Edward B. Wesley

Edward Barton Wesley (January 10, 1811 – October 3, 1906) was a stock broker, businessman, banker, financier, and the co-founder of The New York Times.

Life and career Wesley was born on January 10, 1811, in Leicester, Massachusetts. At age 13, he started earning a living as a peddler, selling cakes and birch beer in a public square when General Lafayette made an appearance. Initially apprenticed to a carpenter, Wesley saved up $2 from his peddling and decided to try and make a living in New York instead, walking the entire way there.

After arriving in New York, he boarded a room for $2 a week on New Street and worked at the Old Tavern. Shortly thereafter, Wesley boarded the steamboat Jefferson (then called the Queen of the Hudson) and worked his way to Albany, where he got a job working as an office boy in a steamboat line, rubbing shoulders with John Mason and Michael Van Buren, a prominent real estate developer, while there. Eventually, the company sent Wesley back to New York to work at its office, paying him $8 a month.

He became an incorporator of, and Director in, the Union Trust Company of New York and was friends with Hamilton Fish, Thurlow Weed, Samuel J. Tilden, Roswell P. Flower, and Levi P. Morton. Near the end of his life at age 95, he was dubbed “The Oldest Trader in Wall Street” and the “dean” of Wall Street speculators.

Personal Life and Death Wesley was noted by the New York Times as having generally good health, which he credited to his abstention from alcohol and smoking.

Three weeks prior to his death in his home on North Regent Street in Port Chester, New York, he suddenly developed a cold and never recovered; passing away on October 3, 1906. Although he had six children, he was survived by only one, “Mrs. Charles Beck” of Mount Vernon, NY. He left behind an estate worth several million dollars at the time, most of which went to his grandchildren. Wesley was buried in Greenwood Union Cemetery.