Warren Delano Jr.


Warren Delano Jr. was an American born merchant who made a large fortune in the illegal opium trade in China. He was the maternal grandfather of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Early life

Delano was born on July 13, 1809 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the eldest son of Captain Warren Delano, Sr. and Deborah Perry Delano. After his mother's death in 1827, his father, who was involved in the New England sea trade, remarried to Elizabeth Adams, a widow of Captain Parker of the United States Navy. Among his siblings were brothers Frederick Delano, Edward Delano and Franklin Hughes Delano, was married to Laura Astor, a daughter of William Backhouse Astor Sr. and a sister of, among others, John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor Jr.
A descendant of Philip Delano, Warren Jr.'s paternal grandparents were Ephraim Delano and Elisabeth Delano, and his maternal grandparents were Joseph Church and Deborah Church.
He graduated from the Fairhaven Academy at the age of 15 and by age 17 was a trader in the import business.

Career

Delano made a large fortune trading opium in Canton, China. Opium, a highly addictive narcotic related to heroin, was illegal in China. British traders had introduced large-scale opium smuggling into China to gain further access to Chinese export markets to meet skyrocketing Western demand for such Chinese luxury products as tea, porcelain, silk and furniture. The vast increase in opium smuggling into China resulted in millions of people becoming newly addicted to opium in China, and in an unprecedented Chinese trade imbalance with Britain and the U.S., which in turn resulted in the First Opium War of 1840-1843. Delano first went to China at age 24 to work for Russell & Company, which had pioneered trading with China. John Perkins Cushingalso a Russell & Company partnerhad preceded Delano and initiated a close relationship with a Chinese official called Howqua. The two men had established an offshore basean anchored floating warehousewhere Russell & Company ships would offload their opium contraband before continuing up the Pearl River Delta to Canton with their legal cargo.
By early 1843, Delano had spent a momentous decade in the China trade. He had achieved his financial competence and risen to become the head partner of the biggest American firm dealing with China. He had witnessed the destruction of the hated Canton system, the humiliation of the Chinese government, and the creation of New China.
In the 1850s, Delano, along with his brother Franklin and Asa Packer, headed a land company that purchased several thousand acres and established the town of Delano, Pennsylvania.
Delano lost much of his fortune in the Panic of 1857. In 1860, he returned to China, except this time he went to Hong Kong where he rebuilt his fortune. During the U.S. Civil War, Delano shipped opium to the Medical Bureau of the U.S. War Department.

Personal life

On November 1, 1843, Delano was married to Catherine Robbins Lyman, a daughter of Joseph Lyman and Anne Jean Lyman, during a short visit to Massachusetts. Together, they were the parents of:
In 1851, Delano bought 60 acres on the Hudson River in Balmville, New York. On the estate, he built a large family home called Algonac. His grandson Franklin Roosevelt was married at Algonac in 1905.
His wife Catherine died on February 10, 1896 in Newburgh. Delano died at Algonac on January 17, 1898 of bronchial pneumonia. After a funeral there, he was buried next to his wife in the Delano Family Tomb at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The tomb was erected in 1859 and designed by Richard Morris Hunt.

Descendants

Through his daughter Sara, he was a grandfather of the 32nd President 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, Elliott Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., and John Aspinwall Roosevelt II.
Through his daughter Katherine, he was a grandfather of four, including diplomat Warren Delano Robbins and Katharine Price Collier, a Republican U.S. Representative who in 1917 married George St. George, third son of the second Sir Richard St George, 2nd Baronet.

Legacy

Both Delano, Pennsylvania, and Delano Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, were named for Warren Delano Jr.