The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-25
THE RICHEST MAN DEAD.
sudden Demise of John Jacob Aston in
New York.


New York.
John Jacob Astor, whose death was an
,ouuced in Sundays MORNING News, was
+be finest specimen of manhood the Astor
family ever offered. He was tall, erect,
handsome. vigorous, and carried his years
admirably almost to the last. He was ac-
,c,nDiished. well-educated, and of cultivated
eosres and aristocratic bearing. When he
was 20 years old he married beautiful and
occouDlished woman. the daughter OF
Tnomes Gibbs, a proud South Carolinian,
1rbo boastad a pedigree back to King John.
William Waldorf Aston was the only fruit
Of this union. and he will inherit the great
buik Of the Aston millions
he second John Jacob Astor was about
as wears of age. having been born in 1922.
He bore his years remarkably we'll He
s1,oJested tho typical Engiisnman in per-
eoSaI aDpearance. His face was rudy and
fnlI and was embelhshed with long side
WHISPERS Of a reddish gray, which had been
trained to hang down over his collar some
what in the Dundreary style. He was a
good liver and subject to gout but was dis
6osad to be penurious in small matters, even
10 the sskeletonizing" of his kilograms. He
enioyed egitimately, the title of colonel,
for he served during the war as an aide-de-
camp on the staff of Gen. Mcclellan, with
that rank.
HIS life, ike his IaInef'S, was devoted I'd
the preservation and development of the
vast estates which he inherited, and which
increased under his management at an IN
Drecedented rate. There is a great differ
ence of opinion as to the amount of his
fortune. Some estimates place it as high as
$50, 600, 900, while others cut it down to
about 100000, 000 In any event, he was
probably the richest man in the country
Since the division of the Vanderbilt millions.
He was, according to the best reports, very
slightly interested in stock companies; the
Western Union Telegraph, the Delaware,
Iackawanna and Western Railroad, the
Chemical Bank, and a few other concerns
Interested him; the overwhelming bulk of
his property is in real estate on Manhattan
ISand or just across the Harlem In the
annexed district.
HIS WEALTH IN REAL ESTATE.
It is from the vast tracts of land in the
northern part of the city that the increase
to his fortune has come during the past fif-
teen years. He was constantly putting
aside what he could spare from his rent re-
ceipts for the purpose of investing i'll more
land. 1t is said on good authority that a
sum amounting to 100000 in cash has
been kept on deposit in trust companies
to be applied to new purchases when-
ever a good bargain presented itself.
To the last he gave his personal atten-
ton to the care of his great property, and
was one of the busiest men in New York.
He was careful and generous landlord.
His houses were kept in tie best of repair
and the rent market was virtually in his
hands. Besides the city property of the
AstOrS there are also immense tracts of
land at Newport, and elegant cottages at
the different watering-places. The fortune
of the younger brother, William, is much
less than that of the dead millionaire, being
estimated at from S60,0O0,0OOto $75,00O,O00
only.
The story in society at the time of John
Jacob AstOr's marriage was that old Mr..
Gibbs was so delighted with the match his
daughter was making that it was necessary
to put him in strait jacket. Mrs. Aston
died on Dec. II, 1887. On Dec. 6, the New
York Cancer hospital, the only institution
of the kind III this country, and, with the
exception of the London Cancer hospital,
the only institution of the kind in the world,
was formly opened with appropriate cere-
monies. The building was the gift of Mrs.
Astor, who gave $500, 900 TO pay for its cou-
strucGion, and her husband and other
wealthy persons endowed it munificently,
MIR. Astor's gifts alone amounting TO more
than 100000.
The only child left by John Jacob Astor
is William Waldorf Aston, minister TO Italy
during the Arthur administration, the
author of two Italian novels, and a young
man of laudable ambition in both politics
and literature. In july 1878, he married
Miss Paul, the daughter OF James w, Paul
of Philadelphia a lady of great beauty and
accomplishing
THE FAMILY HISTORY.
John Jacob Aston was the son of William
B. Astor, who inherited the bulk of the
100000 900 fortune left by the original
John Jacob Astor, the grandfather of to-
days dead. John Jacob Astor the first
was born in 1868, the third son of poor
peasants. at Waldorf, in Baden, and their
name was usually spelled 'Ashdoer.n In
deed, the elder brother of John Jacob the
first signed his name "Henry Ashdoer"
even after he came to America. John
Jacob Aston came to America in 1884, and
began with stock in trade consisting of
six flutes and two other musical instru-
ments.
He entered the employ of furrier in New
York, and in few months mastered the
trade, which was extremely profitable as
carried on with the Indians. Aston visited
the Canadian woods, going on foot and
carrying in pack on his back baubles such
as delighted the aborigines. He traded
them for furs and carried the furs home on
his back. He made money, enlarged his
business, using pack-sleds and the like, and
III few years was doing an immense trade,
getting the the skins for literally nothing of
the Indians and sending them to the Orient,
where they were exchanged for most valu-
able goods, teas, spices, Indian and Japan
ese silks and the like. The profit averaged
$4,000 to every cruise, and when, in 1850,
the old man died he left 20,000,000
He founded the Aston Library at the ur-
gent solicitation of Washington Irwin, Fitz-
Green Halleck, and an old and trusted COM
nercial friend. He had been extremely
penurious, even to meanness, and delighted
IN saving pennies even when he was a mil
Honaire.
He had had three sons. The first died a
babe. The second, named after himself.
John Jacob Aston, was demented, and was
kept in fine residence in West Twenty
third street at his fathers expense, and
after bis fathers death on the income of q
fund of 100000 set apart for that purpose.
Then John Jacob passed away, aged 60
Years, thirty years ago.
The Aston millions had been handed down
to third son, William B. Aston, and he it
vas who began the movement for better
tenement houses in New York. When
William B. Aston died he left the vastly
increased family fortune to his eldest son,
John Jacob Aston the third, who is nov
dead. Thomas G. Sherman in the Forum
Ior November set down John Jacob Astor's
fortune at Sl50,000,000, making him the
American Crracue strba ctOrn xuaS known