On this day, September 7 in the year 1875, the co-founder of one of the most respected stock brokerages in Wall Street was born in New York, United States. His name was Edward Francis Hutton, a long-time chairman of General Foods.

Edward Hutton was the second child of three children by a farm couple who moved to New York to seek better opportunity. His father passed away when he was 10. He attended night classes while working during the day in the mailroom of a securities firm. After finishing a course from Packer’s Business College, he went to work for his uncle who was then the CEO of a brokerage firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Later, he convinced his uncle to open a branch in New York City with him as the head.

In 1904, Edward and his younger brother Franklyn established their own brokerage business under the name E. F. Hutton and Company. The company used all available technologies especially the telegraph to get ahead in the business. It was also one of the first brokerage companies to open branches in the Pacific Coast. When a great fire struck San Francisco in 1906, the company was the first to receive the news and thus made a killing in the stock exchange. For many decades, the company was one of the largest in the United States.

In 1925, Edward Hutton assumed management of General Foods (then Postum Cereal Company), a firm founded by his second father-in-law Charles William Post. Under his stewardship, General Foods acquired several smaller companies and became one of the biggest food companies in the United States.

Edward died in 1962 at the age of 86. After his death, his brokerage firm did not do well and in 1988, it was absorbed by Shearson Lehman.

References
http://www.nndb.com/people/649/000165154/
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2011/05/05/wall-street-legends-no-21-edward-francis-hutton/