GermanAmericanHistory8

German-American History - 8

        Benjamin Franklin
                January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790
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Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the tenth son of soap
maker, Josiah Franklin. Benjamin's mother was Abiah Folger, the second wife of Josiah. In all,
Josiah would father 17 children.

Josiah intended for Benjamin to enter into the clergy. However, Josiah could only afford to
send his son to school for one year and clergymen needed years of schooling. But, as young
Benjamin loved to read he had him apprenticed to his brother James, who was a printer. After
helping James compose pamphlets and set type which was grueling work, 12-year-old Benjamin
would sell their products in the streets.

Apprentice Printer:

When Benjamin was 15 his brother started The New England Courant the first "newspaper" in
Boston. Though there were two papers in the city before James's Courant, they only reprinted
news from abroad. James's paper carried articles, opinion pieces written
by James's friends, advertisements, and news of ship schedules.

Benjamin wanted to write for the paper too, but he knew that James
would never let him. After all, Benjamin was just a lowly apprentice.
So Ben began writing letters at night and signing them with the name
of a fictional widow, Silence Dogood. Dogood was filled with advice and
very critical of the world around her, particularly concerning the issue of
how women were treated. Ben would sneak the letters under the print shop
door at night so no one knew who was writing the pieces. They were a
smash hit, and everyone wanted to know who was the real "Silence Dogood."

After 16 letters, Ben confessed that he had been writing the letters all along. While James's
friends thought Ben was quite precocious and funny, James scolded his brother and was very
jealous of the attention paid to him.

Before long the Franklins found themselves at odds with Boston's powerful Puritan preachers,
the Mathers. Smallpox was a deadly disease in those times, and the Mathers supported
inoculation; the Franklins' believed inoculation only made people sicker. And while most
Bostonians agreed with the Franklins, they did not like the way James made fun of the clergy,
during the debate. Ultimately, James was thrown in jail for his views, and Benjamin was left to
run the paper for several issues.

Upon release from jail, James was not grateful to Ben for keeping the paper going. Instead he
kept harassing his younger brother and administering beatings from time to time. Ben could
not take it and decided to run away in 1723.

Running away was illegal. In early America, people all had to have a place in society and
runaways did not fit in anywhere. Regardless Ben took a boat to New York where he hoped to
find work as a printer. He didn't, and walked across New Jersey, finally arriving in Philadelphia
via a boat ride. After debarking, he used the last of his money to buy some rolls. He was wet,
disheveled, and messy when his future wife, Deborah Read, saw him on that day, October, 6,
1723. She thought him odd-looking, never dreaming that seven years later they would be
married.

Franklin found work as an apprentice printer. He did so well that the governor of Pennsylvania
promised to set him up in business for himself if young Franklin would just go to London to
buy fonts and printing equipment. Franklin did go to London, but the governor reneged on his
promise and Benjamin was forced to spend several months in England doing print work.

Benjamin had been living with the Read family before he left for London. Deborah Read, the
very same girl who had seen young Benjamin arrive in Philadelphia, started talking marriage,
with the young printer. But Ben did not think he was ready. While he was gone, she married
another man.

Upon returning to Philadelphia, Franklin tried his hand at helping to run a shop, but soon went
back to being a printer's helper. Franklin was a better printer than the man he was working
for, so he borrowed some money and set himself up in the printing business. Franklin seemed
to work all the time, and the citizens of Philadelphia began to notice the diligent young
businessman. Soon he began getting the contract to do government jobs and started thriving in
business.

In 1728, Benjamin fathered a child named William. The mother of William is not known.
However, in 1730 Benjamin married his childhood sweetheart, Deborah Read. Deborah's
husband had run off, and now she was able to marry.

In addition to running a print shop, the Franklins also ran their own store at this time, with
Deborah selling everything from soap to fabric. Ben also ran a book store. They were quite
enterprising.

The Pennsylvania Gazette:
In 1729, Benjamin Franklin bought a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin not only
printed the paper, but often contributed pieces to the paper under aliases. His newspaper soon
became the most successful in the colonies. This newspaper, among other firsts, would print
the first political cartoon, authored by Ben himself.

During the 1720s and 1730s, the side of Franklin devoted to public good started to show itself.
He organized the Junto, a young working-man's group dedicated to self- and-civic
improvement. He joined the Masons. He was a very busy man socially.

