League for Animals and was a director of the Beekman Street Hospital. She donated to the Merchant Marine Library Service.[1]

Personal life

Portrait of Carrie's husband Orme, by Léon Bonnat, 1894.

In the early 1880s, Carrie met and fell in love with Marshall Orme Wilson (1860–1926), although her family disapproved of him and his family.[4] He was the eldest son of Richard Thornton Wilson,[14] a banker from Tennessee who had served the Commissary-General of the Confederacy and became rich investing in railways (leading to claims of war profiteering).[15] Wilson and his siblings were known in New York and Newport society as the "Marrying Wilsons" due to their marriages into the wealthiest and most prominent families. His sister Grace married Cornelius Vanderbilt III,[16] and his brother, Richard Jr.[17] was married to Marion Steedman Mason,[2] granddaughter of Rear Admiral Charles Steedman of Charleston, South Carolina, and great-granddaughter of the U.S. Senator of New Hampshire, Jeremiah Mason.[18] Another sister, Belle, was married to Sir Michael Henry Herbert (the British Ambassador to the U.S. during Theodore Roosevelt's administration and brother to the Earl of Pembroke[19][20]),[21] and Mary, who married New York real estate heir Ogden Goelet (parents of Mary Goelet, who married the Duke of Roxburghe).[22][23]

Reportedly, Carrie "starved herself into bulimia until her mother gave in and agreed to the marriage."[4] On November 18, 1884,[24] Carrie was married to Wilson at the Astor mansion.[1] Together, Orme and Carrie had two sons:[25][26]

Her husband died on April 1, 1926, in New York City,[25] and he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[31] In his will, Carrie received their residence and all of its belongings, and their sons inherited the residual estate, including funds left by their paternal grandfather in trust for them.[32]

Carrie lived another twenty-two years and died on September 13, 1948, at the home of her son Richard, 1 Sutton Place (the former home of Anne Harriman Vanderbilt).[1] At the time of her death, she was the last surviving child of her parents. After a funeral at Trinity Church, she was buried alongside her husband at Woodlawn Cemetery.[33] After her death, her former home was sold to the Indian Government to house their diplomats in New York for $500,000.[12]

