Lot - William Astor ALS to Robert Stuart Re: Payment to G.S. Hubbard - 3 Movers & Shakers of the 19th C. Fur Trade!

William Astor
New York, NY, May 5, 1830
William Astor ALS to Robert Stuart Re: Payment to G.S. Hubbard - 3 Movers & Shakers of the 19th C. Fur Trade!
ALS

Bi-fold ALS, 8" x 9", penned entirely in William Astor's hand recto and verso of the first page, with the balance of the pages left blank. Docketed to verso of second page. Tipped into a backing sheet with second leaf inlaid to the page. Signed "Wm B. Astor" and dated by Astor as "New York May 5th, 1830". Expected folds, else unusually clean and well preserved. Accompanied by a delicate, near fine printed engraving of Astor, 2" x 2", along with documented provenance as noted below.

William Backhouse Astor, Sr. inherited most of his father John Jacob Astor's fortune. He worked as a partner in his father's successful export business, who changed the name of his firm to John Jacob Astor & Son, and engaged in the China trade. Although William's fortunes grew with his father's company, he became a truly wealthy man when he inherited the estate of his childless uncle Henry Astor (1754-1833), worth around $500,000 (equivalent to $19.8 million in 2026). When John Jacob Astor, Sr. died in 1848, William became the richest man in America.

Of interest is both the recipient of the letter, Robert Stuart, and the reference to G.S. Hubbard. In 1817, the American Fur company built their "Agent's House" at Mackinac Island, (Michigan), Stuart became the resident agent of the American Fur Company. The Agent's House was part of a four-building complex constructed to house the American Fur Company's offices. The other three buildings were a clerk's quarters (now demolished), a warehouse built in 1810 (now the Community Hall), and a trading post (subsequently altered, but later restored). Stuart was appointed to succeed the earlier agent in 1820, a position he then held for the next 14 years. Because of Stuart's national prominence and his lengthy association with the Agent's House, the building is still standing today and is nominally referred to as the Robert Stuart House. During Stuart's period, the American Fur Company thrived and the era of the 1820s and 1830s were boom years for the American Fur Company's operation on Mackinac Island. In 1822 more than three million dollars of furs were cleared through the Mackinac Island operation. Given his prominence, it was natural that Robert Stuart's house served as the social center of the island during this time. However, the fur trade began to decline in the 1830s, and in 1835, Stuart eventually moved on to Detroit.

Consequently, as the fur trade declined, Mackinac Island became a resort community. By the mid 19th century, the Agent House (now called the Robert Stuart House) was used as a boarding house in the years before and during the Civil War. And just to follow the building and the history of this island today, in 1871, the entire American Fur Company complex was purchased by James F. Cable and the three main buildings - the Agent's House, warehouse, and clerk's quarters - were linked with palisades and turned into the premiere island hotel of the time, the John Jacob Astor House. It remained the social center of the island until the construction of the Grand Hotel.

The other significant person mentioned in this letter is that of G.S. Hubbard (Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard) an American fur trader, insurance underwriter and also one with an interest in land speculation. Hubbard led an odd path to John Jacob Astor when in 1818, through his family's misfortune, Hubbard was indentured to John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company for five years at $120 per year, and remained in the fur trade for a period thereafter. By the 1830s, Hubbard served in the Illinois General Assembly and became a leading figure in the fur trade and opened the first meat packing plant in Chicago as part of his work to supply Fort Dearborn with meat. In support of this business, he built the first warehouse, known as "Hubbard's Folly," in Chicago. Building his own fortune in meats and furs allowed Hubbard to enter into the insurance business, and he was the first underwriter in Chicago.

The path of the three men addressed in this letter were all of historical significance in U.S. history. The direction of these important players in the fur trade sometimes intertwined and other times ran parallel to each other, but in this one letter the three men, Astor, Hubbard and Stuart, were working together during the prominent era of the early 1830s.

The letter in full:

"New York May 5, 1830

Dear Sir,

Mr. G. S. Hubbard has presented one of your due bills in favor of Noel Vapeur for Four Hundred ninety seven 087/100 Dollars with interest from 1st August 1827. Mr. Hubbard is in want of the money, but as it is a matter of your own, a transaction of which I can have no knowledge I do not like to interfere, but to oblige Mr. Hubbard I have agreed to advance to him $250, say two hundred & fifty dollars, and there will remain the unsaid due bill including interest three hundred sixteen 11/100 Dollars from which is to be deducted any account which you may have against Vapeur and for the Balance you will settle with Mr. Hubbard.

I send you a copy of the one bill which is now in the company possession.
I am very truly Yours
Wm B. Astor
Presdt Amn Fur Co
For American Fur Co
Robert Stuart - Esq."

Verso statement:

"Mackinac August 1st, 1827
$497.68 Due Noel Vapeur by the American Fur Company. Four Hundred & Ninety Seven 68/100 Dollars with interest at five percent from this date
Robert Stuart Agent Am fur Co."

William Astor, in true American tycoon fashion and following the example of his father, also invested in real estate, principally situated below Central Park, between 4th and 7th Avenues, which rapidly increased in value. For about 13 years prior to 1873 he was largely engaged in building until much of his hitherto unoccupied land was covered by houses. By 1867, he was said to own as many as 720 houses, and he was also heavily interested in railroad, coal, and insurance companies. His management of the family real estate holdings succeeded in multiplying their value, and he left an estate worth close to $50 million. His house at Barrytown, New York, known as Rokeby, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

This letter induces the reader to an incredible amount of reflection of a phenomenal period history gone by, and the amazing lives of the three men mentioned within.

Provenance: This item was recently discovered in an extra illustrated volume of "History of the City of New York" by Mary L. Booth, New York W. R. C. Clark, 1867. Originally two volumes, the monumental task of expanding the work to 21 volumes was done by none other than Emery E. Childs Esquire of New York City. In volume 1 of this work exists a lovely India ink drawing of Mary L. Booth along with a notation in pencil, "presented by her to E E C." Next to the title page we find an original letter of Booth to Childs dated April 4, 1872, "I am in receipt of your favor of the 4th inst., and am grateful to hear that you are taking the trouble to illustrate my History of the City of New York in the manner you describe. I shall be happy to see you, should you favor me with a call as I am usually in my office during business hours and should be pleased to facilitate your Enterprise by any means in my power".

It is assumed that the book took several years to assemble at which point, presumably through Childs, it made its way to Senator Charles B. Farwell of Chicago, who took the seat of John A. Logan in 1887. Farwell had an extensive library that fortunately survived the great Chicago fire in 1871 having been housed in his Lakeside home. In "The American Bibliopolist" of November 1871 there is an article about the devastation to libraries caused by the tragedy, "Mr C. B. Farwell's library is also fortunately far out from the city, at his country house, and is safe. The same remark will also apply to the extensive collection of books and curiosities belonging to Mr. E. E. Childs." This establishes the Chicago connection between Childs and Farwell.

That these letters were preserved for almost 200 years and have never been on the market for that period is remarkable on many levels. It is the state of being wedged in these volumes that also accounts for what is mostly the pristine state of preservation.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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Dimensions: 8" x 9"
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Lot 198

William Astor ALS to Robert Stuart Re: Payment to G.S. Hubbard - 3 Movers & Shakers of the 19th C. Fur Trade!

William Astor ALS to Robert Stuart Re: Payment to G.S. Hubbard - 3 Movers & Shakers of the 19th C. Fur Trade!

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