Francis I. duPont & Co. Genealogy: Part III

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A.C. Allyn & Co.
Ford Motor Company Syndicate #32
Founded 1921, Chicago

Origins

Born in Hopkins, MO, Arthur Cecil Allyn (1887-1960) was the son of Frank Egbert Allyn (1855-1919) and the former Mary Hettie David. Allyn traced his lineage back to a Thomas Allyn from Connecticut, who fought in the American Revolution. His father was a commercial trader in the hardware business. Allyn grew up in Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, and he studied at the University of Chicago. In 1906, he had to leave school when his father became ill. After working as a buyer for sporting goods in a hardware company, Allyn moved from St. Louis to Chicago in 1908. He said, "I decided if I could make money in sporting goods I could make money in a business that handled money."

Allyn was introduced to Harold L. Stuart, a member of the bond firm N.W. Halsey & Co., by the cousin of General Charles G. Dawes (1865-1951), William R. Dawes, who was an acquaintance of his father. Allyn started at N.W. Halsey & Co. as an office boy, became a buyer, and later became head of the Milwaukee office. In 1911/2, he joined Hornblower & Weeks as the manager in the bond department of the firm's Chicago office. The following year, Allyn joined with Isaac C. Elston, Jr. and Edward Clifford to create a bond house called Elston, Clifford & Co. He was named secretary of the new firm. 

Charles G. Dawes. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Elston, Clifford & Co. (f. 1912, Chicago)
Elston & Co., Inc. (f. 1916, Chicago)
Elston, Allyn & Co. (f. 1917, Chicago)

Edward Clifford, an Evanston, IL native, was the manager of the Chicago office of Hornblower & Weeks, an established Boston house founded in 1888. Partner Isaac Compton Elston III (1873-1964) of Crawfordsville, IN, was the son and grandson of pioneer Indiana bankers, Col. Isaac Compton Elston (1836-1925) and Major Isaac Compton Elston (1794-1867). Elston was known in the public utilities industry and had started in the business with Charles G. Dawes, an industrialist and banker, who became Vice President of the United States for President Calvin Coolidge, 1925-1929.

Elston, Clifford & Co. specialized in corporate bonds and expanded to municipal bond brokerage in 1914. In 1916, Edward Clifford retired from the firm and I.C. Elston III/Jr. took over his interest. The firm was renamed Elston & Co., Inc. In 1917, the name of the firm changed to Elston, Allyn & Co. Four years later, Allyn bought out his partner and the firm became A.C. Allyn & Co., Inc. (f. 1921, Chicago). Elston later joined the Chicago firm of Paul H. Davis & Co. (f. 1916, Chicago), of which he had been a founder. (When Paul H. Davis merged with Hornblower & Weeks in 1953, Elston became a limited partner. Like Elston, Paul H. Davis was a native of Crawfordsville, IN, as were several of Paul H. Davis & Co.'s partners.)

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