In the HBO series The Gilded Age, Carrie is a recurring character portrayed by actress Amy Forsyth.[34]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "MRS. WILSON DEAD; LEADER IN SOCIETY | Great-Granddaughter of John J. Astor, Founder of Noted Family, Widow of Banker | KNOWN FOR LARGE PARTIES | Last of William's Children Aided Welfare Groups in City--Her Mother 'The' Mrs. Astor" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 September 1948. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "MRS. R.T. WILSON DEAD IN NEWPORT; Widow of Banker and Ex-Head of Saratoga Racing Group Was a Social Leader". The New York Times. 6 July 1947. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "Noted Men On The Lost Titanic. Col. Jacob Astor, with His Wife. Isidor Straus and Wife, and Benj. Guggenheim Aboard" (PDF). The New York Times. April 16, 1912. Retrieved 2013-12-10. Following are sketches of a few of the well-known persons among the 1,300 passengers on the lost Titanic. The fate of most of them at this time is, of course, not known. Col. John Jacob Astor and Mrs. Astor, Isidor Straus and Mrs. Straus, J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of the White Star Line: Benjamin Guggenheim, and Frank D. Millet, the artist, are perhaps the most widely known of the passengers.....
  4. 1 2 3 Madsen, Axel (2002). John Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire. John Wiley & Sons. p. 280. ISBN 9780471009351. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  5. ↑ Homberger, Eric (2004). Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age. Yale University Press. p. 258. ISBN 9780300105155. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  6. ↑ "Mrs. W. B. Astor's Ballroom 1894 350 Fifth Avenue". collections.mcny.org. Museum of the City of New York. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  7. 1 2 Vanderbilt, 104-6.
  8. ↑ Columbia, David Patrick (19 August 2011). "Part II: Mrs. Astor and her Kind". New York Social Diary. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  9. 1 2 Miller, Tom (23 January 2013). "Daytonian in Manhattan: The 1903 M. Orme Wilson House -- No. 3 E. 64th Street". daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com. Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  10. ↑ Hughes, Tyler (3 July 2012). "The Astor Brownstone on 34th Street". The Gilded Age Era. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  11. ↑ Trager, James (2010). The New York Chronology: The Ultimate Compendium of Events, People, and Anecdotes from the Dutch to the Present. Zondervan. p. 287. ISBN 9780062018601. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 "MANSION TO HOUSE INDIA DIPLOMATS; East Sixty-fourth Street Home of Late Mrs. Orme Wilson Bought for Consulate". The New York Times. December 12, 1948. p. 6. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  13. 1 2 "MRS. ORME WILSON'S HOUSEWARMING; Entertainment at New Residence on East 64th Street. Musicale Attended by Three Hundred Guests Follows a Dinner -- Some of Those Present" (PDF). The New York Times. January 22, 1904. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "RICHARD T. WILSON DEAD.; Aged Head of Banking House Had Long Suffered from Heart Disease" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 November 1910. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  15. ↑ Joslin, Katherine (2009). Edith Wharton and the Making of Fashion. p. 53. ISBN 9781584657798. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  16. ↑ "Mrs. C. Vanderbilt Dies At Home Here. Leader of New York, Newport Society for Many Years Was Hostess to Royal Figures" (PDF). New York Times. January 8, 1953. Retrieved 2011-05-28. Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, still recognized as the leader of New York and Newport society although inactive in recent years, died of pneumonia last night at her home, 1048 Fifth Avenue. She was believed to have been in her eighty-third year.....
  17. ↑ "RICHARD T. WILSON, TURF LEADER, DEAD; Brother of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Succumbs to Pneumonia in 63d Year. HAD HEADED BANKING FIRM President of Association to Improve Breed of Horses--Won Many Victories on Track. Son of New York Banker. His Greatest Turf Victory" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 December 1929. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Dr. Amos L. Mason Dead.; Prominent Boston Physician Was Father of Mrs. Richard T. Wilson". The New York Times. 6 June 1914. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  19. ↑ "Betrothed to an Earl's Brother" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 June 1888. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  20. ↑ "Engaged to an Earl's Brother" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 June 1888. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  21. ↑ "SIR MICHAEL'S FUNERAL; Body of Late Ambassador Interred Ambassador Choate Present at Ceremony -- Simultaneous Services at St. James's Palace -- Exercises in Washington" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 October 1903. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  22. ↑ "WILSON DEATH PUTS MANY IN MOURNING; Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Mrs. Ogden Goelet Among Those Out of Social Activities" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 November 1910. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  23. ↑ "MRS. OGDEN GOELET DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Duchess of Roxburghe's Mother Long Noted for Her Lavish Entertaining. WAS HOSTESS TO ROYALTY Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, Among Guests--Sister of Mrs. Cornellus Vanderbilt and R.T. Wilson. Her Hospitality. Duchess of Roxburghe Daughter" (PDF). The New York Times. 24 February 1929. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  24. ↑ Moffat, R. Burnham (1904). The Barclays of New York: Who They Are And Who They Are Not, and Some Other Barclays. R. G. Cooke. p. 207. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  25. 1 2 "DIED. WILSON" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 April 1926. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  26. ↑ Armstrong, Zella; French, Janie Preston Collup (1922). Notable Southern Families. Lookout Publishing Company. p. 210. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  27. ↑ "Orme Wilson Dead; Ex-Envoy to Haiti" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 February 1966. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  28. ↑ "Orme Wilson Jr. - Department History". history.state.gov. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs United States Department of State. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  29. ↑ "R. Thornton Wilson Dies; Benefactor of Museums". The New York Times. 2 March 1977. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  30. ↑ "SUMNER WELLES WEDS MRS. POST; Former Diplomat and Daughter of Late Banker Married at Her Home on Fifth Ave" (PDF). The New York Times. January 9, 1952. p. 24. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  31. ↑ "MANY AT FUNERAL OF M. ORME WILSON; Bishop Manning and Drs. Stetson and Sutton Officiate--Burial in Woodlawn" (PDF). The New York Times. 6 April 1926. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  32. ↑ "SONS GET WILSON ESTATE; Chief Beneficiaries Under the Late Social Leader's Will" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 April 1926. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  33. ↑ "Mrs. Wilson Rites at Trinity Church" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 September 1948. p. 29. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  34. ↑ Ray, Alyssa (25 January 2022). "The Real-Life Socialites That Inspired Julian Fellowes' The Gilded Age". E! Online. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
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