first went to China at age 24 to work for Russell & Company, which had pioneered trading with China. John Perkins Cushingalso a Russell & Company partnerhad preceded Delano and initiated a close relationship with a Chinese official called Howqua. The two men had established an offshore basean anchored floating warehousewhere Russell & Company ships would offload their opium contraband before continuing up the Pearl River Delta to Canton with their legal cargo. By early 1843, Delano had spent a momentous decade in the China trade. He had achieved his financial competence and risen to become the head partner of the biggest American firm dealing with China. He had witnessed the destruction of the hated Canton system, the humiliation of the Chinese government, and the creation of New Chinas. Descendants His son Jonathan (about 1648-1720) married Mercy Warren, granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren; among their direct descendants are the author Laura Ingalls Wilder, President Ulysses S. Grant, President Calvin Coolidge, anthropologist Robert Redfield, astronaut Alan B. Shepard, journalist Hunter S. Thompson, entertainer Martina McBride and the poet Conrad Potter Aiken. Over time, family members migrated to other states, including Pennsylvania, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, Vermont and as far away as Chile, where today descendants of Captain Paul Delano are numerous and prominent. From the New York clan, Sara Delano married James Roosevelt and their only child, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became President of the United States. Delano family in America Amasa Delano (1763-1823), master mariner, shipbuilder and author Paul Delano (1775–1842), Commander of the Chilean Department of the Navy Columbus Delano (1809–1896), a statesman, lawyer, rancher, banker, U.S. Congressman from Ohio, Whig/Republican Party member. Advocated for federal African-Americans rights and protection under federal government occupation of the south. U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Grant administration. In 1874 demanded Yellowstone be federally protected. In 1875 under a cloud of corruption during his tenure. President U.S. Grant, a cousin, demanded his resignation. He returned to Ohio as a farmer and lawyer; later a town in California was named for him. Warren Delano Jr. (1809–1898), a grandfather of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Chief of Operations of Russell & Company, whose business included the opium trade in Canton. Franklin Hughes Delano (1813–1893), a merchant and diplomat (husband of Laura Astor, favorite granddaughter of John Jacob Astor) Francis Ralph Delano, (1842–1892), banker, railroad executive Warren Delano IV