The Astor Family: The Fur Fortune, Mrs. Astor's 400, and the Colonel Who Died on the Titanic

In 1784, a German immigrant named John Jacob Astor arrived in America with almost nothing. By the time he died in 1848, he was the wealthiest man in the United States — first from the fur trade, then from a fortune in Manhattan real estate that would define his family for five generations. This is the full story of the Astor family: America's first great fortune, Caroline Astor's "Four Hundred" and the invention of Gilded Age high society, the bitter cousins' feud that built two rival hotels on Fifth Avenue, the branch of the family that crossed the Atlantic and became British nobility at Cliveden, Colonel John Jacob Astor IV's death aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912, and the story's final, sobering chapter — the elder financial abuse case brought against philanthropist Brooke Astor's own son in her final years. Subscribe to The Velvet Ledger for more true stories of old money, and what happens when it runs out. #TheVelvetLedger #AstorFamily #Titanic #OldMoney #GildedAge