And in eighteen hundred eleven, John Jacob Astor built a fur trading center at the mouth of Oregon's Columbia River.

VOA: special.2009.02.19

Ms. Astor, the widow of a descendant of 19th-century magnate John Jacob Astor, died in 2007 at the age of 105.

WSJ: Brooke Astor's Son Loses Appeal in Fraud Case

One of the wealthiest men, John Jacob Astor, based his company, the American Fur Trading Company, in Mackinaw Island, Michigan.

FORBES: Was I Wrong About Michigan?

He was a great-great-grandson of real estate and fur magnate John Jacob Astor, one of the United States' first multimillionaires.

WSJ: Astor son, 88, loses appeal, could face prison