Francis I. duPont & Co. Genealogy: Part VIII

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Glore, Forgan & Co.
Ford Motor Company Syndicate #9
Founded 1937, Chicago

Origins

The son of a golf club manufacturer, David Roberston Forgan (1862-1931) was born in St. Andrews, Scotland. When he was 15 years old, David started working as a messenger boy in the Clydesdale Bank in his hometown. David was preceded in the field of banking by his older brother, James B. Forgan (1852-1924), who worked with the Royal Bank of Scotland and then with the Bank of British North America, which stationed him in Canada and the United States. James then worked at the Bank of Nova Scotia before moving to Minneapolis to create an agency for the bank in that city. In 1892, he moved again, this time to Chicago where he became the first vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago. He was named president in 1900.


David Robertson Forgan. Courtesy of Library of Congress.


David Forgan followed in his older brother's footsteps, and in 1880, he immigrated to Canada, where he also worked at the Bank of Nova Scotia. In 1885, David married Agnes Kerr, a Canadian native. Three years later, he and his family moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where he became the assistant cashier at the American Exchange National Bank and then the cashier at the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, succeeding his brother James, who had also been the bank's manager. Like his brother, David made the move to Chicago in 1896, when he became vice president and later president of Union National Bank in 1898. (In 1900, when Union National Bank merged with the First National Bank of Chicago, his brother James was made president).

Over time, the Forgan brothers became known as banking authorities, and in 1907, David became one of the founders of the National City Bank of Chicago, where he served as president until 1925. That year, when National City merged with the National Bank of the Republic, he became vice chairman. In 1930, the National Bank of the Republic and the Central Trust Co. merged, and he served as co-chairman of the board of the newly formed Central Republic Bank and Trust Co. until his death in 1931.

David Forgan and his wife Agnes had five children. Their youngest son, James Russell (1900-1974), was born in Illinois and educated at Princeton University. When James graduated from college in 1922, he returned home to Chicago to enter the field of banking. By 1927, he was made vice president of Brokaw & Co., and in 1931, he became partner in the firm of Field, Glore & Co.

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