J. Edward Simmons

Joseph Edward Simmons (September 9, 1841 – August 5, 1910) was an American lawyer and banker who served as president of the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Clearing House and of the New York Chamber of Commerce. Early life Simmons was born at Troy in Rensselaer County, New York, on September 9, 1841. He was the eldest son of Mary Sophia (née Gleason) Simmons (1819–1872), a native of New Hampshire, and Joseph Ferris Simmons (1818–1879), a prosperous merchant. His siblings were Dr. Charles Ezra Simmons and Emma Kate Simmons (the wife of Charles Ranlett Flint, the founder of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company which later became IBM). His paternal grandparents were Patience (née Safford) Simmons and Christian John Simmons, who was born at Rensselaerswyck. His maternal grandfather, Captain Samuel Gleason, was a veteran of the War of 1812 and his great-grandfather, also named Samuel Gleason, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. He was first educated at Troy Academy followed by boarding school in Sand Lake, New York. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts (where he later served as a trustee) in 1862 and from Albany Law School, the oldest law school in New York, in 1863.