Poor Richard's Almanack:

But Franklin thrived on work. In 1733 he started publishing Poor Richard's
Almanack. Almanacs of the era were printed annually, and contained things
like weather reports, recipes, predictions and homilies. Franklin published
his almanac under the guise of a man named Richard Saunders, a poor man
who needed money to take care of his carping wife. What distinguished
Franklin's almanac were his witty aphorisms and lively writing. Many of the
famous phrases associated with Franklin, such as, "A penny saved is a penny
earned" came from Poor Richard.

Fire Prevention:

Franklin continued his civic contributions during the 1730s and 1740s. He helped launch
projects to pave, clean and light Philadelphia's streets. He started agitating for environmental
clean up. Among the chief accomplishments of Franklin in this era was helping to launch the
Library Company in 1731. During this time books were scarce and expensive. Franklin
recognized that by pooling together resources, members could afford to buy books from
England. Thus was born the nation's first subscription library. In 1743, he helped to launch the
American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America. Recognizing that the city
needed better help in treating the sick, Franklin brought together a group who formed the
Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751. The Library Company, Philosophical Society, and Pennsylvania
Hospital are all in existence today.

Fires were very dangerous threat to Philadelphians, so Franklin set about trying to remedy the
situation. In 1736, he organized Philadelphia's Union Fire Company, the first in the city. His
famous saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," was actually fire-fighting
advice.

Those who suffered fire damage to their homes often suffered irreversible economic loss. So, in
1752, Franklin helped to found the Philadelphia Contribution for Insurance Against Loss by
Fire. Those with insurance policies were not wiped out financially. The Contributionship is still
in business today.

Electricity:

Franklin's printing business was thriving in this 1730s and 1740s. He also started setting up
franchise printing partnerships in other cities. By 1749 he retired from business and started
concentrating on science, experiments, and inventions. This was nothing new to Franklin. In
1743, he had already invented a heat-efficient stove — called the Franklin stove — to help
warm houses efficiently. As the stove was invented to help improve society, he refused to take
out a patent.

Among Franklin's other inventions are swim fins, the glass armonica (a musical instrument)
and bifocals.

In the early 1750's he turned to the study of electricity. His observations, including his kite
experiment which verified the nature of electricity and lightning brought Franklin
international fame.

The Political Scene:

Politics became more of an active interest for Franklin in the 1750s. In 1757, he went to
England to represent Pennsylvania in its fight with the descendants of the Penn family over
who should represent the Colony. He remained in England to 1775, as a Colonial representative
not only of Pennsylvania, but of Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts as well.

Early in his time abroad, Franklin considered himself a loyal Englishman. England had many of
the amenities that America lacked. The country also had fine thinkers, theater, witty
conversation — things in short supply in America. He kept asking Deborah to come visit him
in England. He had thoughts of staying there permanently, but she was afraid of traveling by
ship.

In 1765, Franklin was caught by surprise by America's overwhelming opposition to the Stamp
Act. His testimony before Parliament helped persuade the members to repeal the law. He
started wondering if America should break free of England. Franklin, though he had many
friends in England, was growing sick of the corruption he saw all around him in politics and
royal circles. Franklin, who had proposed a plan for united colonies in 1754, now would
earnestly start working toward that goal.

Franklin's big break with England occurred in the "Hutchinson Affair." Thomas Hutchinson
was an English-appointed governor of Massachusetts. Although he pretended to take the side of
the people of Massachusetts in their complaints against England, he was actually still working
for the King. Franklin got a hold of some letters in which Hutchinson called for "an
abridgment of what are called English Liberties" in America. He sent the letters to America
where much of the population was outraged. After leaking the letters Franklin was called to
Whitehall, the English Foreign Ministry, where he was condemned in public.

A New Nation - Franklin came home:

He started working actively for Independence. He naturally thought
his son William, now the Royal governor of New Jersey, would agree
with his views. William did not. William remained a Loyal Englishman.
This caused a rift between father and son which was never healed.

Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and worked
on a committee of five that helped to draft the Declaration of
Independence. Though much of the writing is Thomas Jefferson's,
much of the contribution is Franklin's. In 1776 Franklin signed the
Declaration, and afterward sailed to France as an ambassador to the
Court of Louis XVI.

The French loved Franklin. He was the man who had tamed lightning,
the humble American who dressed like a backwoodsman but was a
match for any wit in the world. He spoke French, though stutteringly.
He was a favorite of the ladies. Several years earlier his wife Deborah
had died, and Benjamin was now a notorious flirt.

