Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1914 — HELEN DINSMORE HUNTINGTON WILL BECOME BRIDE OF VINCENT ASTOR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HELEN DINSMORE HUNTINGTON WILL BECOME BRIDE OF VINCENT ASTOR

Young New York Multi-Millionaire and Charming American Girl to Marry on April 30—Couple Have Been Acquainted From In-fancy-Mother of Prospective Groom Arrives From Europe to Witness the Ceremony.

New York. — On the last day of April a most notable society event will take place up the Hudson —the marriage of the head of one of the greatest American houses, Vincent Astor, and Helen Dlnsmore Huntington, daughter of another line which has long been prominent in American affairs. The recent arrival from Europe of the mother of the bridegroom-to-be, Mrs. Ava Willing Astor, the refitting of t!e famous yacht Noma and announcement of the wedding so shortly before the date set today are concentrating the attention of society folk upon the young couple. Through the winter there was much mystery about their plans. Many hinted at a secret wedding. It was thought the Noma was to be used for a mysterious purpose. This idea was fostered largely by the simple tastes of the young couple. The bride-to-be has extracted from her betrothed a promise that they will spend most of their lives on the beautiful banks of the Hudson, where she was brought up and where Astor’s 5,000acre Ferncliffe estate lies. She is not unsociable, nor at all ignorant of ballrooms, theaters and “doings,” but she cares not a whit for the formal side of society. The wedding will be a country ceremony, either at Hopeland House, the mansion on the Huntington estate, or In the little country church nearby. Young Astor has not been very well this winter. He has suffered from pneumonia and bronchitis. It will be remembered that his mother almost despaired of his life at the age of eight, when she hurried him oft to St Moritz.

From the life Miss Huntington has led so far it is to be expected that she and her husband will spend much time In the open. The tall, blonde girl of twenty was brought up almost entirely on the big Huntington and Dinsmore places along the Hudson, which were once held by her grandfather, William B. Dinsmore, late president of the Adams Express company. She went to school in Dobbs Ferry, which isn’t a great distance from her home, and she has spent some winters in New York city. Her first quarrel with Vincent came at the age of nine—he being then eleven. She had planted an oak tree, when three years old, with the aid of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Huntington. The tree had grown for six years and she proudly took her little visitor from “up the road” out to look at it. Astor remarked, with a critical eye, it would take some years for the tree to be big enough to climb in. The visit ended abruptly right there, but the next day Vincent sought and obtained pardon over the telephone. At the time the Staten Island Shipbuilding company began to rip out the fittings of the Noma, It was naturally

surmised that she was to be the •'honeymoon ship.” Then it was understood that the swift little craft was to make a pre-nuptial cruise across the Atlantic, through the Mediterranean and up the Nile with the young couple an 2 their mothers. This would have been following the course taken by the late Col. John Jacob Astor on his honeymoon trip which ended with the sinking of the ill-fated Titanic. But young Astor said “No” to both these reports and set the gossips still further speculating. If Astor does not use the Noma he has many other means of slipping out of the country. There are, first, his numerous high-powered automobiles. Then he has a crack hydroplane that do as 35 miles an hour, and If he carries out his plans will soon own a hydroaeroplane. Being an expert mechanic, he usually spurns the assistance of a professional chauffeur. But the Noma's engines have been prepared for a long cruise. Entirely new boilers have been installed. Captain Dangan of the Noma has been instructed by Mr. Astor to fly no pen nants when the yacht leaves the shipyards and steals up the Hudson to Bblnecliff. > 5 The landing is only a few miles distant from Femcliffe and from Hopeland House, the graceful and stately i Huntington mansion on the estate of the late William B. Dlnsmore. Alto-

gether it is pretty safe to assert that “Astor” will be often In the headlines the next few months and that New York newspaper reporters will have several merry little chases to amuse them. Meanwhile Astor 1b working hard to make money to get married, like any other young man. He has run up three or four new apartment houses, several loft buildings of fine character and a unique bachelor chambers enterprise just off Times square, which is modeled after the famous Albany of London. He gets down to business in the Astor estate offices at No. 23 West Twenty-sixth street regularly at halfpast nine or ten o’clock every morning, and he stays there until what is to be done Is done. When it is necessary he is to be found there evenings also, although the Astor money-mak-ing machine is running very smoothly under his direction and that of the

able counselors he Inherited from his father. If the tale bearers are to be believed Miss Huntington isn’t wasting her pennies these days, despite the fact that her family has been in the millionaire class many decades. It is related that she came out of the Carlton House recently and walked Forty-seventh street toward Fifth avenue. She was gowned for a fashionable wedding she was to attend that afternoon, but first she Was going to visit her fiance, just then laid up with a cold. Past taxi after taxi walked the future mistress of the Astor house until she arrived at the corner of the avenue. Here she waited patiently until an omnibus came along. It was a cold day and the Interior was pretty crowded, but she managed to wedge in. The taxi fare could not legally have been over 50 cents, but Miss Huntington, despite her fine attire, preferred the other mode of

conveyance. There wm 40 cents more for her trousseau. The coming wedding, set for April 30, is the absorbing topic in New York society circles. William Vincent Astor, son of the late Col. John Jacob Astor, who perished aboard the Titanic, is now twen-ty-three years old and head of the Astor estate. His fortune is estimated at between seventy-five million and one hundred million dollars. His enormous Manhattan real ''estate holdings are very productive. Since young Astor took hold on his father’s death, two years ago, he has done a great deal of building, erecting many large apartment houses and loft buildings. Be-

sides his considerable business activity, he has worked in municipal politics against Tammany hall and has interested himself in social causes. Except for a speed passion, expressing itself in numerous high-powered automobiles and hydroplanes, with a hydroaeroplone in prospect, he is a quiet, hard-working young man, who seems destined to be a leader of the rising generation. Miss Huntington is two years his junior, and possesses an open-air, breezy type of beauty. Her tastes are simple and run to dogs, horses, boating and country life. She is a daughter of Henry P. Huntington, the architect. Her great-grandfather assisted in founding the Adams Express company. The members of her family are very wealthy, although their fortunes are far surpassed by the Astor s’. \ _ Mrs. John Astor, who divorced her husband, was once called the most aristocratically beautiful woman in the United States. She spends most of her time abroad.

Helen Dinsmore Huntington.

Vincent Astor.

Mrs. Ava Willing Astor.