Early life Johann Jakob Astor was born in 1763 in
Walldorf, a town near
Heidelberg in the
Electoral Palatinate, which is in the present-day German state of
Baden-Württemberg. He was the youngest son of Johann Jacob Astor and Maria Magdalena vom Berg. His three older brothers were George, Henry, and Melchior. In his childhood, Johann worked in his father's butcher shop and as a dairy salesman. The Astor family ancestors were
Waldensians who had presumably fled France due to religious persecution.
Migration to the United States In November 1783, just after the end of the
American Revolutionary War, Astor boarded a ship for the United States, arriving in
Baltimore around March of the following year. There, he rented a room from Sarah Cox Todd, a widow, and began a flirtation with his landlady's daughter, also named Sarah Cox Todd. The young couple married in 1785. His intent had been to join his brother Henry, who had established a butcher shop in New York City. A chance meeting with a fur trader on his voyage had inspired him to join the
North American fur trade as well. Astor imported furs from Montreal to New York and shipped them to Europe. By 1800, he had amassed over a quarter of a million dollars (equivalent to about $ million in ) and had become one of the leading figures in the fur trade. His agents worked throughout the western areas and were ruthless in competition. In 1800, following the example of the
Empress of China, the first American trading vessel to China, Astor traded mostly opium, but also, furs, teas, and
sandalwood at the port of
Canton in China, and greatly benefited from it. The U.S.
Embargo Act of 1807 disrupted Astor's import/export business because it closed off trade with Canada. With the permission of President
Thomas Jefferson, Astor established the
American Fur Company on April 6, 1808. He later formed subsidiaries: the
Pacific Fur Company, and the Southwest Fur Company (in which Canadians had a part), in order to control fur trading in the Great Lakes areas and
Columbia River region. His Columbia River trading post at
Fort Astoria (established in April 1811) was the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–1812 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover
South Pass, through which hundreds of thousands of settlers on the
Oregon,
Mormon, and
California Trails used to later pass through the
Rocky Mountains. Astor's fur trading ventures were disrupted during the
War of 1812, when the British captured his trading posts. In 1816, he joined the
opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of
Ottoman-produced opium, and shipped the contraband to
Canton onboard the packet ship
Macedonian. Astor later left the Chinese opium trade and sold opium solely in Britain. Astor's business rebounded in 1817 after the U.S. Congress passed a
protectionist law that barred foreign fur traders from U.S. territories. The American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes, absorbing competitors in a monopoly. Astor had a townhouse at 233 Broadway in New York and a country estate, Hellgate, in the northern part of the city.
Real estate and retirement Astor began buying land in New York City in 1799 and acquired sizable holdings along the waterfront. After the start of the 19th century, flush with
China trade profits, he became more systematic, ambitious, and calculating by investing in New York real estate. In 1803, he bought a 70-acre farm on which he built the Astor Mansion at Hellgate. The property ran west of
Broadway to the Hudson River between
42nd and 46th streets. That same year, and the following year, he bought considerable holdings from the disgraced
Aaron Burr. In the 1830s, Astor foresaw that the next big boom would be the build-up of New York, which would soon emerge as one of the world's greatest cities. Astor sold his interests in the American Fur Company, as well as all his other ventures, and used the money to buy and develop large tracts of
Manhattan Island real estate. Astor correctly predicted the city's rapid growth northward on the island, and he purchased more and more land beyond the then-existing city limits. Astor rarely built on his land, but leased it to others for rent and their use. After retiring from his business, Astor spent the rest of his life as a patron of culture. He supported the
ornithologist John James Audubon in his studies, artwork, and travels, and the presidential campaign of
Henry Clay. ==Marriage and family==