In part via Franklin's popularity, the government of France signed a
Treaty of Alliance with the Americans in 1778. Franklin also helped secure loans and persuade
the French they were doing the right thing. Franklin was on hand to sign the Treaty of Paris in
1783, after the Americans had won the Revolution.

Now a man in his late seventies, Franklin returned to America. He
became President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. He served
as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and signed the
Constitution. One of his last public acts was writing an anti-slavery
treatise in 1789.

Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. 20,000 people attended the funeral of the man
who was called, "the harmonious human multitude."

His electric personality, however, still lights the world.

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Copyright ©1999-2008 by the Independence Hall Association, electronically publishing
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The IHA is a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1942.
On the Internet since July 4, 1995.

Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner
                           1767 - 1836

German-American Museum. In 1795 he came to the United States, Settling in
Charleston, South Carolina, where he played in the City Theatre Orchestra. He moved
to Boston in 1798.   For nearly a quarter of a century a leading figure in that city's
musical life, Graupner was a founder of the Handel and Haydn Society.

In 1810, he organized the Philharmonic Society,

________________________________________

           Thomas Jefferson
Born: April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia
    Died: July 4, 1826 in Monticello, Virginia

Third President of the United States of America
                1801 - 1809

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright 2004, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Products N.V. All rights reserved.Thomas Jefferson

In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn
upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting
from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land,
and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He
studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In
1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her
to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.

Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was
eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the
Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he
contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As
the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of
Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a
reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing
religious freedom, enacted in 1786.

Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in
1785. His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton
when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.

Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-
Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who
sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a
strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states.

As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election.
Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent of
President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious problem. Republican electors,
attempting to name both a President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote
between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton,
disliking both Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.

When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and
Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West,
yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary
pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the
Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his
qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory
from Napoleon in 1803.

During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from
involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered with the
neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's attempted solution, an embargo upon
American shipping, worked badly and was unpopular.

Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University
of Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had placed his house and his mind "on an
elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe."

________________________________________________________

       Johann Jacob Astor
         Born: July 7, 1763 - Walldorf, Germany
             Died: March 29. 1848 - Manhattan

    Burial Place: Trinity Churchyard Cemetery
         Manhattan, New York City, New York

            From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob or Johann Jacob
Astor) was the first prominent member of the Astor
family and the first millionaire in the United States.
He was the creator of the first trust in America, from
which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate,
and opium.[1]   He two children - William Backhouse
Astor Sr.; and Henry Astor.

From humble origins in Germany, he emigrated to London
and then to America following the American
Revolutionary War. He built a fur-trading empire that
extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and
later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast.
In the early 1800s he diversified into New York City real
estate and later became a famed patron of the arts.

At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was the wealthiest
person in the United States, leaving an estate estimated to be worth at least 20 million dollars;
according to the latest Forbes rankings, he would be worth $115 billion in 2007 US Dollars,
making him the fourth wealthiest person in American history.[2]

Early life:

John Jacob Astor's ancestors were Waldensian refugees from Savoy. He was born in Walldorf,
near Heidelberg in the old Palatinate which became part of Baden during the 19th century,
Germany (currently in the Rhein-Neckar district). His father (Johann Jacob Astor) was a
butcher. The son John Jacob Astor learned English in London while working for his brother,
George Astor, manufacturing musical instruments.

Astor arrived in the United States in March 1784, just after the end of the Revolutionary War.
He traded furs with Indians and then he started a fur goods shop in New York City in the late
1780s.

Fortune from fur trade:

Astor took advantage of the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1794
which opened new markets in Canada and the Great Lakes region. By 1800 he had amassed
almost a quarter of a million dollars, and had become one of the leading figures in the fur
trade. In 1800, following the example of the "Empress of China", the first American trading
vessel to China, Astor traded furs, teas and sandalwood with Canton in China, and greatly
benefited from it. The Embargo Act from Thomas Jefferson in 1807, however, disrupted his
import/export business. With the permission of President Jefferson, Astor established the
American Fur Company on April 6, 1808. He later formed subsidiaries: the Pacific Fur
Company, and the Southwest Fur Company (in which Canadians had a part), in order to control
fur trading in the Columbia River and Great Lakes area.

The Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria (established in April 1811) was the first United
States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810-12 to
reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover South Pass through which
hundreds of thousands settlers on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails passed through
the Rocky Mountains.

