BIOGRAPHY: the Astor family; New York State
surname: Astor, Todd, Brevoort, Bristed, Langdon, Armstrong, Gibbes, Paul,
Livingston, Van Cortlandt, Schermerhorn, Willing, Boreel, Carey, Carroll,
Chanler, Chapman, de Groenings, Delano, de Notebeck, de Steurs, Drayton,
Emmet, Jay, Kane, Kiefer, Lowndes, Pollandt, Roosevelt, Rumpif, Stevens,
Townsend, Van Alen, Ward, Wilks, and Wilson.

submitted by W. David Samuelsen 
***********************************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm
***********************************************************************    
Famous Families of New York, published 1917. Expired copyright

     Compared with many Huguenot and Knickerbocker families, the Astors may
be justly termed newcomers in New York. The founder, John Jacob, did not
arrive until 1784, when the city was almost a century old. He came from
Walddorf, in Baden. Here in the 18th century lived a jovial marketman named
Jacob Ashdoer, or Astor, who had a small business and a large family. There
were four sons, all of whom left home to seek their fortune. The oldest
settled in London, where he became a piano manufacturer, starting the firm
known as Astor & Broadwood, which subsequently became the world-famous house
of Broadwood. The second, Henry, came to New York, where he took up his
father's trade. The third went to another part of the Fatherland, and the
fourth and youngest, John Jacob, followed the second over to the New World.
Even at this time he displayed the remarkable will power which was to make him
so prominent a man in America. When he made up his mind to emigrate, he had no
money and did not know a word of English. He worked his way from Baden to
Holland, and thence to London. He spent two years in London, where he learned
the language fluently though not correctly, and where he put by enough money
to pay his steerage fare across the Atlantic, to buy a suit of Sunday clothes,
and to have a surplus of fifteen guineas. He crossed the Atlantic in
midwinter, and had a rough and stormy passage. On the ship was a
fellow-countryman with whom he became quite intimate. The German had been a
few years in America, and had built up a profitable business in furs and
skins, and strongly advised young Astor to engage in that calling. He
explained all the details of the business, so that before America was reached
Astor had an excellent theoretical knowledge of the subject. He valued the
information so highly that he entered it in a memorandum book, which is said
to be still preserved in the family archives. The ship arrived in Chesapeake
in January, 1784, but the water was covered with floating ice as far as the
eye could see. They lay ice-bound until March and the spring thaw came, and
then they proceeded to Baltimore.

     One day when the ice was breaking, and there was danger of being crushed
or swept away by the floating masses, the passengers assembled upon the deck,
ready to take to the small boats. All were dressed in the roughest clothing
except young Astor, who had on his new London suit. The captain looked at him
in amazement and asked:

     "What are you dressed up for?"

     Young Astor answered carelessly: "If anything happens and I am saved, I
have my Sunday clothes on; but if I get drowned, it won't make any difference
what clothes I have on."

     Upon reaching New York, he went to his brother Henry, who lived over his
store. He had a warm welcome and an invitation to become his brother's clerk.
He was proud and independent, and declined the offer, going to work
immediately afterwards with a baker, George Detrich, on the present site of
No. 351 Pearl Street, corner of Frankfort. He had gained some culinary
knowledge at home, and proved himself an adept at baking. He must have been
much more skillful than other bakers, because tradition says that during his
brief stay the business of the house more than doubled. He remained in the
bakery about three weeks, and then became clerk in the store of Robert
Bowne, an old Quaker, at $2 a week and his board. He was indefatigable in his
new position, and won not only the good graces of his employer, but also of
the hunters, trappers, and Indians, from whom he bought goods. In 1785, he
made his first trip up country, where he bought a cargo of furs and brought it
back with him to the city. He utilized his leisure time coming and going in
learning the Indian language. He kept this up, and in six years could converse
intelligently, if not fluently, in Mohawk, Seneca, and Oneida. It is said that
he was the first fur merchant to possess this accomplishment, and it gave him
a prestige among the Indians, whose pecuniary value cannot be overestimated.

