Talk:John Jacob Astor

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Contents 1 His demise 2 His "bad" side 3 Newer ranking on Wealth 4 Was Astor Jewish?

[edit] His demise

No mention of his death in the article.

dagger29 18:29, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

did he die on the titanic?

Hmmm...I think he does according to the musical, but that wouldent be a reliable source. I'll look up some biographical stuff and post it on this article later. If anybody wants to help, please do so. 70.132.201.55 01:16, 23 October 2006 (UTC) Actually, after research, he did not die on the titanic. It was a latter descendant of his, though this is confusing at first since they share the same name... In fact, none of his children lived to see the "launching" of the Titanic.Ageofe 02:13, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Astor died in 1848. The Titanic sank in 1911 or 1912 or so. There was an Astor, and several other millionarires, on the Titanic--in fact, it was frequently called a Millionaire's Special. Two Guggenheims, Levi Strauss (who owned Macy's), and of course the unsinkable Molly Brown. N.B.--Elias Hasket Derby of Salem is usually referred to as America's first millionaire. Like Astor, he made his boodle in the China trade. Astor was, at the time of his death, undisputably the richest American.24.48.198.181 03:09, 10 December 2006 (UTC)Tayer4573@Yahoo.com

John Jacob Astor IV (his Grandson) died on the Titanic not this one.

[edit] His "bad" side

I am from Washington State, and I remember from school that Astor was actually a pretty horrible guy. He wanted to (and attempted to) do some pretty wild stuff like generate unrest in the oregon territories so that he could set up his own kingdom (in what is now the pacific northwest) with himself as king.

Prior to that, he also had a dream to setup his own city-state in what is now niagra falls.

He never did anything charitable in his life (with one exception in the next paragraph), and indeed was known for being ruthless and essentially "greedy"

Ultimatly, when all his plans of domination didnt pan out, he did commission one "charitable" work, a library dedicated to himself and his works.

SO, this is what i remember reading about Astor, so if someone feels like digging for verifiable citations regarding this, go for it.

--JayTau 02:00, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Newer ranking on Wealth

The newest Forbes rankings state he was the fourth wealthiest American ever. It was a minor change but I made, although I'm afraid the citation I made is sub-par. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.81.174.15 (talk) 16:40, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Was Astor Jewish?

In an edit on 20 December 2007, 14:07 the claim of a Jewish origin for Astor was made. I couldn't verify this, but found an article which might settle this issue:

• Sarachek, Bernard (June 1980). "Jewish American Entrepreneurs". The Journal of Economic History 40 (2): pp. 359-372. 

Maybe someone with access to JSTOR can check this? --S.K. (talk) 15:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)