His fur trading ventures were disrupted once again when the British captured his trading posts
during the War of 1812, but rebounded in 1817 after the U.S. Congress passed a protectionist
law that barred foreign traders from U.S. Territories. The American Fur Company once again
came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes. In 1822, Astor established the
Astor House on Mackinac Island as headquarters for the reformed American Fur Company,
making the island a metropolis of the fur trade. A lengthy description based on documents,
diaries etc. was given by Washington Irving in his travelogue Astoria.

In 1804, Astor purchased from Aaron Burr what remained of a ninety-nine year lease on
property in Manhattan. At the time, Burr was serving as vice president under Thomas
Jefferson and desperately needed the purchase price of $62,500. The lease was to run until May
1, 1806. Astor began subdividing the land into nearly 250 lots and subleased them. His
conditions were that the tenant could do whatever they wish with the lots for twenty-one years,
after which they must renew the lease or Astor would take back the lot.

Real estate and retirement:

"If I could live all over again, I would buy every square inch of Manhattan."John Jacob Astor.
In the 1830s, John Jacob Astor forsaw that the next big boom would be the build-up of New
York, which would soon emerge as one of the world’s greatest cities. Astor withdrew from the
American Fur Company, as well as all his other ventures, and used the proceeds to buy and
develop large tracts of Manhattan real estate. Predicting the rapid growth northward on
Manhattan Island, Astor purchased more and more land out beyond the current city limits.
Astor rarely built on his land, and instead let others pay rent to use it.

Death:

After retiring from his business, Astor spent the rest of his life as a patron of culture. He
supported the ornithologist John James Audubon, the poet/writer Edgar Allan Poe, and the
presidential campaign of Henry Clay. At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was the wealthiest
person in the United States, leaving an estate estimated to be worth at least 20 million dollars.
In his will, he gave orders to build the Astor Library for the New York public (later
consolidated with other libraries to form New York Public Library), as well as a poorhouse in
his German hometown, Walldorf. He also ordered that his business papers and ledgers were to
be incinerated. What he was trying to hide can only be speculated.

Astor left the bulk of his fortune to his second son, William Backhouse Astor, Sr. His eldest
son, John Jacob II, had a mental disability and therefore was ineligible to receive the
inheritance, although the family continued to care for him.

John Jacob Astor is buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in the New York City borough
of Manhattan. As a symbol of the earliest fortunes in New York, John Jacob Astor is
mentioned in Herman Melville's novella "Bartleby, the Scrivener".

The famous pair of marble lions that sit by the stairs of The New York Public Library at Fifth
Avenue and 42nd Street were originally named Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, after Astor and
James Lenox, who founded the library. Then they were called Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (both
lions are males), before being given the names Patience and Fortitude by Mayor Fiorello
LaGuardia during the Great Depression.

Children:

Magdalen (1788-1832)
Sarah (1790-1791)
John Jacob II (1791-1879)
William Backhouse (1792-1875)
Dorothee (1795-1853)
Henry (1797-1799)
Eliza (1801-1838)
Jacob Warndorf (1802)

[
References:

Smith, Arthur Douglas Howden (1929), John Jacob Astor, Landlord Of New York, Philadelphia
and London: J.B. Lippincott

^ In 1816, John Jacob Astor of New York City joined the opium smuggling trade. His American
Fur Company purchased ten tons of Turkish opium, then shipped the contraband item to
Canton on the Packet Ship. Macedonian. Astor would later leave the China opium trade and
sell solely to England.[1]

^ The All-Time Richest Americans - Forbes.com

_________________________________________________________

   John Eberhard Faber
       From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born December 6, 1822 -Stein Bavaria, Germany
Died March 2, 1879 (aged 56) - New York City, U.S.

John Eberhard Faber (sometimes Johann Eberhard Faber). He is best known as the founder of
the Eberhard Faber company and the first person to establish a large scale pencil factory in the
U.S..

Biography:

Johann Eberhard Faber was born on December 6, 1822 in the village of Stein, near the city of
Nuremberg, Germany. His father, George Leonard Faber, was a descendant of the famous
Faber family, one of ancient lineage in Bavaria engaged in the profession of manufacturing
lead pencils.

He did his primary schooling at a Volksschule and then enrolled to study law at the University
of Heidelberg. But he left his studies mid-way to pursue a career in commerce in America.

He moved to the United States in 1848 and in 1849, opened a stationery store at No. 133
William Street, NYC. The store was later moved to Nos. 718-720 Broadway in 1877.

