CHAPTER XII.

 VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR.

Pages 100-111

[Page 100]

     With the close of the war the German Reformed Church in New York of which Dominie Gebhard had been pastor, gathered once more its scattered congregation, and with one accord sent a call to their old minister at Claverack to return to his former charge.  But the life of the young clergymen had sent out many tendrils since the day in which he left New York city, not knowing where in the future would be his abiding place.  At that time he had two children, now he was the father of five, four boys and one little daughter, Charlotte, born four years previous.  There was the Seminary which he had been the means of founding, the out-lying churches which depended on his occasional ministrations, and to whom his coming was as a torch that shed the light of the Gospel into the weeks barren of religious service or Sacrament.

     Besides all this, there existed his own extensive [page 101] congregation nearer home, with whom there had been formed close ties in these years of anxiety and danger.  The parsonage and the glebe land were dear to his Pennsylvania wife, and healthful for his children, and once more as in the first instance, he believed that God had called him, this time to stay where his feet had been planted, and regretfully he declined the call to return to his old flock.

     Yet though he decided to stay in Claverack, his heart turned with eager interest toward the future of his early charge.  New members were being added to the New York church, with the changing population of the town, and the greater facilities for immigration now that the war was over.  Baron Steuben joined himself to the congregation so soon as it gathered itself together once more, remaining a faithful attendant on its services when in New York, so long as his life lasted.  At his death in 1795 a tablet was placed in the church to his memory, sating at the close of a long and impressive inscription, that it was given by "An American who had the honor to be his Aide-de-camp, and the happiness to be his Friend."

     In the many changes of location that this church has [page 102] undergone, in its more than a century of existence since his death, the tablets to Baron Steuben has always been carried with them, and in the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the church held recently at its present location in East 68th St., the tablet to Baron Steuben, America's friend of Revolutionary days, vied in interest with the bell presented by Kaiser William in honor of the celebration.  There was also another feature of this occasion which connected with the past history of the church.  Rev. John G. Gebhard, D. D., a great grandson of their old minister, participated in the anniversary ceremonies, while in the audience were Karl and John G. Gebhard, Jr., the fifth generation in descent from the old Dominie.

     A still more important member, in the opinion of the family at the Claverack parsonage, was added to the New York church about 1784, in the person of John Jacob Astor, a young German from Waldorf in the Duchy of Baden, the home town of Dominie Gebhard.

     Letters had been few and far between during the years of the war.  Many a heart hungered for news of friends bound to them by close family ties, though [page 103] the ocean rolled between.  A year earlier a letter from Germany had reached the Claverack parsonage through the good offices of Benjamin Franklin, the writer being the Dominie's younger brother, Ludwig.  The letter referred to the Dominie's loss of property through the war, but his happiness, nevertheless, in founding an institution of learning.  It also told of the marrying and scattering to Zelt, Rotterdam, Frankfort, and Strassburg of the various brothers and sisters and their children, and their material welfare.

     A touch of pathos blends with humor in the naive remark of the young brother who writes, "Our mother is still living.  Do you remember, my dear brother, when we took leave of each other in Bingen, how our dear mother wept, and asked you what she was to do with me.  Now you can see that it is never well to despair."  There is a suggestion of coming to America, when peace is declared, if the mother gives her consent, with articles of merchandise sent by German merchants, and a return cargo of American products.  Such letters, taking one back to the hearth-stones of the faraway homes, must have warmed the heart of the wanderer even though the new home was [page 104] becoming dearer each year.  With warm German affection the letter closes, "Farewell to you and your dear family.  I kiss you  all in spirit, and remain for all time.

"Your Faithful Brother,

                                                          "LUDWIG GEBHARD,"

                                                                     "Strassburg, Jan. 22nd, 1783."

     But when John Jacob Astor raised the brass knocker of the old parsonage door, he outstripped the most vividly written letter, with his late personal contact with all that had been familiar and dear in the Dominie's youth.

     Young Astor entered into the fur business immediately on his arrival in New York, and in a short time was making trips for his master to Montreal, the chief fur-market of the country.  With a pack on his back he struck into the wilderness above Albany, but going or coming he was quite sure to stop off at Claverack Landing, or sometimes tramp along the Albany road direct to the parsonage gate.

     Those were great visits, in which old and young had their own favorite theme of conversation.  The boys were never late to supper the nights that John Astor came.  Neither fishing, swimming, nutting nor gunning [page 105] in its season, held a superior charm to the stories of adventure in the fur-trade to the Gebhard boys.  Logs were piled on the open fire in the great fire-place on cool evenings, and bed-time was ignored even by the practical mother, while the boys' eyes grew large and starry, as the young fur-merchant told of the dangers of the wild lands in northern and western New York, where untamed animals abounded, of meetings with Indian chiefs, of baskets of toys or sometimes cakes, that would buy valuable skins, of the bogs that had delayed his journeys, or floating bridges with wide spaces between the logs, over which he and his pack must go in safety.  There were his canoe trips up Lake George, and embarking again, on to the head of Lake Champlain, which held the boys' undivided attention.  His companion on these occasions was an Indian paddler and guide; and again when the pelts were secured Indians transported them to the head of the Hudson where they were sent on sloops to New York.

