John Jacob Astor

An Unwritten Chapter
by Calvin I. Hoy

Chapter I
From Village to Ship

There is nothing more interesting than studying the success of a great man. It is the material for great authors and biographers to describe his nationality, his ancestors, as well as his environment and upbringing. This all needs to be displayed to explain his success. The world wants to know the secrets which helped him to get above the people of his time.

Great men are found in each generation and era of the human race. They hover like big trees in the woods or look like mountains over the valleys. Amongst them you will find poets, writers, men of states, generals, and businessmen. They are the leaders on the way to civilization. Every nation has produced their great men. Books were written about them, in their honor, monuments were built, cities and towns were named after them. They were to show humanity the way upward. These people are being honored by all countries and nations, they have influenced the nations positively. They are the arrows for the humans to point upward. America is no exception. The life of a great man is shown in each field. You cannot separate America from Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Marshal, Lincoln, Edison, Lindbergh, and a number of other unique persons, where mentioning of their names would be a useless effort. Among the great business people it is John Jacob Astor. He is looked upon as the country's first millionaire. Lady Luck was good to him, when he set the basis for his wealth, which has outlived five generations, and still today (1936) is considered a large fortune. There must have been a terrific amount of talent in such a man, to produce such a work of art. His life had been studied over 3/4 of a century from every point of view, analyzed and explained. One had to research the secrets of his success which earned him such a place in history. Great biographers wrote volumes about his career as a businessman, and they also told their opinions about his success. Perhaps the most accurate biographer was James Parton who wrote about Astor's life in 1865. He was almost around at Astor's times, and he had access to facts and information, which was no longer available to other biographers. When he wrote his book, W. B. Astor, the son of the founder of the Astor empire, was still alive. For more than 25 years he was co-owner of his father's business. He was the one to give Parton information no longer available later. So Parton, when he wrote his book, had by far the best information available. Astor biographers mention his name, but in his book, as well as books written afterwards, one chapter is missing. There is a certain secrecy about his life, and that remains unexplained. The missing chapter are the years of youth of John Jacob Astor.

    In a biography the years of youth are not without meaning. Walldorf, Germany was a little, unimportant village southeast of the Rhine River valley. Here four sons of Jacob Astor and his very frugal (thrifty) and hard-working wife were born: George Peter Astor in the year 1752, Henry Astor, in the year 1754, John Milchion Astor, in the year 1759, and John Jacob Astor was born on July 17, 1763. Sad to say, all of them did not spend their early years in a happy warm family setting. The father, John Jacob was definitely the opposite of his four sons as far as their later life went. He was a lazy irresponsible butcher, who loved his beer, and he seldom cared about the poverty and hunger of his family. It may sound strange that in a butcher's family there was almost always hunger present. But it must be stated, that at this time each farmer had a pig, a calf, or an ox which he raised for the holidays. That was the custom of the country. During those years, John Jacob Astor went from house to house to slaughter the animals and prepare everything for the feast. Then the tables were set richly, and there was no exception in the Astor family. However, unfortunately, these feasts were scarce since there were only a few during the year. So you cannot talk about a carefree life. In addition, the careless home butcher from Walldorf, used the little money he earned for himself. His industrious wife put him into place as much as she could, and she must have told her careless husband off now and then. This in turn caused strife in the household, and all of this created a very poor impression for the children.

This is how it was when George left his parents' home to go to London. Henry soon followed him, but instead of going to London, he took the journey to New York. It may be assumed that he got to this route by being a soldier in the Hessian army. John Melchion accepted work somewhere else in his home country and left his parents and his youngest brother. The youngest of the siblings, who was stuck in the unfortunate living, had to remain in the poor life.

It was not long until the departure of the brothers, when the mother died, the only real love the little German had experienced. This must have been a big blow for the little fellow, because whenever he could experience a happy hour during his life, he could thank his dear mother for it. It definitely had to be different with his father. Nobody knows how much he missed his wife. But it is known that he remarried after her death. But it was an unfortunate choice. The arguing which was a daily thing with his first wife was very mild compared to the bitter insults and arguing with his second wife. Despite of all the fighting the family increased. But the income did not. A few stepsisters were born, but they all had little if any influence on the life of the first American Millionaire. Be it, that he did all in his mind to protect them from the hurts he knew so well.

John Jacob, when he turned 15, felt much like his brothers, that Walldorf was not the place for him to stay. Some outside influences may have been there, but the most important was the receiving of mail from his brothers. They told about their success and how they made a living. This helped him decide to emigrate to the land of his dreams, the New World, to the fast developing United States of America.

Another reason was that he had nothing to look forward to. Again and again his father tried to convince him to learn the butcher trade, but the young German would not even consider it. Walldorf could not offer him anything, and in contrast, the "new land" had everything to offer. So the last of the four sons of the poor home butcher Jacob Astor prepared - not influenced by his father's threats - to say goodbye to his old home.  He only had a little pack of clothes, tied to a cane, in his pocket he had two five shilling pieces. So he went on foot towards the Rhine. Parton describes his departure and an interesting incident from that time, drawing this picture.

Manly he trotted out the village, with tears in his eyes and a cry in his throat Because he loved his father, his friends, and his hometown, even though his fate had been a poor one there. He still could see Walldorf, and he sat down under a tree, thought about his future, and he thought about the friends he left behind. Here he made three resolutions, as he later tended to tell, to be honest, to be industrious, and not to become a gambler; Three excellent resolutions.
Having arrived at the Rhine River, John Jacob started going downwards the river to Holland. From Holland his trip took him to London, where he thought George could help him to get to America. His brother did do that, inasmuch he helped him find a job in the Broadwood Musical Factory. Since his arrival in London, that is where George had found a job. The pay was small, and it took almost two years until he had accumulated the money for the voyage. It was to be a trip by sea which had to play an important role and actually at the same time was to be the major event in his life.

All he owned while going on the boat - a couple of flutes which his brother had advised him to take along in case he would encounter financial difficulties upon his arrival in America, the clothes on his back, a few English guineas which he had saved painstakingly, this is how he approached the "New Country". Here we must remind you that John Jacob Astor, due to the arguing and the frustrations from home, had remained a young boy without an education who could hardly speak the best German let alone the English language.

This was the picture of John Jacob Astor, the millionaire, when he turned his back on England in 1783.