Francis I. duPont & Co. Genealogy: Part II

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Francis I. du Pont & Co.
Ford Foundation Syndicate #36
Founded 1931, New York

According to The Evening Journal, Francis I. du Pont & Co. instituted innovative business practices for the securities business, translating F.I.'s practice for doing research from E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. to his new firm and also introducing marketing and advertising in "mass circulation magazines and newspapers." F.I. said, "We felt that the future of the stock market lay in broadening its base by bringing in the small investor."

Several of F.I. du Pont's earliest partners were his sons and his sons' associates. His son, Edmond (1906-1996), was born in Delaware and educated at Princeton and Oxford. Edmond joined the firm in 1932 and by the early 1940s, was directing "the firm's record-keeping toward automation." Through these efforts, the firm became a pioneer "in the use of automated equipment to cope with the involved figuring on customers' accounts." Edmond's brother, Alfred Rhett du Pont (1907-1972), graduated from St. George's School (Newport, RI) and the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the family firm in 1934.

Charles Moran, Jr. (1906-1978), a classmate of Rhett and Edmond, joined the firm in 1933. The son of a railway president and a New York native, Moran was a graduate of St. George's, Rhett du Pont's alma mater, and he met Edmond when they were both freshmen at Princeton in 1924. Though Moran eventually graduated from Columbia University, he joined an affiliated du Pont family firm, duPont Motors, in 1929 as an engineer and one of his jobs was to race duPont cars in international racing competitions. In 1933, Moran moved into the securities business and joined Francis I. du Pont & Co. He became a partner in 1938.

Du Pont race car driven by Charles Moran Jr. at the 1930 Indianapolis 500. Image courtesy of sicnag (CC BY 2.0)

Between 1931 and 1942, when F.I. du Pont died, he and his partners had grown the firm "through internal expansion and merger to 20 offices in Philadelphia, New York City and Wilmington." And it would continue to expand for the next 20 years. Over time, F.I. du Pont & Co. acquired, among others, 10 offices of Granberry & Co. and the firm of Chisholm & Chapham in 1941; the Chicago firm of James E. Bennett & Co. in 1954; Schirmer, Atherton & Co., a Boston brokerage house, in 1962; thirteen offices of A.M. Kidder & Co. in 1963; and the Chicago firm of A.C. Allyn & Co. in 1963. Allyn had 24 offices, which were mostly based in the Midwest, but it also had offices in New York, Boston and Florida. After the A.C. Allyn merger, F.I. du Pont & Co. had "110 offices and 1,300 registered representatives among a total of 2,900 employees (sic.)." It had combined capital of $35 million. The New York Times called it "the fastest growing member firm of the New York Stock Exchange." A.C. Allyn's name did not continue.

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