The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1910-03-04

tations and Aston hadn't.
Hence, after three years apprenticeship, Astor
knew all that Bovine did and all he himself could mag
inc besides. So he resigned.
In 1886 John Jacob Astor began business on his own
account on Water street, New York
Aston made friends with the Indians up the Hud-
son clear Albany and they acting as recruiting
agents for him.
Having collected several thousand dollars worth Of
furs he shipped them to London and embarked
senger in the Storage
In London furs were becoming a fad. Astor sorted
and sifted his buyers he had his skins. He himself
dressed suit of fur and thus proved his ability
an advertiser. He picked his and charged all the
traffic would All of the he received for his
skins he invested in Indian goods"-colored cloth,
beads, blankets knives and musical instruments.
His was the first store in New York that carried
of musical instruments These he sold to savages
and also he supplied stod Dutch the best of every
thing 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 or
better STILL interest them in bringing furs to him.
He knew the value of friendship in trade as man
of the time did.
In 1890 John Jacob Aston married Sarah Todd. Her
mother was Brevoort and it brought about by
her coming to Astor to buy furs with which to make
herself Her ability to judge urs and make them
up brought young Astor into the best Dutch New York
society,"" combination that quite exclusive then
This marriage was a business partnership well
marital and proved in every Sarah was
a worker with all the good old Dutch qualities of pa
tience persistence, industry and economy When her
husband trips she kept store.
Capt Cook had skirted the Pacific coast from cape
Alaska and had brought to the attention OF the
dealing and fur wearing world the sea otter OF the
northern Pacific He also gave a psychological pro-
phetic glimpse of the insidous sealskin sack.
In 1890 ship from the Pacific brought hundred
otter skins New York. The skins quickly sold
to London buyers at exorbitant prices.
The nobility wanted otter, royal American
ermine" as they called it. The scarcity doomed the
price. Ships quickly fitted out and dispatched.
encouraged these expeditions but at first in
vested money in Them he considered them extra
hazardous" He not Spectator.
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
Astor owned three ships which he had bought
absolutely control his trade. Ascertaining that
dealers reshipping furs to China early in
century he dispatched of his ships loaded with
directly the orient with explicit written instruc
the captain what the should be sold
for money to be invested in teas and silks
The ship sailed away and had been gone
No tidings had come from her.
Suddenly messenger with sthe that the
ship in the bay. We can imagine the interest Of
Mr. Mrs. Astor they locked their store and
to the Battery. Sure enough, it was their ship.
The profit on this voyage $4,000.
BY 1910 John Jacob Astor worth 100000. He
began to invest all his surplus money 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
Twentythird street. He paid for the land thousand
dollars People said Astor crazy.
ten years he began to sell lots from the Richmond
Hill property at the rate of $4,000 Fortunately
his estate he did not sell much of the land at this
price, for it this particular dirt that makes that
vast property known "the Astor estate"
During the revolutionary Roger Morris of Put
county, N. Y. made the mistake of siding with the
and expressing himself too freely. mob col
and his family escaped, taking ship
England.