ASTOR, JOHN JACOB (1763-1848)

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 794 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ARN-AUD

ASTOR, JOHN JACOB (1763-1848) , American merchant, was born at the

village

VILLAGE

of Walldorf, near Heidelberg, Germany, on the 17th of July 1763. Until he was sixteen he worked in the shop of his father, a butcher; he then joined an elder brother in London, and there for four years was employed in the piano and flute factory of an uncle, of the firm of Astor & Broadwood. In 1783 he emigrated to America, and settled in New

York

, whither one of his brothers had previously gone. On the voyage he became acquainted with a fur-trader, by whose advice he devoted himself to the same business, buying furs directly from the Indians, preparing them at first with his own hands for the market, and selling them in London and elsewhere at a great profit. He was also the agent in New'

York

of the firm of Astor & Broadwood. By his energy, industry and sound judgment he gradually enlarged his operations, did business in all the fur markets of the world, and amassed an enormous fortune,the largest up to that time made by any American. He devoted many years to carrying out a project for organizing the fur trade from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, and' thence by way of the Hawaiian Islands to China and India. In 1811 he founded, at the mouth of the Columbia river a settlement named after him Astoria, which was intended to serve as the central depot; but two years later the settlement was seized and occupied by the English. The incidents of this undertaking are the theme of Washington Irving's Astoria. A

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of disasters frustrated the gigantic

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

. Astor made vast additions to, his wealth by investments in real estate. in New York City, and erected many buildings there, including the hotel known. as the Astor House. The last twenty-five years of his life were spent in retirement in New York City, where,. he died on the 29th of March 1848, his fortune then being estimated at about $30,600,000. He made various charitable bequests by his will, and among them a

gift

GIFT (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. die Gift, gift, das Gift, poison, formed from the Teut. stem gab-, to give, cf. Dutch geven, Ger. geben; in O. Eng. the word appears with initial y, the guttural of later English is due to Scandinavian influence)

of $50,000 to found an institution, opened as the " Astor House " in 1854, for the education of poor children and the relief of the aged and the destitute in his native

village

VILLAGE

in Germany. His

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

benefaction, however, was a bequest of $400,000 for the foundation and endowment of a public library in New York City, since known as the Astor library, and since 1895 part of the New York public library.
See Parton's Life of John Jacob Astor (New York, 1865).
His eldest son, WILLIAM BACKHOUSE ASTOR (1792-1875), inherited the greater part of his father's fortune, and chiefly by judicious investments in real estate greatly increased it. He was sometimes known as the " Landlord of New York." Under
his direction the building for the Astor library was erected, and to the library he gave about $550,000, including a bequest of $200,000. His son, JOHN JACOB ASTOR (1822-1890), was also well known as a capitalist and philanthropist, giving liberally to the Astor library.
The son of the last named, WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR (1848-
), served in the New York assembly in 1877, and in the state senate in 188o-81. He was United States minister to Italy from 1882 to 1885. He published two romances, Valentine (1885) and Sforza (1889). His wealth, arising from property in New York, where also he built the New Netherland hotel and the Waldorf hotel, was enormous. In 1890 he removed to England, and in 1899 was naturalized. In 1893 he became proprietor of the

Pall

PALL

Mall Gazette, and afterwards started the

Pall

PALL

Mall Magazine.

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