Chapter 2

JOHN JACOB ASTOR.

Legitimate business the field of success--Reasons for claiming Astor as an American--Birth and early life--Religious training--The village of Waldorf--Poverty--The jolly butcher--Young Astor's repugnance to his father's trade--Unhappy at home--Loses his mother--His desire to emigrate to the "New Land"--Leaves home--His voyage down the Rhine--Reaches London and enters the service of his brother--His efforts to prepare for emigration--Learns to speak English--Peace between the United States and Great Britain--The road to the "New Land" open--Astor sets out for America--His first ventures in commerce--The voyage--How he proposed to save his Sunday clothes--Arrival in the Chesapeake--The ice-blockade--Astor makes a friend--The fur trader's story--Astor sees the way to fortune--Reaches New York--His first situation--Learning the business--His method of proceeding--An example to young men--His capacity for business operations--He is promoted--His journeys to Canada, and their results--Sets up in business for himself--The fur trade of North America--A survey of the field of Astor's operations--His capital--His tramps into the wilderness in search of furs--Predictions as to the future settlement of the country--His first consignment to England--His marriage--A good wife--Improvement in his prospects--Buys his first ship--The secret of his success--Close attention to business--His economical habits--His indorsement disputed by a bank clerk--Statements of the profits on furs--He engages in the Chinese trade--How the Government aided the early China traders--Amount made by Astor in his legitimate business--His real estate operations--His foresight and courage--How eight thousand dollars yielded eighty thousand--His real estate in the City of New York--Purchases the half of Putnam County--The Roger and Mary Morris estate controversy--Astor wins his suit, and makes half a million of dollars--Astor's scheme of colonization--A grand enterprise--Settlement of Astoria--Betrayed by his agents, and the scheme brought to failure--Astor withdraws from active business--His boyhood's vow and its fulfillment--Builds the Astor House--His voyage to Europe--The return--The troubles of a millionaire--The great man seasick--A curious draft--The last years of his life--His fondness for literary men--His death and burial--His will--Opposite views of his character--How his refusal to buy a chronometer cost him seventy thousand dollars--He remembers an old friend--His gift of a lease--His humor--"William has a rich father."