Warren Delano Junior

Merchant
Warren Delano, born in a prominent seafaring family of Delanos and known as grandfather of the President Roosevelt, was a successful merchant who made a fortune in China trade.

Initially active in a maritime career, Warren left the United States in 1833 and settled in Canton, China. There he became a partner in the Russell and Company which dealt mainly in opium trade. With around 12 million opium users in China around that time, the trade in this narcotic steadily grew despite its questionable morality. In his letters to family he admitted that opium had an "unhappy effect" on its users, but argued that its sale was "fair, honorable, and legitimate," and not differed much from importing wine and spirits to America. Becoming a very wealthy young man, he was able to find a wife from aristocratic class and in 1843 he married Catherine Robbins Lyman and settled in New York. He expanded his business interests on mining and investments in real estate. But, after he suffered severe financial loses during the Great Panic of 1857, Delano returned to China to recover his loses. He managed to overcome his misfortune partly by supplying the US military with opium for Union soldiers during the Civil War.