     In 1786, having saved up a little money, he resigned his position, and
started in business on his own account in Water Street. He borrowed money from
his brother Henry, but his entire capital was not more than five hundred
dollars. In the next four years he worked tirelessly. At the outset he could
not afford a clerk, and did all the labor about his little shop. During the
buying season he went out with his pack upon his back and visited every farmer
and village store which dealt in furs. The rest of the year he attended to
their curing, beating, packing, selling, and shipping, and also to a small
trade in musical instruments, which he had established in connection with his
furs. In 1790 he had become sufficiently prominent to appear in the city
directory: "Astor, J. J., fur trade, No. 40 Little Dock Street." About this
time he married Sarah Todd, daughter of Adam Todd, and a member of the
Brevoort family. She brought him a dowry of three hundred dollars, and, what
was far more valuable, a business ability almost as well developed as his own.
She proved a partner in every sense of the word. There were six children by
the union, of whom four attained prominence in the second generation: William
B. [1792], who inherited his father's mercantile genius; Magdalen [1786], who
married the Rev. Dr. John Bristed; Eliza [1790], who was one of the first
American heiresses to marry a foreign title; and Dorothea [1795], who married
Walter Langdon.

     Between 1790 and 1800, Astor developed his business with astonishing
success. His arrangements for selling in New York were so admirable that he
was able to employ a regiment of buyers, trappers, and Indians. He organized
routes for his men, nearly all of which are to-day the lines of railways which
terminate in New York. One was on Long Island; a second one along the Hudson
to Lake Champlain, and thence to Montreal; a third from Albany to Buffalo; a
fourth in New York State, which is now about where the Erie Railway runs; and
a fifth to New Jersey and northern Pennsylvania. He made several trips to
England, where, besides selling furs, he made a careful study of China and of
the far Eastern trade. That trade was then monopolized by the East India
Company, but Astor, through personal influence and diplomacy, secured a
license from the authorities. On his return he sent his first ship to Canton,
opening a commerce which he prosecuted for twenty-seven years, and from which
he made enormous profits. It was not confined to the furs he exported to the
East. He brought back cargoes of tea, rice, and matting, and through a happy
accident discovered that the Sandwich Islands contained vast quantities of
sandal-wood which could be bought for a few dollars a ton and sold in China
for several hundred dollars a ton. He was the pioneer of America's trade with
China, and opened a field which in after years was to give fortunes to a
hundred merchants.

     It was about this time that he began to purchase real estate on
Manhattan Island. His transactions were laughed at by merchants, but before
fifteen years had passed his wisdom was conceded. Soon after this, owing
probably to his appreciation of the value of trade with the far East, he began
the establishment of a line of trading-posts from St. Louis to the Pacific,
which culminated in the settlement of Astoria. In this giant undertaking Astor
rose from the levels of ordinary trade into high finance and statesmanship. He
saw clearly that the enormous expense involved might not repay him, although
it would doubtless enrich his descendants. The picture which his imagination
drew in the first decade of the century was what is the actual map in its last
decade. His marvelous brain leaped forward eighty years. He himself would have
made Astoria what are now San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Tacoma
combined. His plan miscarried, not through his fault, but through the War of
1812, which upset all calculations. This great chapter in his life is the
theme of Washington Irving's Astoria. in it the chronicler declares that
Astor's ambition had in this instance turned from gain to fame, and from self
to the nation.

     These are the facts which stamp him as the man of a century. He died in
1834. To the public he is best known by that goodly inn, the Astor House, on
lower Broadway, the noble library which bears his name, and the fortune of
twenty millions which he left at his decease.

     William Backhouse Astor, who was born in 1792, inherited the bulk of his
father's estate and also that of his uncle Henry, who had died rich and
childless; The two bequests made William the richest man in the New World. He
was educated in the New York public schools, and afterwards in Gottingen. Upon
graduation, he returned to this country and was taken into partnership by his
father. In 1827, the firm dissolved and the Astors retired from the China
trade. The remainder of his life was devoted to operations in real estate, to
aiding the great charities of the city, and the administration of the Astor
Library. He had a strong literary taste, and, when a young man, wrote an
excellent monograph upon "Napoleonic Grandeurs." In his investments he paid
particular attention to the land lying between Fourth and Seventh avenues and
south of Central Park. Here in 1867, he owned about 720 houses. He was the
first to break away from the monotonous brownstone architecture of the
mid-century and to introduce brick buildings trimmed with sandstone or
limestone, which mode of treatment is often referred to as the "Astor style."
He married Margaret Alida Armstrong, a famous belle, by whom he had six
children. In his philanthropy he was enthusiastic and indefatigable. To the
Astor Library he gave in bequests and gifts over a half million dollars, and
to hospitals, churches, asylums, and charitable societies his gifts during
life were said to be over a million. He was unostentatious to a degree. When
he died, his estate was estimated at about $45,000,000, of which the bulk was
divided equally between his two sons, John Jacob III. [1822] and William
[1830]. In dividing the estate, the executors, after many months' hard work,
arranged the various properties and investments in two lists, which they
labeled "A" and "B." These lists were placed in a hat and the question of
possession decided by lot. John Jacob III., who died in 1890, possessed the
family thrift and business talent, increasing his inheritance to an amount
estimated between $75,000,000 and $100,000,000, all of which went to his sole
child, William Waldorf.

