Chapter III
Emerick and Astor are Partners
Astor worked for Robert Bowne for about two years. He
started his job there in March 1784 and stayed there until 1785, to the time when he took
up his job with Emerick. He worked for Emerick for a year before they became partners.
Shortly before his death, Emerick wrote the following note:
March 1815
Thirty-one years ago I brought John Jacob Astor from Baltimore to New York, and there to
Bowne, with his flutes and without any money. In 1786 and 1787 he worked well. I made him
my partner with one third.
Parton says that Astor left Bowne in the year 1786. He
further states that he worked for himself and with a bundle on his back traveled through
the country to sell furs. This way, he traveled through the whole state of New York.
During this time, he says, he had a partner who generally stayed in town, while he, the
swift and enduring Astor, traveled through the wilderness. (Chapter VIII). What he means
is that Astor left Bowne and started in the business of his own with a partner. This
partner was John Nicholas Emerick. They had a written contract of partnership. At this
time, Astor was a newcomer in the business. Although he had two years of experience, he
could not yet understand a whole lot about the material, but Emerick did not fail to
notice that he was a useful and goal-oriented man, whom he could depend on, therefore the
partnership came into being. Astor could not bring much money into the company. To make up
for this he offered his own person.. He had had his job with Bowne, but only for payment
of two dollars per week with food and lodging. With this income, he was not able to save
much, this even would not have been possible to do in two years, had he received a higher
salary. Emerick had been in the trade for ten years and knew the fur trade well enough to
instruct Astor in 1784. Astor was just a beginner, and therefore, viewing the
circumstances they agreed, that Emerick should receive two thirds of the profit, and Astor
one third.
The contract sounded like this:
"The contract about the agreement states:
that we, the undersigned have founded a company with its seat in New York. The profits of
the said partnership are to be distributed in the following manner: for John N. Emerick
2/3, and for Astor 1/3. We agreed that we will dedicate or pay honest attention to our
business.
This agreement is valid for all business transactions, which each of both undersigned undertakes, that is in fur trade, and transportation, in goods, or in any other business transaction in which the company is involved.
This is witnessed by the signatures and seal.
June 20
John N. Emerick (seal)
John Jacob Astor (seal)
A family-document given to Governor Roosevelt from the 18th century:
Eagle Bureau
Capital Building
Notice:
During this time the custom was to rip the document of
a contract. Legally valid documents were created in such a way during this time. This is
how a contract was set up. It is a legally valid document. There were no typewriters and
no carbon paper either. Therefore we think that both parties received a copy (handwritten)
of the document.
This was the safest way against fraud and deceit. Both documents were ripped. Often it was
the signature, the date, or a corner of the papers.
Albany, February 19
- two pergament documents were shown to Governor Roosevelt about a possession which once
was ownership of his ancestors in the lower part of Manhattan, which was known 150 years
ago as the Leather Swamp. These were recently obtained by Henry Gorfin, a Brooklyn realtor
and brought to Albany.
One document carries a date from the year 1774 and writes part of property in Manhattan,
which originally belonged to Andrew Bercley, from Jacobus Roosevelt to Isaak Roosevelt.
The mentioned first owner Bercley was one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence.
The charge was 50 dollars. The attorney present with this business was Hugh Wallace,
rights counselor to King George III.
The other document came from the year 1793; it gives the same property to James Roosevelt, the great grandfather of the governor, for a payment of 5 shillings. Richard Varick, New York City's first mayor witnessed the signatures on the document. Benjamin Finkel a lawyer from Brooklyn who accompanied Gorfin to Albany, explained the fact that the document was torn into two pieces, so that - as it was common during that time, such documents were prepared twice, then both papers were torn in half, so that the original and duplicate due to the irregular tears in the pergament could be identified.
The contract was written by Emerick and signed by both
partners.
Perhaps this was the first document which John Jacob Astor had signed in business matters.
Now he was occupied to become partner of a business and not en employee of another person.
He now was 24 years old and in America for the last three years. He had progressed
tremendously since he left home. That had been seven years ago. He by now was working in
the fur trade long enough to realize that he could to the trade, and he intended to make a
career of it. It was his luck that he became acquainted with a traveling partner who had
advised him to get into this branch of business.
