Astor John Jacob

John Jacob Astor lived through1763-1848. He was a fur trader, businessman, and real estate investor. Astor began life as one of twelve children of a poor German butcher and died the richest man in America. The making of a great fortune was the aim and purpose of Astor's life, and he accomplished it by dominating the American fur trade and investing his profits in the real estate of burgeoning New York City. Shortly before …

…all his fur interests in 1834 and spent the last fourteen years of his life speculating in New York real estate. When Astor died in New York, he left an estimated $40 million, a sum several times larger than any other American fortune of the day. He left nearly all of it to his son, but gave $400,000 to establish the Astor Library, one of three that would later merge to form today's great New York Public Library.