The Life and Ventures of the Original John Jacob Astor

LibriVox recording of The Life and Ventures of the Original John Jacob Astor , by Elizabeth Louisa Gebhard (1859-1924). John Jacob Astor was pre-eminently the opener of new paths, a breaker of trails. From his first tramp alone through the Black Forest of Baden, at sixteen, his life never lost this typical touch. In America, both shores of the Hudson, and the wilderness to the Northwest knew his trail. The trees of the forests west of the Mississippi were blazed by his hunters and trappers; and his partners and agents planted through this vast region the flag of the American Fur Company. The A