Francis I. duPont & Co. Genealogy: Part VI

F.I. duPont, Glore Forgan & Co. (1970)

In the early post-war period, F.I. du Pont's expansion was considered a sign of the growing economy and the firm's strength among its peers. By the early 1960s, however, the firm's mergers reflected a more difficult business environment, a desire to cut operating costs and the need for more capital. In 1970, Francis I. duPont & Co. merged with two firms, Glore Forgan Staats, Inc. (founded 1965, New York) and Hirsch & Co. (founded 1944, New York), in "one of the largest consolidations in Wall Street history." The name of the new firm was F.I. duPont, Glore Forgan & Co., though a new corporate subsidiary called DuPont Glore Forgan, Inc. was also created to conduct investment banking activities. Wallace C. Latour, the senior managing partner of duPont, became a managing director. J. Russell Forgan, Glore Forgan & Co.'s founder, was the honorary chairman of the board of directing partners. Edmond du Pont became chairman, and Archie E. Albright, the president of Glore Forgan, became chairman of the executive committee. Of the firms, Hirsch's name did not continue.

Hirsch & Co.
Ford Motor Company Syndicate #129
Founded 1944, New York

Origins

A New Hampshire native, George Franklin Drew (1827-1900), established himself in Columbus, Georgia as the proprietor of a machine shop in 1847. While in Georgia, Drew entered into the lumber business. He eventually moved to Florida, where he founded the town of Ellaville, became the state's first postmaster in 1867 and built a sawmill on the Suwannee River after the Civil War. In 1869, Drew established the firm of Drew & Bucki with Louis Bucki (1822-1886), a Prussian immigrant based in New York. Soon thereafter, Drew went into politics and served as the 12th governor of the state of Florida from 1877 to 1881. After his term was over, Drew returned to the business but retired from the lumber business in 1883. At that time, Louis Bucki established L. Bucki & Son, and in 1886, right before he died, Louis formed Charles L. Bucki & Co. with his son, Charles L. Bucki, John W. Riordan and Charles S. Hirsch.

George Franklin Drew. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. 

The firm of Charles L. Bucki & Co. established itself by "taking the lead in opening up direct trade relations with the best sections in the South for yellow pine and doing the leading shipping business out of Jacksonville, Fernandina and Pensacola, Florida, as well as from the ports of Georgia. It was the first house to build and introduce a powerful steamship [called Louis Bucki] especially adapted for the carrying of lumber from the south to [New York]," where their main offices were located between West 12th and 13th Streets on what was then 13th Avenue. By the early 1890s, Charles L. Bucki (1861-1913) was "said to be the richest lumber dealer in New York" and "a leader in the export and domestic trade."

Bucki's partner, Charles S. Hirsch (1863-1938), was a native of Germany, who immigrated to the United States as a teenager. Educated at the Royal Gymnasium at Stuttgart, Hirsch "began his business career in Florida in 1878" at Drew & Bucki. It is said that Louis Bucki was his great uncle. In 1885, Hirsch naturalized as an American citizen (Charles L. Bucki was his witness). By the early 20th century, Hirsch went into business for himself, founding the firm Charles S. Hirsch & Co. with his brother, Albert Hirsch, as well as Bernard L. Tim. Tim was a Philadelphia native and the son of a collar manufacturer and dry goods merchant, whose grandparents were German immigrants. In 1907, the firm was reorganized as Hirsch Lumber Company. 

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