Gathering the Threads Together

Like the ships ever sailing by his home, at the gate of Long Island Sound, bound for some safe harbor, so Mr. Astor's life glided quietly away in this ideal retreat for the evening-tide. He had passed the turmoil and the storms of life, and the dangerous reefs, and was sailing into port. The great venturer died on the morning of March 29th, 1848.

The funeral took place from the home of his son, William B. Astor, in Lafayette Place, being conducted according to the liturgy of the Episcopal Church, in which church many of his children and grandchildren were communicants. The pall bearers, David B. Ogden, Judge Oakley, Washington Irving, Ramsey Crooks, Isaac Bell, Sylvanus Miller, James G. King, Albert Gallatin, Jacob Taylor and Philip Hone, represented by their names and personalities, their sympathy and co-operation in the varied interests and activities that had filled the life of this remarkable man.

The gathering of Mr. Astor's great fortune, with its daring ventures, and ultimate successes, had been a matter of interest to a vast number of people during his lifetime. How he had disposed of it at his death, held their attention no less. In the course of sixty years, John Jacob Astor had accumulated an estate, which was variously estimated to be from twenty to thirty million dollars. He was accustomed to say: "The first hundred thousand dollars—that was hard to get; but afterwards it was easy to make more." Not over two million of his large fortune came as the fruits of the fur business, lucrative as that business had been.

By far the larger part of the first Astor estate, was the result of the founder's clear-sighted vision as to the future of New York city, and in consequence, his large investments in real estate. As has been alreadv said, Washington Irving, together with other of Mr. Astor's friends, were made his executors, and also trustees of the Astor Library.

Much as the great financier loved and admired his adopted country, he had retained a few old world ideas, which had not been shaken by the experiences of life, or a different environment from that of his youth. The bulk of his property he passed down to his son, William B. Astor, who had already inherited a large fortune from his uncle Henry Astor, making him the richest man in the new world.

The blood tie was very strong in this German-American. The most generous instincts of his heart were wound about his family and those near of kin; and not only his son, William B., but all others connected with him, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces, were remembered in his will, with an evident desire to comfortably provide for them all. Even the descendants of the brother who had stayed in Germany, John Melchior Astor, were left annuities.

For his unfortunate son he made careful provision,—in the building of a house for him in Fourteenth Street, near Ninth Avenue, which was to be his for life, with ample provision for the most solicitous attention. A pathetic touch in this particular bequest, was the clause which stipulated that if his son should ever be restored to the use of his faculties, he was to have an increased yearly income of one hundred thousand dollars. This fond hope of a father's heart was never fulfilled, but the tenderest care for the unfortunate one was evidenced in the plans made for him.

Mr. Astor's legacies to benevolent objects were as wise and practical as they had been through life. The four hundred thousand dollars for the Astor Library was the largest bequest, followed by the fifty thousand dollars for the Astorhaus in his native village. To the German Society, which he joined soon after coming to America, and to which he was ever loyal, he gave thirty thousand dollars, "on condition of their investing it in bond and mortgage, and applying it for the purpose of keeping an office, and giving advice and information, without charge, to all immigrants arriving in New York, and for the purpose of protecting them against imposition." This element of looking backward, and smoothing the rugged path for others, over which he, himself, had courageously trodden, was conspicuous in the great financier's plans and bequests.

To the Home for Aged Ladies he gave thirty thousand dollars. The Blind Asylum and Half-Orphan Asylum, and the German Reformed Church, of which he was a member, were also remembered. The will was considered by many to show "good sense and good feeling," and where it failed to meet certain obligations, Mr. Astor had left his son William B., a living representative, who in a number of cases added to his father's bequests; and as years went by, continued his interest and his gifts to the benevolent objects in which his father had been interested.

From youth to old age John Jacob Astor had a remarkable personality. His formative years held unusual phases of character building. There were the years of impressionable boyhood when he held bravely to a star of hope, which shone only fitfully in the gloom of his environment. There were years in an unknown country, with a strange language about him, when he clung to a purpose which required unending industry, unwearied patience, unswerving loyalty to the right. Believing in these years "that knowledge was power," he used every means at his command to train his mind for future usefulness. Once more he stood the test in a strange land, surrounded by hundreds of visionaries and schemers, and young men who had thrown off the yoke of home influence, to live a free life in a free land. Here again he bent his energies to the acquisition of knowledge through all the avenues open to him, and these avenues of education and cultivation grew in number as his life broadened and progressed.

It was these early years and tests, which in the end, identified the name of John Jacob Astor with ideas of honesty and industry, boundless energy and untiring enterprise. To these, he added, as his life was more and more intertwined with that of his adopted country,—patriotism and public service.

Something of an inherited courage and daring, projected into new channels, called John Jacob Astor out from the old life, and imbued him at an early age with a vision of success. Earnestness and faith accompanied him like a body-guard. They lifted him over obstacles, and spurred him on to fresh exertion after each repulse. As the years went by, his enthusiasm fired others, thus carrying into new regions American rights and interests, and turning the hearts and minds of men to the great west. Running parallel with the desire for personal benefit in his great enterprises, was a deep-seated loyalty and patriotism toward the young Republic of which he was a part.

Irving writes of Mr. Astor: "He began his career, of course, on the narrowest scale; but he brought to the task a persevering industry, a rigid economy, and strict integrity. To these were added, an inspiring spirit that always looked upward; a genius, bold, fertile and expansive; a sagacity quick to grasp and convert every circumstance to its advantage, and a singular and neverwavering confidence of signal success."

His friend and intimate companion, Joseph G. Cogswell, gives this brief description of the great financier: "He was a man of fine personal appearance, his features bearing the stamp of intellectual sagacity, and of commanding and pleasing address." He also adds: "John Jacob Astor's liberality was princely."

Still another writer says of the great financier: "He was a shrewd and enterprising man of business, yet large-hearted and public-spirited to a fault."

Others, in speaking of his face, have said it showed, "a spirit of meditation, patient courage, masterful resolve." He concentrated his thought, and all his resources on the object he wished to attain. He relied upon his own judgment rather than that of others, but not without the fullest information he could gain in regard to any of his operations. He was fond of saying: "An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory." Ingenuity, and making the most of an unexpected opportunity, often saved the day for him, when a less ingenious man would have failed. Supporting his many valuable mental characteristics, was an iron constitution, whose staying powers were tested over and over again, to the limit of his reserve strength.

Judged by the standards of his own day, John Jacob Astor's public benefactions were generous. It is a question whether he may be considered behind or ahead of our time, in his devotion to his family, even to its furthest outstanding branches. In regard to the Astorian enterprise, Arthur Butler Hulbert says: "The spirit which John Jacob Astor showed has been the making of America. The first American promoters, while seeking personal benefit, were moved by considerations of loyalty and patriotism equalled by business men in no other country at any time."

One of the strongest enconiums which can be passed upon this noted man, with extraordinary talents, untrained in the schools, but utilized in their virile freshness to the full extent of the gifts, is, that he spent his life piling up opportunities for those who would follow him. He accomplished great things in his lifetime, and all that his years of incessant and absorbing work left no time for undertaking, be made possible for his descendants. To an unbounded degree, this remarkable man loved his adopted country, his home and his kindred, and John Jacob Astor still lives in the paths he opened for those who came after him.