E. T. Bedford

Edward Thomas Bedford (February 19, 1849 – May 21, 1931) was an American executive of Standard Oil. In 1902, he founded the Corn Products Refining Company, now known as Ingredion. Bedford was an active member of the community in Westport, Connecticut, having donated buildings to the city for its middle school, firehouse, and a YMCA founded in 1923, for the youth to use. After resigning from his position at the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey in 1909, he worked full-time for the Corn Products Refining Co., up until his death on May 21, 1931.

Early life E.T. Bedford was born February 19, 1849, in Greens Farms, Connecticut, to Frederick Thomas Bedford and Mary Anne Elizabeth Pace, British immigrants who had arrived from London the previous year. Frederick was a deacon in the church and a noted wood carver; the hand carved frame for the portrait of The Prince of Wales, who was King Edward VII at the time, was his most famous piece.

Bedford went to school at Adams Academy in Greens Farms, as well as the public schools of Brooklyn, and Maple Grove Academy in Westport, Connecticut.

Career Bedford spent his time working on the farm with his father and neighbors. One of his proudest moments was buying a winter jacket from the money he earned as a 14-year-old farm hand. Frederick Thomas was a farmer and made a large amount of money selling onions, which had a large boom post-Civil War. Taking what he learned from farming with his father and the community, E.T. joined Charles Pratt and Company as a salesman. he was the President of Corn Oil Refining Products, the New York Glucose Company, the Bedford Petroleum Company of France, the Colonial Oil Company of New Jersey, and the Self Winding Clock Company; Vice President of the Matheson Lead Company; a Director of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the Bush Terminal Company, the Thompson-Starrett Company; and a Trustee and Director of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, the Southport Trust Company of Connecticut, and the Long Island Safe Deposit Company of Brooklyn.

As reported in the Westporter Herald- "In our office we have perhaps 400 young men and women. Occasionally we hear from their mothers, sometimes from their fathers, that they work too hard. In my experience, this has never been true. It is not the extra hour at the office that is impairing their health or lessening their strength, it is the hours they spend in enjoyment, dancing, late suppers, etc. It is my belief no one has ever shortened his life from work. Of course they might worry in connection with their work, but not from the work itself. Take Mr. Edison. We know the hours he works in his laboratory, disregarding time, in the interest he takes in his work, and see what a vigorous man he is and what he has accomplished." Bedford Park, Illinois, was also named for Bedford, having been the owner of the company Corn Products International which brought in the work for the area.