Where Are They Now?

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....

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 o...

In 1974, DuPont Walston was liquidated. At that time, the histories of Francis I. duPont & Co., Glore Forgan & Co., Wm. R. Staats, Inc., Hirsch & Co., A.C. Allyn & Co. and Walston & Co., six members of the Ford Motor Company Syndicate, came to an end. Over the next several posts, we will take a closer look into the histories of each of these firms and how they all eventually became a part of DuPont Walston. Origins Eleuthére Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) founded his namesake firm, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., a chemical manufacturer, in 1802. A French immigrant and the son of a watchmaker, E.I. du Pont demonstrated an interest in the study of gunpowder from a young age. His mentor was Antoine Lavoisier , the French chemist. In 1799, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, du Pont's family immigrated to the United States. Though he returned briefly to France in 1801, du Pont settled in Delaware, where he founded the first of many gunpowder mills. ...