It proved to be a hard task, to open ways through the woods, to deal with uncultivated people, and to transport the hides to New York. There were no regular roads leading through the wilderness. You had to follow Indian paths and transport the hides by carts of by canoes downward the rivers to New York. Emerick stayed in the business rooms and offices in New York and prepared the furs for shipment to the markets. He was familiar with the prices this would bring in. And he knew as well at which time of the year you could get the best possible prices. Both men were closely connected. John Nicholas Emerick made friendships and paid attention to social matters. He took Astor to some business friends he knew well.
In September 1779, Ann Emerick came to America and lived in Philadelphia. John Nicholas, and his brothers Christopher and Valentine visited her often. During the first eleven years while she was in America, she kept a diary, where she noted certain events.
Friday, March 10, 1780
It is very difficult for me to get used to being here and to learn the foreign language. Today I am more afraid than ever. Although I know a few words, but it is not enough to communicate with other people.
July 10, 1781
I was lucky. My brother Valentine introduced me to Mr. David Ashley. All I know about him is that he has good manners and made a good impression. He comes from a well respected Scottish family. I am very proud of him.
November 7
Tomorrow will be the best day of my life. I will become David's wife. I am overjoyed with tears. David is my idol and he makes the impression of becoming a good husband. Life is sweet - I could praise the heavens."
Friday, November 9
"In Philadelphia, David's father's house, Mr. Thomas Ashley, the wedding took place yesterday. Pastor Wilhelm Allen did the wedding ceremony. Some of our friends and relatives were present. My brothers Christopher and John Nicholas Emerick, as well as David's siblings, John Isiah and Mary Ashley, were present.
April 5, 1784
"Today my brother John Nicholas visited me. He returned from a journey to London where he sold furs. He is very upset about the journey because of the last two months due to the ice."
Sunday, May 16, 1784
David decided to go along with my brother Nicholas to buy furs at the Hudson Bay. For me it is a hard thing, because I will have to take care of the family until his return. He figures that he will be away for two months.
Tuesday, January 1, 1788
"It is two o'clock in the morning now, and all friends have left to go home. We celebrated New Years Eve. But my brother and his friend Astor want to spend the night. We had a nice holiday together, there was much fun when the old year departed and the new began.
Sunday, September 19, 1789
"Tomorrow my brother John Nicholas Emerick and his partner, Mr. John Jacob Astor, will be having lunch with me. Both are very successful in the fur trade, and they will be very rich men in the future. Now I am working to prepare everything before both arrive.
John Nicholas was involved with the fur trade, and when
she saw Astor for the first time he was introduced as a friend. They stayed in her home to
celebrate New Year's. Later she was visited by them and she knew then that they were
business partners. They had lunch in her house, but left shortly afterwards to ship a load
of furs to London. This happened in the year 1789.
When they visited and ate at her place, they had been partners for three years. She had
the impression that they were successful and would became rich some day if they continued
their business with the same efforts.
Emerick and her husband traveled to the Hudson Bay
which was far from Philadelphia. The trip took two months. The partnership lasted until
the death of Emerick. The place of the company was in New York City. Emerick was on a
business trip to Philadelphia, when he visited Baltheus Emerick. Baltheus lived at 234
High Street, where he had a bakery. Both knew each other well. As you will read further,
Emerick died in Baltheus' house.
He wrote a note about his life as follows:
Description of his life
He was very generous. John Nicholas Emerick was born in
Germany.
He came as a poor man to this country. He made his fortune. He took a young German, John
Jacob Astor, who had not a cent to his name in 1784, and he took him from Baltimore to New
York with him. He introduced him to Mr. Bowne; later, in 1787 he made him to 1/3 partner
in his business; he left his fortune to the trusteeship of Astor to be given to the
descendants of Christopher and Valentine.
Most of the time he spent in New York where his business was located. During the last years he stayed with the business and John J. worked outside. This is shown from his papers and descriptions which he left with me, and this is a true copy. " And I am sending this document together with the suitcase, just as he left it here where he came and also died.
December 28, 1816
B. Emerick, Philadelphia, Penn."
It is unknown how much money these two men accumulated. During the first years of their company, there were no banks. In fact, until the death of John Nicholas Emerick, business people were not used to do their business via banks. Astor opened a bank account with Manhattan Bank in New York City in the year 1798. His account at this bank held $4,000 during the first few years. He did his first investment in property in 1793, when he bought two lots on Bowery Lane for $625. And this happened in the same year when he and Emerick visited Ann Emerick. About this, she said, that both hat advanced very successfully with the fur trade and that they would get quite wealthy if they kept on being so successful. Astor invested more amounts, between 200 and 500 dollars. Without doubt, these moneys came from the gains of the common business. It is quite amazing to find out, that his bank account grew from $4,000 in 1801 to $500.000 during the same year. Despite the tremendous growth of his bank account, his properties increased as well. It shows that $750.000 were in real estate. It is unknown, and will remain a secret, how his account grew so much all of a sudden. A jump of $4,000 per year to $500,000 in the fur trade during such a short time is puzzling.
