New Book - The Astors - Dynasties 1 - by Virginia Cowles (Pages 1 - 55)

 First Published: 1979

The book starts by referring to John Jacob Astor's death in 1848 and how no one cried as he was a ruthless, unkind man.

John Jacob Astor was born in Germany. John Jacob Astor (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. 

His father was Jacob Ashdour and was a butcher. In 1756 the Seven year's war broke out. The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict involving most of the European great powers. In the War of the Austrian Succession, which lasted from 1740 to 1748, the Prussian King Frederick II (subsequently known as Frederick the Great) had seized the prosperous province of Silesia from Austria. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 in order to gain time to rebuild her military forces and to forge new alliances.

John Jacob's brother joined the British army, but he deserted in New York and stayed behind, and he opened a butcher's stal in Fulton Market. 

In 1779 John Jacob joined his eldest brother, George, in London where he had a music factory. In 1783 Britain made peace with America, and John Jacob moved to America. The peace agreement between the United States and Great Britain in 1783 was formally known as the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. This treaty officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized the United States as an independent nation.

John Jacob intended to sell his brother George's musical instrument. The ship where he was travelling got stuck in the ice near Baltimore. It was two months before it was safe for the passengers to land.

After settling down in America, John Jacob started selling furs, which became his main activity from then on. After working at his brother's shop for a time, Astor began to purchase raw hides from Native Americans, prepare them himself, and resell them in London and elsewhere at great profit.

John Jacob married Sarah Todd in 1785. 

John Jacob got involved with a Montreal trapper, who was part of the North West Company. The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. 

In 1789 George Washington inaugurated as the first president of the United States. George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States took place on April 30, 1789, in New York City, at Federal Hall. He delivered his First Inaugural Address to a joint session of Congress. 

In 1788 John Jacob's daughter, Magdalen was born. His two eldest sons were John Jacob II and William Backhouse Astor. John Jacob II was born with a mental disability. William Backhouse became his heir.  William Backhouse Astor Sr. (September 19, 1792 – November 24, 1875) was an American business magnate who inherited most of his father John Jacob Astor's fortune. He worked as a partner in his father's successful export business. 

Two other daughters were Dorothea and Eliza. 

Dorothea was born in New York and to the fury of her father eloped with her husband during the War of 1812 after a whirlwind romance. 

Eliza accompanied her father to Europe in the 1820s and for two years lived with him at the Villa de Saugy on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. In 1825, her father delayed his return home to New York to walk her down the aisle and as a wedding present he gave her Saugy. The Count and Countess von Rumpff divided their time between Paris and Lake Geneva. They died without children. 

In 1800 JOhn Jacob formed a syndicate and chartered the ship Severn for Canton. 

The American Fur Company  was a prominent American company that sold furs, skins, and buffalo robes. It was founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor. Astor used a variety of commercial strategies to become one of the first trusts in American business and a major competitor to the British commercial dominance in North American fur trade.

John Jacob hired Jonathan Thorn to be the captain of the Tonquin, a tyrant. Tonquin began its journey to the Columbia River in late 1810, departing New York City and heading south through the Atlantic Ocean. In December, it reached the Falkland Islands, where Captain Jonathan Thorn briefly marooned eight PFC employees. A dispute arose due to Captain Thorn's poor treatment of an elder. All but four members of the crew were killed. The survivors intentionally detonated the ship's powder magazine, and Tonquin was destroyed and sunk. 

Astor persuaded President Monroe to pass a bill, prohibiting all foreigners from trading on American soil. The American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes, absorbing competitors in a monopoly.

The factories, created by Washington to protect Indians, felt as an obstacle for John Jacob, and they were eventually abolished. . He did implement the United States Government Fur Trade Factory System. This system, initiated in 1795, was designed to improve trade with Native Americans, primarily by neutralizing the influence of British traders and promoting American economic interests in the West. The goal was to establish a fair and controlled trading system that would secure the friendship and dependence of Native American tribes on American goods, acting as a buffer against European powers,

John Jacob's son William married Margaret Armstrong, whose father was an inefficient minister of war.