     Sometimes the Gebhard boys knew of some skins among the country lads, and young Astor picked up [page 106] even at Claverack, a small addition to his stock in trade.

     But the conversation did not always turn on the American wilderness, or its fur-bearing animals, or trade in skins.  After the little ones were tucked in their trundle-beds, the older boys and the Dominie's wife sat by, while the two men talked of the home of their boyhood across the sea.  Every man, woman and child in the little village of Waldorf was familiar to them both, but Dominie Gebhard had left home twelve years before, so the younger man brought with him a fund of information full of a living interest.

     John Jacob Astor had been the son of the village market-man, while Dominie Gebhard had been the minister's son, though his father had died when he was twelve years old, yet life in the German village had presented many similar duties and pleasures to each.  Both boys had studied the catechism with great care under the village pastor, and after being examined walked to church in a procession, the girls in white and the boys in their best suits.  After this came the rite of Confirmation and the Sacrament.  This was both a solemn and a joyous occasion which took place [page 107] every two years, and for which a girl or boy was supposed to be prepared, at the age of fourteen years.  Besides Confirmation there were three other festival days, Baptism, Weddings and Christmas.  These were all religious feasts, but the days ended in much sociability and innocent merry-making.  Both of these young German lads also had younger brothers and sisters to care for, which all their lives made them tender with children.

     After Confirmation the two boys' paths lay in different directions.  Young Gebhard's lay toward school and college, but John Astor's father was not able to meet the expense of apprenticing him to a good trade.  This however did not deter the boy.  He did not mean to carry on his father's business, and kept his eyes open and his mind alert to find an opening in life to his taste.  Here again the two young German youths had been moved by the same impulse, the love of adventure, and the desire to see the "New Land" across the sea.  When young Gebhard left home, John Jacob was eight years old.  Doubtless he had seen many other youths depart from the little German village.  One of his own brothers had gone to America, and [page 108] another to England.

     John Astor meant to go too, and one day when he was nearly seventeen he started.  No matter how uneasy a boy is at home, when he makes his first attempt to leave it, its value enhances by the hour, and a lump in his throat is quite sure to go with the young traveler, and spoil the first part of the journey.  So it was with John Jacob Astor when he set out on foot one morning, a bundle of clothes on a stick over his shoulder, a crown or two in his pocket, to walk to the Rhine a few miles distant.  Instead of a joyous journey toward the desire of his heart, it bid fair to be a dismal path of homesickness, until sitting down under a tree to rest as the morning advanced, he made some resolutions which gave him a grip on his melting feelings, and no doubt later on, a firm grasp on the best things of life.

     These resolutions were three in number, "to be honest, industrious, and not to gamble."  At this point he was likely to turn his eyes keenly on the boys before him, knowing that these were good resolutions for boys on both sides of the sea.

     After this he went on with better courage.  It was [page 109] the portion of the story which followed, which always held the Gebhard's boys' most eager attention.

     Part of the great Black Forest is in Baden.  The timber cut in the forest was formed into rafts, and rowed by sixty or eighty men or strong boys down the Rhine.  These raftsmen were boarded during the journey and paid ten dollars in money at its end.  Many voyagers bound for the "New Land," earned their way to the coast in this fashion.  John Jacob Astor resolved to do this and also earn his passage to England, and though it was hard work and three hundred miles to the coast, he accomplished his purpose.  It required fourteen days to reach a Dutch sea-port, but the days, and even the nights, were made merry by songs and jests, from the hopeful and adventurous young lumbermen.  John Jacob Astor reached port with a larger sum of money than he had ever possessed before.  Here he took passage for London where an older brother had preceded him, and was at that time engaged in manufacturing musical instruments.

     In London he worked hard and saved money, and learned English at the same time, gaining all the information possible about America, while he waited for the [page 110] war to be over.  At last he set sail, after word of the treaty of peace had reached London, bringing seven flutes with him for sale, and his savings for the years he had been in England, which were about five pounds in money.  Each step of the way had called for courage and perseverance.  Even within a day of port the wind died away, and the cold grew intense, so that the ship was frozen in a field of ice for two months.

     But this final misfortune was the means of starting young Astor on his life work, and the after accumulation of his large fortune, for stranded in the same ship was a young fur-dealer, and in the long and wearisome days of waiting, while food gave out and money grew scarce, the two young men formed a friendship, during which time they confided to each other their previous life stories.  It was from this ice-bound companion that Astor learned the possibilities of the fur trade, and day by day a hundred practical facts on hunting, bartering, curing, keeping and selling skins.  It was a two months' schooling in preparation for his life-work, with an enthusiastic teacher who had just successfully carried through a sale of skins in England.

     Small wonder that the young man with stories of the Black Forest and lumber camps, Indian adventures, wild animals, and successful feats of bartering, was a welcome guest at the parsonage, or that the boys were wont to scan the length of the Albany road at nightfall, for a sturdy figure with a pack on his back, many a day before the young German came, counting his visits as festival occasions.  Their father had a still greater regard for these stops by the way, adding to the mutual interests and sympathies of the past, the fact that John Jacob Astor soon became a member of the Consistory of the New York church, and its former minister and the new member of its governing body, found much in common in discussing the growth and prosperity of this well-loved organization.

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