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Peter Paul Francis Degrand (1787–1855) or P.P.F. Degrand was a French-born
broker and merchant in
Boston,
Massachusetts, in the 19th century.
Business career
Degrand was born in
Marseilles
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
, France, and moved to Boston around 1803.
He published the ''Boston Weekly Report'' in the 1820s, possibly employing
Edgar Allan Poe for two weeks as a clerk and perhaps also as a reporter. He was one of the thirteen founding members of the
Boston Stock Exchange and was described by
Clarence W. Barron
Clarence W. Barron (July 2, 1855, in Boston, Massachusetts – October 2, 1928) was one of the most influential figures in the history of Dow Jones & Company. As a career newsman described as a "short, rotund powerhouse", he died holding the pos ...
and Joseph G. Martin as "the man to whose indomitable energy and foresight the existence of the Boston Stock Exchange is largely due". He was a major stockholder in the
Western Railroad and was instrumental in securing financial aid from the state during the railroad's early years.
Personal life
Degrand lived on Pinckney Street in
Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to:
Places Canada
* Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood
* Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia
* Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan
* Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec
United ...
. He was friend with
President of the United States John Quincy Adams. He died on December 23, 1855
and was buried in
Forest Hills Cemetery
Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden located in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public ...
.
["Deaths." New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v.10, no.2, April 1856] Degrand bequeathed $120,000 to charity, a large part of which was for the acquisition of French-language scientific texts for
Harvard University.
References
Further reading
By Degrand
* ''PPF Degrand's Boston Weekly Report of Public Sales and of Arrivals.'' Boston: 1819-1828
Proceedings of the Friends of a national bank at their public meeting, held in Boston, fifteenth July, 1841: Including an address to the people of the U. States: showing that, to give healthful action, to the vital functions of the constitution of the United States, a national bank (not a government), invested with the powers herein described, is indispensably necessary. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1841
*
About Degrand
*
External links
* WorldCat
Degrand, P. P. F. (Peter Paul Francis) 1787-1855
{{DEFAULTSORT:Degrand, P P F
1787 births
1855 deaths
Businesspeople from Boston
19th century in Boston
People from Beacon Hill, Boston
19th-century French businesspeople
French emigrants to the United States
Businesspeople from Marseille
19th-century American businesspeople
Presidents of the Boston Stock Exchange