Quick Facts
Biography
Clement Acton Griscom (March 15, 1841 in Philadelphia – November 10, 1912 in Haverford, Pennsylvania) was a prominent nineteenth-century American shipping magnate, businessman, and Quaker.
Biography
He attended local schools until age 16, when he went to work as a clerk in the shipping house of Peter Wright and Sons. He became a partner in the business in 1862. In 1872 he became vice-president of the International Navigation Co., which operated a fleet of twenty-six steam ocean liners known as the Red Star Line. By 1888, he was president of both companies and of the American Line. In 1902, with financing from J. Pierpont Morgan, the companies were merged into the International Mercantile Marine shipping trust company, which operated 136 vessels over five transatlantic lines. Griscom later served as the IMM's first President.
He was noteworthy for his efforts to build an all-American merchant marine to rival those of shipping powers Britain and Germany.
Dolobran (1881), his country house in Haverford, Pennsylvania, is one of architect Frank Furness's most significant houses. Furness also designed interiors for two of Griscom's Red Star Line steamships, the S.S. St. Louis (1894–95) and the S.S. St. Paul (1894–95). Griscom established and owned a private hunting plantation north of Tallahassee, Florida called Horseshoe Plantation.
Death and legacy
Griscom died of a stroke at the age of 71. In 1914 his widow erected a fountain in his memory in the Watch Hill section of Westerly, Rhode Island. It featured a bronze statue of the Niantic chief Ninigret by the sculptor Enid Yandell.
Family
Griscom married Frances Canby Biddle (1840-1923) in 1862, and they had six children:
- John Acton Griscom (1863-1865).
- Helen Biddle Griscom (1866-1950), married (1889) Samuel Bettle.
- Clement Acton Griscom Jr. (1868-1918), shipping executive, married (1889) Genevieve Sprigg Ludlow. Their children were Ludlow, Joyce, and Acton.
- Rodman Ellison Griscom (1870-1944), stockbroker, married (1897) Anne Starr.
- Lloyd Carpenter Griscom (1872-1959), diplomat, married (1901) Elizabeth Duer Bronson.
- Frances C. "Pansy" Griscom (1879-1974), champion golfer.
Clement Griscom, 1890s.
Mother and Daughter (Mrs. Clement Griscom and Frances C. Griscom) (1898) by Cecilia Beaux.
Helen Biddle Griscom (1893) by Cecilia Beaux.
Dolobran, Haverford, Pennsylvania (1881), Frank Furness, architect.
"Horseshoe Plantation," Leon County, Florida.
