COLONEL ASTOR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3, 30 April 1912, Page 7

COLONEL ASTOR.

Colonel John Jacob Astor, one of the victims of the Titanic disaster, was the head of the well known American multi-millionaire family of that name, and was regarded as being one of the richest men in the world. As a young man Mr Astor held a position,, with; the rank of colonel, on the staff of. Dr. Levi P. Morton, who was Governor of New York Slate in 1895 and 1896. He received a .commission •as Lieutenant-Colonel in 1898. He served in the Amcrican-Spaniah war in 1898, and also presented the United States Government with a mountain battery for use in the war. In 1897 he built the Astoria Hotel in New York, adjoining the Waldorf Hotel, which was built by his cousin, Mr W. Waldorf Astor. He was the inventor of a bicycle brake, and a pneumatic road improver. He was also the author of some publications. Colonel Astor was married in 1891, at the age of 26, to Miss Ava Lowie Willing, who divorced him in 1909 on the grounds of unfaithfulness. There were 'two children of the marriage, a son and a daughter. After the divorce the Colonel invited his friends to a ball in honour of the event. The function was described as “a wildly extravagant affair.” The name of Colonel Astor was brought prominently before the public in August and Septembr last, in connection with his ,engagement and marriage to Miss Madeline Talmage Force,- a New York girl of only 18 years of age,' and the daugktpr of a New York The engagement was condemned in unmeasuredutonns by the ißpv., Dr. Richmond, of-Philadelphia, wjtrjse denudations the, bishops were.inclined to regard as* intemperate, but which were said to be fairly expressive of the church’s attitude. Mrs. Drown, president of the Federated Women’s Clubs, • declared' that 1 the" New York idea of changing wives few months was utterly subversive;,<ff .morality and common decency, and that it was even more abominable tlpjui the unions of old bmm and young girls. A renewed sensation was caused early in September by the refusal of the Rev. Frederick Brooks, a New York Methodist minister, to ,marry Colonel Astor to Miss Force. The pastor stated that he doejind to marry divorced persons, and the wedding had to he postponed till a week later, when the millionaire was secretly married. Before leaving in his yacht with his wife on their honeymoon tour, ho made a statement to the press to the effect that now ho was happily married he did not care how difficult divorce and remarriage might be made. Mr Astor, who was 47 years of ago, was a director of corporations whose capital amounts to £40,000,000.

Mrs Astor is a tall and graceful girl with a mass of brown hair and the strong features of the type magazine illustrators select as a representative style of American beauty. She is a year younger than the Colonel’s son Vincent, and but a little older than his daughter Muriel, who is now in the custody of her mother, who lives in London.