Abraham Schermerhorn

Abraham Schermerhorn (April 9, 1783 – February 3, 1850) He was the father of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, who married William Backhouse Astor Jr. of the Astor family.

Early life Schermerhorn was born on April 9, 1783, in Hyde Park, New York, and baptized in New York City shortly thereafter. His brother, John P. Schermerhorn was married to Rebecca Stevens, the daughter of Ebenezer Stevens, and his sister, Jane Schermerhorn, was married to William Creighton. His maternal grandparents were Abraham Bussing, a dry goods merchant, and Elizabeth (née Mesier) Bussing. He was descended from Jacob Janse Schermerhorn, who settled in New York from the Netherlands in 1636.

Career Schermerhorn's father, like his grandfather and great-grandfather, was a commander and owner of shipping vessels trading between New York City and Charleston, South Carolina. From 1776 to 1783, during the American Revolutionary War, Schermerhorn and his family lived in Hyde Park, New York, to protect their vessels from British seizure. After the war ended, the family returned to New York City.

In 1808, Schermerhorn was admitted to his father's ship-chandlery firm, along with his brother Peter, which was renamed "Peter Schermerhorn & Sons."

After his father's death, he inherited 160 acres in Gowanus, Brooklyn which he later sold around 1835 for $600 an acre, (totaling $102,000) Schermerhorn was married to Helen Van Courtlandt White (1792–1881).

Henry White Schermerhorn (1810–1811), who died young. Augustus Van Courtlandt Schermerhorn (1812–1846), who married Ellen Bayard (1827–1845), daughter of Sen. James A. Bayard Jr., in 1844. who married General James I. Jones (1786–1858). who married Charles Suydam (1818–1882), son of Ferdinand Suydam and Eliza Bartow Suydam. who married John Treat Irving Jr. (1812–1906), a nephew of Washington Irving. the middle son of William Backhouse Astor Sr.

Descendants Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was a grandfather of Eleanor Colford Jones (1841–1906), who was married to Augustus Newbold Morris (1838–1906), a descendant of Declaration of Independence signer Lewis Morris, and who was a manager of the Home for Incurables at Fordham, a director of the Zoological Society, and a vice-president of the Plaza Bank.

Through his daughter Anna, he was a grandfather of Charles Schermerhorn Suydam (1850–1887), Walter Lispenard Suydam (1854–1830), and Helen Suydam (1858–1919), who in 1883 married Robert Fulton Cutting (1852–1934) (brother of William Bayard Cutting).

Through his daughter Helen, he was a grandfather of John Treat Irving III (1841–1936), Cortlandt Irving (1844–1915), a lawyer, Helen Cordelia Irving (1846–1929), Frances Rogers Irving (1849–1912), Edward Irving (1854–1880), and Marion Harwood Irving (1860–1877).

Through his daughter Katharine, he was a grandfather of Benjamin Sumner Welles Jr. (1857–1935) and great-grandfather of Benjamin Sumner Welles III (1892–1961), the United States Ambassador to Cuba and United States Under Secretary of State during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.

Through his daughter Caroline, he was a grandfather of Emily Astor (1854–1881), who married James John Van Alen (1848–1923), a sportsman/politician, Helen Schermerhorn Astor (1855–1893), who married James Roosevelt Roosevelt (1854–1927), a diplomat and the elder half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Charlotte Augusta Astor (1858–1920), who married James Coleman Drayton and, later, George Ogilvy Haig, Caroline Schermerhorn "Carrie" Astor (1861–1948), who married Marshall Orme Wilson (brother of banker Richard Thornton Wilson Jr. and socialite Grace Wilson Vanderbilt), and John Jacob Astor IV (1864–1912), who married Ava Lowle Willing (1868–1958) and, later, married socialite Madeleine Talmage Force (1893–1940), before perishing aboard the Titanic in 1912.

Legacy Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn, and the New York City Subway's Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets stop that serves Schermerhorn Street, was named in honor of Abraham and his brother Peter.