John Astor was born
in Waldorf, Germany. At age 20 he came to the United States, first to Baltimore
and later to New York City. Having few resources, he worked in a variety of
jobs—as a bakery assistant, a peddler and manager of a music store.
John Astor was born
in Waldorf, Germany. At age 20 he came to the United States, first to Baltimore
and later to New York City. Having few resources, he worked in a variety of
jobs—as a bakery assistant, a peddler and manager of a music store.
In 1787, Astor entered the fur trade and in a few years became one of the wealthiest men in America. He simplified his business by dealing directly with Native American trappers and established two successful companies, the American Fur Company (1808) and the Pacific Fur Company (1810).
His dream was to establish a single trading company with headquarters at the mouth of the Columbia River, and serve the entire American West. Toward that end, in 1811 he erected a trading station at the site of present-day Astoria, Oregon.
Astor's fort helped employees get through the harsh winters. The British
blockaded the post during the War of 1812. In 1813 British armies took over the
fort and Astor sold out to them. The fort was retaken by US forces in 1818. The
site of that fort is now named Astoria, after the man who funded the expedition
to establish a trade route that would provide for the future.
Pioneers would soon follow the Oregon Trail laid down by the explorers who had
come before them. They settled the lands of Clatsop County, by 1860 the
population was 498. Only 20 years later, the population had boomed to 7,222.
Source: http://www.stateoforegon.com/cgi-bin/cities/history.pl?&city=astoria
John Jacob Astor was born in 1763 in Waldorf, a hamlet lying between Heidelberg and the Rhine. He was the fifth child and fourth son of Jacob Astor, a butcher. Jacob Astor was described as a "worthy man," a cautious and wise father who did not deprive his son of good advice and set him a good example. His first wife died in 1767 and in 1769 he re-married and started a new family. This arrangement did not make John Jacob happy at home--even though when his schooling ended at fourteen he became his father's assistant in the butcher shop. He decided then that this life of chopping up meat and carting it about did not appeal to him at all--he started to plan on how he could escape. An older brother, Peter, was in London where he had been originally employed by a firm of piano makers; and had then, on his own, become a manufacturer of musical instruments. (There is an Astor piano today in the Metropolitan Museum, and two in England belonging to the Astor family). Another brother had immigrated to New York where he was following his father's trade as a successful butcher. John Jacob, at sixteen, decided it was time to leave home, but to which brother should he go? He chose England because it was nearer, and so, with a bundle over his shoulders and a crown of two in his pocket, he set off to walk to the Rhine and find his way from there on to London. He spoke no English but he wished to learn the language and also to make enough money to pay his way to America.
He stayed in London until 1783, waiting wisely for the war between Britain and America to end. He had saved fifteen pounds by this time and was ready to pay ten pounds for his steerage passage over, thus leaving only five pounds in his pocket. The money thus paid out guaranteed him not only the passage, but salt beef and biscuit for the voyage. Finally, after four months on board, he arrived in Baltimore and from there went on to New York to join his brother.
It was a stroke of luck for him that his brother Henry had just married and had no room for him at his home, so he was sent to a friend named George Dieterich who also came from Waldorf and who was a baker. He set young John Jacob to work peddling doughnuts, cakes and cookies to small shops in the neighborhood. It was in this way that John Jacob Astor became acquainted with the city and was able to meet people. But he soon got tired of this rather uninspiring work and left Dieterich to sell his flutes which he still owned and started buying furs to sell, on a small scale. He soon (rather miraculously, I think) had enough money to go to England with furs and return with more musical instruments.
He was, at this time, working for a man called Robert Bowne, who was actively engaged in the fur trade and may have engaged young Astor on a commission basis. He was paying him a retaining salary of $2.00 a week. So John Jacob Astor not only traded furs in England, but became a sort of Bum Boat Man--selling cheap jewelry, beads, etc. on board ships in port.
Things must have begun looking up because in 1785, at the age of twenty-two, he married Sarah Todd in the German Reformed Church. Sarah's family were quite a cut above Astor. She was connected by marriage with several sea captains, and also Henry Brevoort who was a man of standing and influence in New York. My husband, Vincent, used to say that one of the reasons for the various Astors success was that they always married above themselves! It became a family tradition he said, as later on they married with the Schermerhorns and Willings and Beekmans. Sarah Todd was not only well born, but she was also rich, as she brought $300 with her as a dowry.
Soon after his marriage, John Jacob opened a music store, selling pianos, guitars, clarinets, hautboys, flutes and violins and, of course, music books. With a wife to help mind the store, Astor became more involved in the fur trade. At first going up to Albany on foot to buy furs, later, sailing up the Hudson on a sloop. He also started, at this time, visits to Canada and in five years, after arriving in New York, he had made enough money to enable him to go into the real estate business. He started by buying two lots in the Bowery, then two more by the docks and gradually accumulating more and more. He was able to pay 812 pounds for one choice lot, which gives one an idea of how rapidly he had amassed money in the first five years--in fact, he was able to put out in all 2,359 pounds 108 shillings.
Thus he had in a very short time changed his situation from baker's boy and furrier's clerk and peddler to be a man of substance, a recognized merchant intent in the sale of furs and musical instruments and owner of quite a bit of property and a pretty wife connected with many of the upper class families of New York City.
To us today, his life seems almost like rubbing Aladdin's lamp. His interests were so wide and varied and he was making money out of them all! The fur trade was, of course, the most exotic and fascinating because it brought him into contact with so many lands and people--starting out with the Northeast and Canada. His interests became so far flung that it was not long before he was selling not only to Western Europe but to Russia; and then on to the Pacific and China. He had his own fleet of ships which, supposedly by 1816, comprised a flotilla of 240 boats containing two traders and from four to six hands. They sailed the Atlantic as well as the Pacific and carried other consignments apart from their own cargo.
One little side adventure which became a lucrative monopoly was the Sandalwood trade. This came about because one of his ships with a particularly trusted captain in command put into port in Hawaii and while there struck a deal with the King, who got Sandalwood from the various island chiefs as a sort of tax. As the wood cost the King nothing, he was willing to buy enormous quantities of expensive goods at a price in Sandalwood which, when reduced to dollars, was extremely high. The Sandalwood was then sold in Canton which offered a ready market, as the wood was used as incense in Josh Houses.
The story of the battles his ships had with pirates, and his fur trappers with Indians, or his rather sly dealings with the British during the War of 1812, his friendships with Aaron Burr and Presidents Madison and Monroe, and, of course, his great literary friendship with Washington Irving, who he commissioned to write "Astoria" (the story of his dream of western conquest, which failed)--all of these men would not have befriended Astor if he had not had some intellectual qualities. He was, of course, the founder of the New York Public Library, to which he left his very considerable collection of fine books and $500,000. There would be no public library in New York today if it was not for John Jacob Astor. His story makes for marvelous reading--particularly as he never learned to write English properly and, I believe, spoke always with a strong accent.
http://gos.sbc.edu/a/astor.html
Address To The German Society
by Brooke Astor
April 22, 1981
Following the war, Astor invested in a small fleet of ships to carry his furs to Europe and the Far East, particularly China. This international trade was immensely profitable, allowing Astor to invest heavily in farmland on Manhattan Island. Those parcels quickly became midtown properties, further enriching Astor. In 1834, he sold his fur businesses and retired to manage his considerable assets.