In 1852, he started to export red cedar logs to the Faber pencil factories in Stein, having
realized that the red cedar available in America was ideal for lead pencils.

In 1861, he opened the first lead pencil factory along the East River, between 41st and 43rd
Streets, New York City. He dropped his Christian name and hence the factory was established
under the name of Eberhard Faber.

In 1872, a fire destroyed the factory in New York City, hence a new improved factory was built
on a site on Kent and West streets in the Greenpoint district of Brooklyn. The new factory was
designed for expansion and by the time Faber died his factory was the largest of its kind in
United States and the Faber name was known all over the world.

Marriage and family:

On July 1, 1854, Eberhard Faber married Jenny Haag, who was born on November 23, 1836, in
Munich. She was the daughter of Ludwig and Johanna (Mangstel) Haag, members of old
Bavarian families. They had six children:

1. Bertha, born April 11, 1856.

2. Sophia, born August 14, 1857.

3. John Eberhard, born March 14, 1859.

4. Lothar W., born September 27, 1861.

5. Louise, born January 2, 1866.

6. Rosie, born February 3, 1871.

___________________________________________

           Emanuel Leutze
             From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leutze was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Württemberg (Germany), was brought to America as a
child, and then returned to Germany as an adult[1]. His parents settled first in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, then at Fredericksburg, Va. He received
his first instruction in art from J. A. Smith, a portrait
painter in Philadelphia. In 1840 one of his pictures
attracted attention and procured him several orders,
which enabled him to go to Düsseldorf, where he
studied with Lessing. In 1842 he went to Munich,
studying the works of Cornelius and Karlbach, and
the following year he visited Venice and Rome. In
1845 he returned to Düsseldorf and was married,
making his home there for 14 years.

His first work, Columbus before the Council of Salamanca was purchased by the Düsseldorf
Art Union. A strong supporter of Europe's Revolutions of 1848, Leutze decided to paint an
image that would encourage Europe's liberal
reformers with the example of the American
Revolution. Using American tourists and art
students as models and assistants, Leutze finished
Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1850. It is
owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York. In 1854, Leutze finished his depiction of the
Battle of Monmouth, "Washington rallying the
troops at Monmouth," commissioned by an important
Leutze patron, banker David Leavitt of New York
City and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.[2]

In 1859, Leutze painted a portrait of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney which hangs in the
Harvard Law School. In a 1992 opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia described the portrait of Taney,
made two years after Taney's infamous decision in
Dred Scott v. Sandford, as showing Taney "in black,
sitting in a shadowed red armchair, left hand resting
upon a pad of paper in his lap, right hand hanging
limply, almost lifelessly, beside the inner arm of the
chair. He sits facing the viewer and staring straight
out. There seems to be on his face, and in his deep-
set eyes, an expression of profound sadness and
disillusionment."

In 1860 Leutze was commissioned by the U.S.
Congress to decorate a stairway in the Capitol Building
in Washington, DC, for which he painted a large composition, Westward the Course of Empire
takes its Way, which is also commonly known as Westward Ho!.

Late in life, he became a member of the National Academy of Design. He was also a member of
the Union League Club of New York, which has a number of his paintings. He died in
Washington, D.C. in his 53rd year.

Leutze's portraits are known less for their artistic quality than for their patriotic
emotionalism. Washington Crossing the Delaware firmly ranks among the American national
iconography, and is thus often caricatured.

References:

^ [1] " German Americans also have influenced greatly our artistic heritage. Emanuel Leutze's
1851 painting, "Washington Crossing the Delaware River," remains a cherished and
recognized symbol of American courage and determination."
^ "Washington at Monmouth," American Heritage Magazine, June 1965, AmericanHeritage.
com
Hutton, Anne Hawkes (1975). Portrait of Patriotism: Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Company. ISBN 0-8019-6418-0.
New International Encyclopedia

External links:

Washington Crossing the Delaware
Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way
Washington rallying the troops at MonmouthEmanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816 – July 18,
1868) was a German American history painter best-known for his painting Washington
Crossing the Delaware.

_____________________________________________
Leutze Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
Emanuel Leutze
Introduction to Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer at the Oxford University
Press blog, discusses Leutze's most famous painting.

Net worth ^$115.0 billion, according to Wealthy
historical figures 2008, based on information
from Forbes - February 2008

Known as First Millionaire in the United States

Johann Jacob Astor
Detail from Oil Painting
by Gilbert Stuart, 1794