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Why is Benjamin F. Edwards IV known as "Tad"?
"No one in St. Louis knows that because I never talk about that," Edwards, founder and CEO of broker-dealer and investment management firm Benjamin F. Edwards, said in a recent interview.
His parents gave him the nickname as a child.
The reason can be traced to Springfield, Illinois, where the Edwards family became related to Abraham Lincoln through his wife, Mary Todd.
"Tad" Edwards' great-great grandfather was Albert Gallatin Edwards, whose older brother, Ninian Wirt Edwards, married Mary Todd's sister Elizabeth. Ninian Wirt Edwards is Tad Edwards' great-great uncle.
Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd Lincoln in the Springfield home of Ninian and Elizabeth Todd Edwards.
MORE: 'Tad' Edwards builds a 'private A.G. Edwards' as a 6th generation prepares to take over
According to a history of the Edwards family in Springfield, Albert Gallatin Edwards' youngest brother, Benjamin S. Edwards, "met Abraham Lincoln more than 400 times in the courtroom, sometimes serving as co-counsel and sometimes as opposing counsel."
The Edwards family history stated: "To modern eyes, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Edwards were only distantly connected through marriage: Lincoln’s wife’s sister was married to Benjamin’s brother. Yet in Lincoln’s view, according to his friend David Davis, 'Ben was in the family.' Benjamin and Lincoln also moved in the same professional circles. Benjamin, like Lincoln, was an attorney. In 1843 he formed a partnership with John T. Stuart, who had been Lincoln’s partner until 1841."
Benjamin S. Edwards lived in Edwards Place in Springfield, a residence that includes the "courting couch" on which Lincoln and Mary Todd sat during the early days of their romance, according to the history by the Springfield Art Association, a nonprofit group which owns the house.
Tad Edwards visited Edwards Place a few years ago and sat on the couch. "There was a rope around it. They said no one outside the family could sit here, but you’re part of the family,' so I said OK," he said.
In 1865, Lincoln appointed Albert Gallatin Edwards as assistant secretary of the treasury for the sub-treasury bank in St. Louis. It was Lincoln's last appointment. Six days later, he was assassinated.
Thomas "Tad" Lincoln III was the fourth and youngest son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln gave him the nickname "Tad" because he had a large head and was "as wiggly as a tadpole" when he was a baby. Tad Lincoln died in 1871 at the age of 18.
At the age of 75, Albert Gallatin Edwards established brokerage firm A.G. Edwards & Sons in 1887.
Tad Edwards said he is proud of his family's link to Abraham Lincoln.
"I think his values on how to treat people were pretty consistent with our family’s. He believed in the underdog," he said.
In a sense, Edwards was an underdog after Wachovia Corp. in 2007 bought A.G. Edwards for $6.8 billion in an acquisition through merger. He left Wachovia after the federal government engineered its takeover by Wells Fargo to avoid the Wachovia's collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.
Taking on what he referred to as "unlimited risk," Edwards decided to continue his family's legacy by founding Benjamin F. Edwards, named after his father.
Fourteen years later, the national financial adviser and wealth management firm has annual revenue of about $200 million, $32 billion in assets under management, 716 employees and 92 branch offices in 32 states. Edwards has expanded the firm by adding an investment banking division and Edwards Wealth Management, a registered investment adviser.
Edwards said the firm has the "team and the technology and the capital" to add hundreds of more branch offices, as long as they fit the firm's "Golden Rule" culture of treating others as one wants to be treated.
The 67-year-old Edwards looks forward to the sixth generation succeeding him. His son, Benjamin F. Edwards V, who turned 25 on Oct. 14, is working for Goldman Sachs as a private equity analyst in New York City. A graduate of Mary Institute Country Day School and Princeton University, he is interested in returning to St. Louis someday.