John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor
Born	Johann Jacob Astor July 17, 1763 Walldorf, Palatinate, Germany
Died	March 29, 1848 (aged 84) Manhattan, New York, United States
Resting place	Trinity Churchyard Cemetery, Manhattan
Nationality	German; USA since 1789
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	First multi-millionaire in the United States
Net worth	Estimated $110.1 Billion in 2006 Dollars[1] in 1848 USD20mln, about 1% of U.S.GDP
Religion	Reformed[2]
Spouse	Sarah Todd Astor
Children	Magdalen Astor Bristed John Jacob Astor II William Backhouse Astor, Sr. Dorothee Astor Langdon Eliza Astor von Rumpff
Parents	Johann Jacob and Magdalena Astor
Relatives	John Henry Astor (elder brother) George Astor (eldest brother)
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John Jacob Astor (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848), born Johann Jakob Astor,^[3] was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate and opium.^[4]

Astor's career began with working in Germany as assistant in his father's business as travelling butcher. In 1779 at age 16 he emigrated to London, where his brother George was a flute maker.^[5] John Jacob then went to the United States following the American Revolutionary War and built a fur-trading empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast. In the early 19th century he diversified into New York City real estate and later became a famed patron of the arts. At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was the most opulent person in the United States, leaving an estate estimated to be worth at least $20 million. His estimated net worth, if calculated as a fraction of the U.S. gross domestic product at the time, would have been equivalent to $110.1 billion in 2006 U.S. dollars, making him the fourth richest person in American history.^[1] An estimate based on inflation from the legally set American gold standard rate of $21 per ounce in the 1850s^[6] would result in a much more conservative net worth of $1.272 billion in 2011^[7] dollars.

Biography

Early life

John Jacob Astor's ancestors were Waldensian refugees from Savoy, and Astor remained a member of the Reformed church throughout his life.^[2] He was born in Walldorf,^[8][9] near Heidelberg in the old Palatinate which became part of the Duchy of Baden in 1803, Germany (currently in the Rhein-Neckar County in the State of Baden-Württemberg). His father Johann Jacob Astor (July 7, 1724-April 18, 1816) was a butcher. The son John Jacob Astor learned English in London while working for his brother, George Astor, manufacturing musical instruments.

Astor arrived in the United States in March 1784, just after the end of the Revolutionary War. He traded furs with Indians and then he started a fur goods shop in New York City in the late 1780s. He also became the New York agent of his brother's musical instrument business.^[10]

He married Sarah Todd on September 19, 1785.^[11] She brought him a dowry of only $300, but she possessed a frugal mind and a business judgment that he declared to be better than that of most merchants, and she assisted him in the practical details of his business.^[12]

Fortune from fur trade

Astor took advantage of the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1794, which opened new markets in Canada and the Great Lakes region. Then in London, Astor at once made a contract with the Northwest Company of Montreal and Quebec (then the magnate of the Canadian Northwest fur trade). He imported furs from Montreal to New York, and shipped them to all parts of Europe.^[13] By 1800 he had amassed almost a quarter of a million dollars, and had become one of the leading figures in the fur trade. In 1800, following the example of the Empress of China, the first American trading vessel to China, Astor traded furs, teas and sandalwood with Canton in China, and greatly benefited from it.

The US Embargo Act in 1807, however, disrupted his import/export business. With the permission of President Jefferson, Astor established the American Fur Company on April 6, 1808. He later formed subsidiaries: the Pacific Fur Company, and the Southwest Fur Company (in which Canadians had a part), in order to control fur trading in the Columbia River and Great Lakes areas.

His Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria (established in April 1811) was the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–12 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover South Pass, through which hundreds of thousands settlers on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails passed through the Rocky Mountains.

Astor's fur trading ventures were disrupted when the British captured his trading posts during the War of 1812. His business rebounded in 1817 after the U.S. Congress passed a protectionist law that barred foreign traders from U.S. territories. The American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes. In 1822, Astor established the Astor House on Mackinac Island as headquarters for the reorganized American Fur Company, making the island a metropolis of the fur trade. A lengthy description based on documents, diaries etc. was given by Washington Irving in his travelogue Astoria. Astor's commercial connections extended over the entire globe, and his ships were found in every sea.^[10]

In 1804, Astor purchased from Aaron Burr what remained of a 99-year lease on property in Manhattan. At the time, Burr was serving as vice president under Thomas Jefferson and desperately needed the purchase price of $62,500. The lease was to run until 1866. Astor began subdividing the land into nearly 250 lots and subleased them. His conditions were that the tenant could do whatever they wish with the lots for twenty-one years, after which they must renew the lease or Astor would take back the lot.

Real estate and retirement

In the 1830s, John Jacob Astor foresaw that the next big boom would be the build-up of New York, which would soon emerge as one of the world’s greatest cities. Astor withdrew from the American Fur Company, as well as all his other ventures, and used the money to buy and develop large tracts of Manhattan real estate. Predicting the rapid growth northward on Manhattan Island, Astor purchased more and more land beyond the current city limits. Astor rarely built on his land, and instead let others pay rent to use it.

Post-fur trading; Last will

After retiring from his business, Astor spent the rest of his life as a patron of culture. He supported the ornithologist John James Audubon, the poet/writer Edgar Allan Poe, and the presidential campaign of Henry Clay.

At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was the wealthiest person in the United States, leaving an estate estimated to be worth at least $20 million (Estimated $110.1 Billion in 2006 Dollars); he has been estimated to be the fourth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP.^[14] In his will, he left $400,000 to build the Astor Library for the New York public (later consolidated with other libraries to form New York Public Library), as well as $50,000 for a poorhouse and orphanage in his German hometown, Walldorf. The Astorhaus is now a museum honoring the city's ancestor Johann Jakob Astor and a renowned festhall for marriages. Further Astor donated $25,000 to the German Society of the City of New York, whos chairman he was from 1837 until 1841. Also $30,000 were to be used for a professor's chair in German literature at Columbia University, but due to differences with the deanship this donation was erased from the testament.

Astor left the bulk of his fortune to his second son, William Backhouse Astor, Sr. His eldest son, John Jacob II, had a mental disability and Astor left enough money to care for him for the rest of his life.

John Jacob Astor is buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in the New York City borough of Manhattan because many members of his family were members of that church despite Astor remaining a member of the local Reformed congregation to his death.^[2] Herman Melville used Astor as a symbol of the earliest fortunes in New York in his novella Bartleby, the Scrivener.

The pair of marble lions that sit by the entrance of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street were originally named Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, after Astor and James Lenox, who founded the library. Then they were called Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (both lions are males). Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia renamed them "Patience" and "Fortitude" during the Great Depression.

Descendants