Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/177



THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON 101

jiliove St. Loviis. and for a considei-a))le distauec out ou the plains towards the Ixoeky Jlountaius. In the order of time, the only exceptions to these sporadic cfrorts to establish the fur trade on American territory was the fur tradiuR ship ventures from Boston to the Pacific Coast, and the Russian Fur Traders to Alaska. The fur trade started the American commerce to the Pacific Coast. The fur trade induced the Russians to cross over from Siberia to Alaska, and establish a colony at Sitka and extend its operations down the coast as far as Puget Sound to catch the sea otters — the finest furs the Russians had ever seen up to that date. And all these elements in the fur trade were in active operation, and every single sailor and trapper was striving to the utmost limit to obtain every pelt he could get hold of down to the year President Jetferson purchased Louisiana from the French. Tills greatest land deal in the history of the Nation made a new alignment of lur trading interests, served notice ou the British to stay on their own side of the 4!)th parallel on the cast side of the Rocky mountains, and put new life, ambi- lion and energy into the operations of Astor and all the rest of the American Fnr Traders.

John Jacob Astor, the founder of Astoria, Oregon was the greatest fur trader, and one of the greatest and best business men America had ever produced. Measured np by all the standards that go to make a really great and good man in the ordinary citizen's life in the world of business, Astor stands at the head of th(> long line of self-made men for sagacity, energy, comprehension, integrity and patriotism. Let every American school boy read his record with deep thought and profound respect. Astor was born in the village of Waldorf near Heide)- berg, Germany. July 17th. 1763. When sixteen years of age he went to London and joined an elder brother in the manufacture and sale of nmsical instruments. .Vfter three years in London he resolved to see if he could not better his for- tunes by going to America. He sailed from London in 1783 with a small stock of musical instruments bound for the United States. Being detained at Chesa- peake Bay en route to Baltimore, he fell in with a dealer in furs who advised him to go to New York, sell out his musical wares and invest the proceeds in furs. Astor took up the idea at once, and as soon as possible converted his goods into a small stock of furs, returned to London with them and sold out to great advantage. Right there the germ was planted that spread the fame of the young man over America, founded Astoria, and helped mightily to save Oregon to the United States. And so clear was his insight to the future, that on this first trip to London, with his first pack of furs, and when he was only twenty-one years of age, he said to his brother, that. "When the Canadian frontiers are surrendered to the LTnited States, I will make my fortune in the fur trade." And he did.

On his return from London in 1784. Astor at once engaged in the fur trade to the Canadian border and out west through Ohio and Indiana to Lake ]Michigan. and pushed his opjiortunities with all his energy. And such was his foresight and ability in managing the business that by the year 1800 he had amassed a for- tune of half a million dollars in sixteen years. By this time both the Monti'eal and St. Louis fur traders had come to regard him as a formidable competitoi- in the trade. The purchase of Louisiana in 180.3 opened u]) a world of opportuni- ties for fortunes and fame to those who had the foresight to see them. Astor beheld the great future of that great territory at a glance. He was more than a match for any of the statesmen of that period in reading the future