There is no equal to such a jump. New York was a city of 25,000 residents when these changes in Astor's life took place. How he managed this, and how he got into all that money, would have puzzled a biographer. It does not matter, how his wealth grew so much, it could not bring about a change with Emerick and the company's relationship, because they still were partners, bound by the contract, with one third for Astor, and two thirds for Emerick.
Something else is interesting when you study both men: It is their hand writing. Emerick wrote beautifully. It was noticed that his letters were uniform, and that he left a margin on each line. One of the most remarkable characteristics in his writing was the "J", although there were no changes in his signature. Astor's writing was sloppy and with a lot of scroll work. He did not care about the spelling, and he did not worry about punctuation. Contrary to Emerick, he did his signature in many different ways. A certain way of his writing was that he put the $ sign behind the number, nobody other than Astor did that. He wrote his name with a listing right angular "r" whereas at other times he used the round version of writing it. All this shows a distinct difference between his handwriting and that of Emerick. Despite these characteristics and differences between these two men, there was a mutual attraction, which had gone into effect while they were still strangers on the boat. Therefore it was quite natural that if a business opportunity had opened up for them, they would have taken it up. Emerick had proclaimed the advantages of the fur trade so well, that John Jacob could not have easily forgotten it.
This is proven by the fact that after two years' work at Bowne, Astor had become convinced that his future rested on his friend's advice. This is why he looked for better opportunities and better possibilities. He realized that Bowne could not offer him the same chances for success. It is true that Bowne found a way of making a good living with his fur trade, but he could not offer the energetic young goal-oriented man the great field he was looking for. Astor immediately thought about Emerick and did not hesitate for a moment to talk to him about his future. This was the second time that Emerick intervened at a critical point in time. Emerick was 37 years old at the time, he was in the best years of his life and he enjoyed the remarkable success with his business. Not only did he remember the young German, but he was so impressed by his progress that he took Astor with him in his business. After he had worked for Emerick for one year, the latter was convinced that this man could represent profit for him, even though he had nothing to offer but himself. Therefore Astor became a one-third partner in the existing business. And so Astor had gotten the great opportunity. He found the field of his dreams with a trade he loved, and he was in business with a man whom he had to respect highly. It is almost impossible that this all could happen within three years. He was not a self-made man, as the biographers seem to describe the young emigrant who came to America with seven flutes and no money. From the biographers' points of view it could seem likely, but the presence of events in the background, coloring the picture differently, and this the biographers overlooked. Nobody needs to take pain to describe Astor's success. Nobody doubts that Astor had certain unusual abilities, therewith the old German determination, and his iron drive to succeed. But to him a hand was extended, which was not available to most of the young people trying to find their way upward. This circumstance explains a lot in his life which did not get the proper attention.
Be it stated that these circumstances do not try to take away from Astor's success, but contrary they do add to it. But not only, that Emerick has been left out of the story totally, but there were other strange secrets which had not come to light. All biographers have their explanation for the finding of Captain Kidd's treasure, to the bribery of the Indians. Others report that his sudden riches had their source in the selling of the furs at the Chinese Market, where great riches were to be gained. It is obviously a fact, that all these circumstances would have been unexplainable, had Emerick's presence not been in the background. He was not a shadow figure, of one of many people whom Astor had met in his business life. He was the first partner of the young man, and in fact, he remained his partner for the rest of his life. Not only was he a partner, but after Emerick's death, all of the fortune was entrusted to Astor.
After Emerick's death the business experienced its greatest expansion. The young Astor continued the development and growth of the business in such a measure, that he became known as one of the greatest fur traders on the North American continent. No longer did he trot through swampy woods, he no longer took loads of fur to London, now he was the leader, who directed boats and had employees from coast to coast, from ocean to ocean. The business was continued like this until 1834 when he discontinued it as a result to the industrial revolution which excluded the fur trade as a major source of profits. Emerick had been dead for 18 years by then. Astor's place stood among the most powerful. It was a long way from the journey across the ocean where he had become acquainted with Emerick. Everything Emerick had ever owned come into the trusteeship of the young man whom he helped to be somebody!