Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-03-03

Hence after a three years apprenticeship, Astor
knew all that Bovine did and all he himself could mag
inc besides. So he resigned. -
In 1885 John Jacob Astor began business on MS own
account on Water street, New York
Astor had made friends with the Indians up the Hud-
son clear to Albany and they were acting as recruiting
agents for him. -
Having collected several thousand dollars worth OF
furs, he shipped them to London and embarked as a pas
senger in the steerage.
In London furs were becoming a fad. Astor sorted
and sifted his buyers, as he had his skins. He himself
dressed in a suit of fur and thus proved his ability as
an advertiser. He picked his men and charged all tHe
traffic would bear. All of the money ne received ll nS
skins he invested in "lndias goods"-coiored clotn'
beads, blankets, knives, axes and musical Instruments
His was the first store in New York that carried a
stock of musical instruments. These he sold 10 saVages
and also he supplied the stoid Dutch the best OF every
thing in this particular line, from a bazoo to a stfadf
varius.
When he got back to New York he at once struck out
through the wilderness to buy furs OF the lndians' OF
better still, to interest them in bringing turs 10 nim'
He knew the value of friendship in trade as no man
of the time did. u
mother was a Brevooft and it was brought ABOUT by
her coming to Astor to buy furs with winch TO mahe
borself q coat Her ability to - judge furs and make them
I'D brought young Astor into 1.-THE best Dutch New YORK
society" a combination that was quite as exclusive 'he
as now.
This marriage was a business partnership as well as
marital and proved a success in every way. Sarah was
a worker. with all the good old Dutch qualities OF pa
thence, persistence, industry and economy Wnen ner
husband went on trips she kept store.
Can't. Cook had skirted the Pacific coast from cape
Horn to Alaska and had brought to the attention OF the
fur dealing and fur wearing world the sea otter OF the
northern Pacific. He also gave a psycnoiosicai p0
nhetic glimpse of the insidious sealskin sack.
In 1890 a ship from the Pacific brought a hundred
otter skins to New York. The skins were quickly soid
to London buyers at %exorbitant prices.
The nobility wanted sea otter, or royal American
orr,inaO nc thew called it. The scarcity D0Omeu IL
price. Ships were quickly fitted out and dispatched.
Aston encouraged these expeditions, but at first IN
vested no money in them, as he considered them extra
hazardous" He was not a Spectator.
Until the year 1900 Aston lived over his store IN
Water street, but he then moved to the plain and modest
house at 1923 Broadway, on the site OF the OLD Astor MOUSE
Here he lived for 25 years.
The fur business was simple and very prontaple'
In 1900 Astor owned three ships, which he had bought
so as absolutely to control his trade. Ascertalhlng ta'
London dealers were r~eshipping furs to China, early IN
the century he dispatched one of his ships loaded Wln
furs directly to the orient, with explicit written instruc
tions to the captain as to what the cargo should be soe
for. The money was to be invested In teas ana silks
The ship sailed away and had been gone a year.
No tdings had come from her.
Suddenly a messenger came with the news that tn
chin a in the bay. We can imagine the interest Q
Mr.. and Mrs. Astor as they locked their store ana RAJ
to the Battery. Sure enough, 1t was their snip.
! The profit on this voyage was $4,000.
a Nv 1910 John Jacob Aston was worth 100000. H
I began to invest all his surplus money in New York res
4 estate. He bought acreage property in the vicinity
n Canal street. Next he bought Richmond HILL the estat
of Aaron Burr. 1t consisted Of 100 acres just aoot
!, Twentythird street. He paid for the land a thousan
= dollars an acre. People said Astor was crazy.
! In ten years he began to sell lots from the Richmon
q Hill property at the rate of $4,000 an acre. Fortunatel
n for his estate, he did not sell much OF the land at IN
y nrice. for it is this particular dirt that makes up thu
e vast property known as "the Astor estate"
During the revolutionary war Roger Morris OF ~
h. nam county, N. Y. made the mistake OF siding with u
YAM '-. -A-- LsunaaIf I'm fronIv A m0h ri
q lected and Morris and his family escaped, taking ship
II. England.