     John Jacob III. studied at Columbia College and Gottingen. After
graduation he went through the Harvard Law School. He volunteered in the Civil
War and proved an efficient and capable soldier. In 1879, the mission to the
Court of St. James's was offered to him, but he refused it, startling the
politicians by declaring that he was not "fitted for the office." He pursued
his father's policy of buying and improving real estate, and did much to
increase the wealth and beauty of the city. Both he and his wife, who was
Charlotte Augusta Gibbes, were deeply interested in education, and more
especially in organizations for the benefit of children. They were liberal
contributors to local philanthropic works. Mrs. Astor presented the
Metropolitan Museum with her rare collection of laces, which was at that time
the finest of its kind in the world. Mr. Astor further increased the endowment
of the library so as to give it a value of one million dollars.

     William Waldorf [1847], son of John Jacob III., and the head of the
fifth generation of the family, is more versatile than any of his ancestors.
Though little over fifty, he has made his mark in law, authorship, politics,
diplomacy, archaeology, and journalism. He served in the N. Y. Legislature,
1878-1881,  and was U. S. Minister to Italy, 1882-1885. He built the
Netherlands and the Waldorf hotels, and in addition to these a large number of
residences, stores, and office buildings of great elegance and beauty. He
married Mary D. Paul, by whom he had two sons and one daughter.

     William Astor [1830], second son of William B. Astor, was a man of the
same type as his brother, John Jacob III. He was an abolitionist before the
war, a Unionist during the struggle, and a generous friend of the South after
peace was declared. During the war, he equipped a regiment at his own expense.
In 1875, when there was an Indian outbreak in Florida, in the Everglades, he
raised a company and led them against the insurgents. He built the railroad
from Palatka to the St. John's River, and began the development of the State.
He constructed many handsome buildings in Jacksonville, which are still the
special pride of the city. The Florida Legislature offered him the United
States Senatorship from that State, and for his services presented him with
80,000 acres of land in Lake County. He was an alumnus of Columbia, an
athlete, a distinguished yachtsman, and a lover of fine arts. He left five
children, of whom four were daughters.

     His only son, John Jacob Astor IV. [1862], inherited the larger part of
his estate. In him new traits were added to those displayed by his ancestors.
He has been successful in science, mechanics, invention, authorship, and the
army. He studied special courses in science at Harvard. During the late war
with Spain, he fitted out a battery for the Government, and also served as a
staff officer through the conflict. In him many ancient families of New York
are represented. He is fifth in descent from Robert Livingston, original
patentee of the Manor of Livingston, which included most of Dutchess and
Columbia counties, and ninth from Jacobus Van Cortlandt, Mayor of New York
City in 1719. He is also a descendant of the Schermerhorns, Armstrongs, Todds,
and Brevoorts. He married Ava Willing in 1891, by whom be had one son. His
chief mark in New York City is the Astoria, which combined with the Waldorf
forms the largest and richest hotel in the world. There is a certain
appropriateness that the family should be represented by two famous hotels,
the one in the heart of the business quarter and the other in the centre of
New York's most fashionable thoroughfare.

     Through marriage the Astor blood has been transmitted to the following
families: Boreel, Bristed, Carey, Carroll, Chanler, Chapman, de Groenings,
Delano, de Notebeck, de Steurs, Drayton, Emmet, Jay, Kane, Kiefer, Langdon,
Lowndes, Pollandt, Roosevelt, Rumpif, Stevens, Townsend, Van Alen, Ward,
Wilks, and Wilson.

     The family name is stamped upon American history and geography. There is
a town of Astor in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and Kansas. There are Astorias in
Illinois, Missouri, New York, and Oregon. There is an Astor Park in Florida
and an Astor Court and Astor Place in the metropolis. There are more than
fifty Astor Houses and Astor Hotels in various parts of the Union, and even a
larger number of town and city thoroughfares bearing the family name.