Astors, had made a fortune initially through the fur trade, and later through investing in New York City real estate. Despite the wealth of the Astor family, Lina had the superior pedigree as a member of an old Knickerbocker (original 1600's Dutch settlers of Manhattan) family. Together, they had five children: Emily Astor (1854–1881), who married James John Van Alen (1848–1923), a sportsman/politician, and had three children. Helen Schermerhorn Astor (1855–1893), who married James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt (1854–1927), a diplomat and the elder half-brother of future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and had two children. Charlotte Augusta Astor (1858–1920), who married James Coleman Drayton and had four children. She later married George Ogilvy Haig. Caroline Schermerhorn "Carrie" Astor (1861–1948), who married Marshall Orme Wilson, the brother of banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. and socialite Grace Graham Wilson, in 1884 and had two sons. John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV (1864–1912), who married Ava Lowle Willing (1868–1958), a socialite, and had two children, later married socialite Madeleine Talmage Force (1893–1940), sister of real estate businesswoman/socialite Katherine Emmons Force, and had one son, born after he perished in the Titanic disaster. Socialite Although popularly imagined as wholly preoccupied with "Society", for the first several decades of her married life, Lina Astor was principally occupied with raising her five children and running her household, as was typical of women of her class in mid-19th-century New York City. Due to an inheritance from her parents, Lina had her own money, thus she was far less dependent on her husband than most American women of the time. In 1862, she and her husband built a four-bay townhouse in the newly fashionable brownstone style at 350 Fifth Avenue, the present site of the Empire State Building. The home was next door to her husband's elder brother, John Jacob Astor III; the two families were next-door neighbors for 28 years, although the Astor brothers' wives did not get along. The Astors also maintained a grand "summer cottage" in Newport, Rhode Island, called Beechwood, which had a ballroom large enough to fit "The 400" – the most fashionable socialites of the day. It also neighbored his brother's family, who lived at Beaulieu. The Gatekeeper In the decades following the Civil War the population of New York City grew almost exponentially, and immigrants and wealthy arrivistes from the Midwest began challenging the dominance of the old New York Establishment. Aided by