Warren Delano Jr. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1809-07-13)July 13, 1809 |
| Died | January 17, 1898(1898-01-17) (aged 88) Newburgh, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Merchant |
| Employer | Russell & Company |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Relatives | Delano family |
Warren Delano Jr. (July 13, 1809 – January 17, 1898) was an Americanmerchant anddrug smuggler who made a large fortune smuggling illegalopium intoChina. He was the maternal grandfather of U.S. PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt.
Delano was born on July 13, 1809, inNew Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the eldest son of Captain Warren Delano Sr. (1779–1866) and Deborah Perry (née Church) Delano.[1]
After his mother's death in 1827, his father, who was involved in the New England sea trade, remarried to Elizabeth Adams,[2] a widow of Captain Parker of theUnited States Navy.[1] Among his siblings were brothers Frederick Delano, Edward Delano andFranklin Hughes Delano, who was married to Laura Astor, a daughter ofWilliam Backhouse Astor Sr. and a sister of, among others,John Jacob Astor III andWilliam Backhouse Astor Jr.[3][a]
A descendant ofPhilip Delano (aPilgrim who arrived inPlymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621), Warren Jr.'s paternal grandparents were Ephraim Delano and Elisabeth (née Cushman) Delano,[6] and his maternal grandparents were Joseph Church and Deborah (née Perry) Church.[7]
He graduated from the Fairhaven Academy at the age of 15 and by age 17 was a trader in the import business.[8]
Delano made a large fortune smugglingopium into Canton (nowGuangzhou), China.[9][10] Opium, a highly addictive narcotic (which pharmacists later found can be refined into heroin), was illegal in China.
By the 1800s, there was an immense European demand for Chinese luxury products such as silk, tea, porcelain ("china"), and furniture, but Chinese demand for European products was much less.
As a result, many European nations ran large trade deficits with China. Foreign traders such as the Scottish merchantWilliam Jardine ofJardine Matheson introduced large-scaleopium smuggling into China as merchandise to pay for coveted Chinese products. The vast illegal opium trade resulted in millions of Chinese becoming addicted, and in a drastic reversal of the trade imbalance to favor Europe. This led to theFirst Opium War of 1840–1843.[10]
Delano first went to China at age 24, before the Opium War, to work forRussell & Company, which had pioneered the China trade. Earlier,John Perkins Cushing – also a Russell & Company partner – had worked with the largest Chinesehong merchant,Howqua, to establish an offshore base. At this anchored floating warehouse, Russell & Company ships would offload their opium contraband, then continue with their legal cargo up thePearl River Delta to Canton.[11]
By early 1843, Delano had prospered greatly in the Chinese opium trade, rising to become the head partner of the biggest American firm trading with China. He had witnessed the destruction of the Canton trading concession system, the humiliation of the Chinese government, and the creation of New China.[12][page needed]
In the 1850s, Delano, along with his brother Franklin andAsa Packer, builder of theLehigh Valley Railroad and founder ofLehigh University, headed a land company that purchased several thousand acres and established the town ofDelano, Pennsylvania.[13]
Delano lost much of his fortune in thePanic of 1857. In 1860, he returned to China, except this time toHong Kong, where he rebuilt his fortune. During theU.S. Civil War, Delano shippedopium to the Medical Bureau of theU.S. War Department.[8]
.jpg)
On November 1, 1843, Delano was married to Catherine Robbins Lyman (1825–1896), a daughter of Joseph Lyman and Anne Jean (née Robbins) Lyman, during a short visit to Massachusetts. Together, they were the parents of eleven children:[7]
In 1851, Delano bought 60 acres on theHudson River inBalmville, New York (two miles north ofNewburgh). He commissionedAndrew Jackson Downing andCalvert Vaux to remodel an existing farmhouse into anItalianate villa, naming it Algonac.[16][8] His grandsonFranklin Roosevelt was married at Algonac in 1905.[7]
His wife Catherine died on February 10, 1896, inNewburgh, Massachusetts. Delano died in Algonac on January 17, 1898, of bronchial pneumonia.[17][9] After a funeral there, he was buried next to his wife in the Delano Family Tomb atRiverside Cemetery inFairhaven, Massachusetts, which Delano had established in 1850. The tomb was erected in 1859 and designed byRichard Morris Hunt.[18]
Through his daughter Sara, he was a grandfather of the 32ndPresident of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who married his fifth cousin,Eleanor Roosevelt, and was the father of six children,Anna Eleanor Roosevelt,James Roosevelt II, Franklin Roosevelt (who died in infancy),Elliott Roosevelt,Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., andJohn Aspinwall Roosevelt II.[19]
Through his daughter Katherine, he was a grandfather of four, including diplomatWarren Delano Robbins andKatharine Price Collier, aRepublicanU.S. Representative[20] who in 1917 married George St. George, third son of the secondSir Richard St George, 2nd Baronet.[21]
BothDelano, Pennsylvania, andDelano Township, Pennsylvania, were named for Warren Delano Jr.[13]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
