Milford chronicle., 1960-07-22
old World actors Yearn
To See Rich City Cousins
Bv REINHoIp ENsz


Astors of Waldorf have fond
wish. They would like very much
to see the Waldorf Astoria Hotel
and their rich city cousins-the
Astors of London and New York.
But the Waldorf Astors aren't
holding out much hope. Relations
between the two branches of the
family have been getting cooler ever
since the most famous Astor Of all,
Johann Jakob Astor, trudged out of
this dusty farming village in 1880.
Johann Jakob, or John Jacob as
he later called himself, first went
to London and then to New York,
where fur trading and real estate
turned him into one of the worlds
richest men.
According to local accounts, he
came back to Waldorf where his
father was a butcher, only once.
And the villagers made the mis-
take of annoying him. 1t seems
that he deliberately came back in
simple clothes, despite his wealth,
of which the villagers had not
heard.
They poked fun at him and jeer-
ingly suggested that he was prob
ably glad to be back home. Astor,
so the story goes, got so annoyed
that ne stomped out of the village.
But he soon came back-riding in
a magnificent coacn and accom-
panied by platoon of servants.
Poor Country Cousins
Since then. the history of the
Waldorf Astors has more or less
been that of poor country cousins.
Countless letters have gone out
from Waldorf to the big city, but
without much result.
A spokesman for the New York
Astors has said the German Astors
and their complaint "are like a
lot of families where someone lis
sore about their cousins who made
money"
There is nothing special for us
in the coincident of the name"
adds A. W. Belts of the Astor Foun-
dation.
which now has a population of
7,000-proudly bear the nameAs-
+ tor. The families claim to be de-
scendants of Johann Jakob's cous-
ins, who stay in the village while
he was getting rich in America.
Numerous other. Waldorf families
carefully preserve ancient records
showing they also have Astor
blood.
Walldorf's proudest citizen, and
perhaps one of its bitterest, is
59-year-old retired policeman nam
ed Johann Jakob Astor.
81 have the same name and
look just like the original Johann
nose, it's just like the one in his
portrait in the Rathaus (town
halD."
He Is Bitter
Johann's bitterness has a num-
ber of grounds. The chief one is
the fact that his 77-year-old uncle,
Jakob Astor of Karlsruhe, never
got to America, although every
thing had been arranged.
I'm 1888" Johann reports, "the
Astors in New York sent my uncle I
ship ticket after much corre-
spondence. But then he had an
accident while. riding a bicycle and
his departure was delayed. Then
came the war.
Nothing has happened since the
war. He has spent a lot of money
on postage but it has been useless.
He has got to the point where he
doesn't even try any more.
HE has told me that when he
dies, l will inherit his file of cor
respondence and then / can reopen
the correspondence with New York
He has been keeping file of all
the newspaper articles he can find
about the London and New York
Astors. He said can have this
file too"
But Johann isn't certain whether
he will write to New York.
81 have the feeling" he says,
that the Astors over there do not
think as much about the original
Johann Jakob Astor as we do, al
though it is him they must thank
for their present positions.
AstOr Died In 1913
"But you must also understand
their situation They are like the
man who wins 100000 marks in the
lottery. Suddenly, all his relatives
are on his neck"
When John Jacob died in 1S48,
he left the village $4,000 for the
TAKE HIS ADVICE