Extending the Fur Trade

The early part of John Jacob Astor's life was a struggle, in which anxiety and disappointment often played a prominent part, yet he was never conquered by discouragement. Each failure impelled him to more active self-improvement, to a more comprehensive study of the world. He was most assidious in his pursuit of commercial knowledge, and never tired of enquiring about the markets of Europe and Asia, the ruling prices, the goods to be bought, and the standing of business houses.

As he journeyed through the woods of the distant frontiers, in his search for furs, he had discovered where he might establish fur stations to advantage, along the borders of Canada and in the region of the Great Lakes; and later employed a host of trappers, collectors and agents. He organized routes for his men on Long Island; in New York State along the present line of the Erie Railroad; through New Jersey and Northern Pennsylvania; from Albany to Buffalo; and up the Hudson to Lake Champlain, and on to Montreal. A remarkable fact about these trails of the fur trader was, that nearly all were along the lines of future railways, which terminate in New York to-day.

Between 1790 and 1800, Mr. Astor 's business developed with remarkable rapidity. New York continued to be his headquarters, where the great fur merchant himself rose early, lived plainly, and was indefatigable in his activity. His habits were methodical, and he constantly added to his knowledge of finances on a large scale, while he mastered the minutest details of his business.

That John Jacob Astor was as keen a judge of men as of skins, added a large factor to his success, and caused the men in his employ, both in the counting room and in the fur country, to render him the best service of which they were capable.

Before the close of the century his interests reached to the Mississippi, then the limit of settlement in the United States. He had ceased to send his furs to England in other men's vessels. Beginning by chartering a ship, with his brother-in-law, Captain William Whettan in command, his cargo was sold at a large profit, and the vessel returned laden with Astor and Broadwood musical instruments, and goods to be used in the fur trade. Soon he was able to buy a ship of his own, and his ships multiplied until he had a fleet of a dozen vessels afloat.

One of Mr. Astor's clerks was William W. Todd, a nephew of his wife's. He entered the Astor office as a clerk when a boy, and continued in Mr. Astor's employ for several years. Cornelius Heeney was a clerk with Mr, Astor at the same time, and William Roberts at a later date. When young Todd was sixteen, Mr. Astor sent him to Canada to buy furs. It was a journey of three or four weeks to Montreal. Seven days were spent on a sloop making the trip up the Hudson to Albany, then four more in an open wagon to Whitehall. Here he was blocked by a snow storm for nine days. After this he walked about fifty miles, at the rate of twelve miles a day. Young Todd enjoyed his trip up the Hudson and on to Lake Champlain, although of a strenuous nature, as much as Mr. Astor had at an earlier period. There was the zest of adventure about this form of traveling, which any live boy would have enjoyed.

But these trips were not a summer holiday, and the young man became rich in practical experience, when he found himself wrecked on Lake Cliamplain. Perhaps the catastrophe, though not fatal, left its mark upon him, for his succeeding journey on foot through the wintry forests so exhausted him, that while crossing the St. Lawrence on the ice, he sank down numbed with cold, and was unable to proceed further.

At first he was not missed, and would undoubtedly have perished, had not a companion discovered his absence. Turning back over the icy trail, they found the young man unable to walk, and carried him across to the other shore. Mr. Astor had given his nephew letters to the priests in a college in Montreal. Here he remained, studying French for six months, at the end of which time he wrote his uncle that he was tired of Canada, and obtained permission to return home.

It was not an idle season the lad had spent, aside from his studies; for the young clerk made constant trips alone to neighboring Indian villages, buying up all the skins they had on hand—northern beaver, raccoon, marten and deer skins, both Indian-dressed and in the hair. One trip took him to the villages by the Lake of Two Mountains, where he bought up all the marten skins to be gotten. From this excursion he baled up about five hundred peltries, and the journey which began so disasterously, was turned into a marked success.

