John Jakob Astor arrived in America in 1784 with a few dollars and a backpack of wooden flutes he hoped to sell. He discovered the profitability of fur trading. He seems to have been the Elon Musk of fur trade with an ocean-to-ocean empire of fur trading that made him rich enough to start buying Manhattan real estate. By 1900 the Astor family owned much of Manhattan and was one of, maybe the richest, families in America. It’s hard to compare real estate value with other more liquid assets. Included in their extensive wealth were the Hotel Astoria, Hotel Waldorf, next door and ultimately the Waldorf Astoria.
They also built one mansion after another, each bigger and more elaborate than their cousins. Sometimes blocking each other’s views. The ultimate social status was to be invited to Mrs. Astor’s parties. The last Mrs. Astor once wore so many jewels to a gala that she was compared to a walking chandelier. Perhaps the most or only noble thing done by an Astor was when John Jacob Astor the IV gave up his privileged seat in one of the Titanic’s lifeboats to a lady, as the ship was sinking.
The Astors also built and managed overpriced tenements for low wage immigrants working like slaves in the sweat shops of the 18th and early 20th century. Living conditions were cramped and crude beyond our twentieth century imagination. Comparable to a pig boat (submarine) with families aboard and a few windows, but mostly outdoor plumbing. Tenements were actually more profitable than hotels due to low cost, high density and no credit offered.
Despite their incredible wealth there is little evidence of charity until John Jacob Astor the VI donated some tenement land to the City of New York to be used for public housing. That might have been a tax maneuver.
Andrew Carnegie, possibly the first billionaire Andrew Carnegie reportedly said to get rich is hard work but, “To die rich is to die a disgrace.” He planned to give away all his wealth before he died. He founded hundreds of libraries and Carnegie Mellon University. Other wealthy Americans followed suit creating charitable trust funds that outlive them. Vanderbilt University, the Ford Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, etc. Warren Buffet and others have taken the pledge to disperse their wealth similarly. The Astor’s seemed to follow the European model of spending their wealth on conspicuous architecture, but instead of cathedrals it was ballrooms to entertain those whose wealth and power could enrich them.
I have read a unique story about Harvard. An older couple came to the university president’s office and asked to see him. The man’s suit is old and the woman’s gingham dress is out of fashion. The secretary insists the president is too busy. The man says ‘We will wait.’ And they did. At the close of business, the secretary is about to scoot them out when the president, in sympathy, decides to hear them. The story they tell is brief. Our son died recently but the happiest year of his life was the year he spent at your university so we would like to endow a building in his honor.
“Do you realize we have 10 million dollars’ worth of buildings?”
She reacted. “Dear if that’s all it costs, why don’t we start our own?” They did. His name was Leland Stanford.
This started me wondering if giving all one’s wealth to charity is an American thing or do we only hear about ours. I looked up charitable trust endowments in Wikipedia: List of wealthiest charitable foundations. Wikipedia is British. I ranked the trusts by age, and lo and behold well over half were American. The first were American, but I was surprised the very first was not that of Andrew Carnegie, but Kamehameha Schools, established in 1884 by the wife of American Charles Reed Bishop, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop the last Kamehameha.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Feedback encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com.
