The Virginia enterprise., 1910-03-04

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Hence after three years apprenticeship. Astor
knew all that Bovine did and he himself could imag
Inc besides. So he resigned.
In 1886 John Jacob Astor began business on his own
account Water street, New York.
Astor had made friends with the Indians up the Hud
clear to Albany and they were acting as recruiting
agents for him.
Having collected thousand dollars worth of
furs shipped them to London and embarked pas
senger in the steeraee
In London furs were becoming a fad. Astor sorted
and sifted his buyers he had his skins. He himself
dressed in suit of fur and thus proved his ability
advertiser. He picked his men and charged all the
traffic would bear All Of the money he received for his
skins he invested in Indian goods"-colored cloth,
beads, Blankets knives and musical instruments.
His the first store in New York that carried
stock of musical These he sold to savages
and also he supplied the stod Dutch the best Of
thing in this particular line. from bazoo to stradi
varius
When he got back to New York he at struck out
through the wilderness to buy furs of the Indians
bettersstill interest them bringing furs to him.
He knew the value of friendship in trade as man
of the time did.
In 1890 John Jacob Astor married Sarah Todd. Her
mother was a Brevoort and it brought about by
her coming to Astor to buy furs with which to make
herself Her ability to Judge furs and make them
up brought young Asor into 1.-The best Dutch New York
society,"" combination that quite exclusive then
This marriage a business partnership we'll as
marital, and proved in every way Sarah
worker. with all the good old Dutch qualities of pa
tience persistence, industry and economy When her
husband went trips she kept store.
Capt. Cook had skirted the Pacific coast from Cape
Horn Alaska and had brought to the attention of the
fur dealing and fur wearing world the otter of the
northern Pacific He also gave psychological pro-
phetic glimpse of the insidous sealskin sack.
In 1890 ship from the Pacific brought hundred
otter skins to New York. The skins quickly sold
to London buyers at exorbitant prices
The nobility wanted sea otter, royal American
ermine" as they called it. The scarcity doomed the
price. Ships quickly fitted out and dispatched.
Astor encouraged these expeditions but at first in
vested money in them he considered them extra
hazardous" He not speculator
Until the year 1900 Astor lived his store in
street, he then moved to the plain and modest
223 Broadway the site of the old Astor house.
Here he lived for Is years.
The fur business simple and very profitable
1900 Asor owned three ships which he had bought
absolutely to control his trade Ascertaning that
London dealers reshipping furs to China early in
furs directly to the orient with explicit written nstruc
the captain what the should be sold
The money to be invested in teas and silks
The ship sailed away and had been gone year.
No tdings had come from her.
Suddenly messenger came with the news that the
ship in the bay. We imagine the interest Of
Mr.. and Mrs Astor they locked their store and
to the Battery Sure enough, it was their ship.
The profit this voyage $4,000.
BY 1910 John Jacob Astor worth 100000. He
began to invest all his surplus in New York real
estate He bought property in the vicinity Of
Canal street. Next he bought Richmond HILL the estate
Of Aaron Burr. 1t consisted of 160 just about
Twenty third street He paid for the land thousand
dollars acre. People said Astor was crazy.
In ten years he began to sell lots from the Richmond
Hill property the rate of $1,000 acre. Fortunately
estate, he did not sell much of the land at
price, is this particular dirt that up that
vast property known "the Astor estate"
During the revolutionary war Roger Morris OF Put
nam county, NJ Y, made the mistake siding with the
Tories and expressing himself too freely. mob COL
lected and his family escaped taking ship
England