A clerk in Mr. Astor's employ had various occupations. Young Todd, when back in New York, was one day sent down to Tammany Hall to sell bucktails. Members of the Tammany Society were in the habit of wearing the tale of the deer in their hats, on certain festive occasions, which gave them and their supporters in New York State the name of the "Bucktail Party."

Another clerk of Mr. Astor's was sent to Communipaw on an equally interesting errand. This time it was not to sell, but to buy wampum from the Dutch "by the bushel," to be used in purchasing skins from distant Indian tribes.

A string of wampum six feet long was worth four guilders (one dallar and a half.) Six feet was as much as a man could reach with his arms outstretched. A bit of Indian shrewdness in selling wampum, was to select their largest and tallest man for a measuring stick.

The Dutch were in the habit of purchasing wampum, since it was exchangeable currency between them and the Indians, and on Sunday the collecting bags attached to long poles, gathered a full harvest of these Indian sheckles.

Some of the Indians on Long Island made a business of forming the sea shells into Indian money and orna- ments, calling this Indian mint, "The Land of Shell." The larger part of this currency was made from periwinkles and clams, or the inside of oyster shells. The shells were rounded into proper shape, and became the paper money of the Indians. All fur traders provided themselves with wampum, before they undertook to trade with the red men for skins. The current value of the round shells, used in this way, was six beads of white, or three heads of black wampum, for an English penny.

The furs collected by Mr. Astor's agents were shipped to England. On the return voyage the ships brought over English merchandise, on both of which cargoes he made large profits. In spite of an ample business success, Mr. Astor's home remained unostentatious. It was not until 1800, when he was said to be worth a quarter of a million, that he gave himself the luxury of a home apart from his business.

In the years immediately following the turn of the century, his store was at 71 Liberty street, and his house at 223 Broadway, on the site of the old Astor House. Here he continued to live for a quarter of a century. Increased wealth did not produce increased self-indulgence. Mr. Astor's pleasures were simple. He enjoyed a pipe, a glass of beer, and a game of checkers.

The simplicity of his life allowed him to glide into a millionaire, without the knowledge of those about him.

"A story he enjoyed telling was that of a young bank clerk, who questioned one day the sufficiency of his name on a piece of mercantile paper. Mr. Astor asked him how much he thought he was worth.

Evidently the clerk felt his own importance, and was ready with an answer that fully betrayed his ignorance of the financial status of the man before him. Mr Astor then drew him on to give an estimate of how much several other well-known merchants were worth, and the young man replied, gauging each in turn according to his style of living.

'Well,' said Mr. Astor, 'I will not name any figure, but I am worth more than any sum you have mentioned.'

'Then,' returned the clerk, glibly, 'you are a greater fool than I took you for, to work hard as you do.'"

This answer sent the fur merchant away chuckling, for he always enjoyed a joke. "He had great contempt for the style of living which used up the incomes of prosperous years, without regard to inevitable times of commercial collapse. He had also a strong disapproval of illegitimate speculation, especially gambling in stocks."

In the later nineties Mr. Astor still arose early, as his custom continued to be through life; but in spite of a vast and most varied business, whose details were all held in his capable hands and masterful brain, he often left his office in the middle of the afternoon, and after an early dinner, mounted his horse and rode over the island, resting nerves and brain while he breathed in the salt breezes from the bay, or the fresh country air of the roads leading out of the city.

It was John Jacob Astor's own feet which led him to the fur country, discounting hundreds of miles in the search after, and the purchase of furs; but it was his good horse that carried him over Manhattan, and started him on the road to an ownership in land, equal to any of the manors granted to American settlers by foreign Crowns.

Mr. Astor was an enthusiastic Mason, and belonged to Holland Lodge No. 8. In 1798, we have the record that he was a Master Mason. In 1801, he became grand treasurer of the Knight Templar Encampment, and was Sir John Astor.

The secretary of the Trustees of the German Reformed Church still continued to record, in 1803, that "Consistory met with John Jacob Astor in his Broadway home."