It's a company with more than 11,000 offices in the United States and Canada. A firm with more than 13,000 financial advisors and it all began back in 1922 with one man.
"We referred to him as Papa Jones as everybody did because he was beloved and he treated the Jones Firm as his family."
John Bur-line started working at Edward Jones back in 1976 and knew the man whose name hangs over the door quite well.
"He was about five foot four, but he had a big personality that would occasionally explode out of there, his personality was far too big for his body."
Edward D. Jones was born in St. Louis in 1893, but his mother died in childbirth so he was raised by cousins in Ohio.
"They were horse auctioneers and he learned all about horse trading if you will at a very early age. "
He actually saved up enough money working as an auctioneer to pay his way to New York University. After graduation he served two years in the Navy, then went to work for a Wall Street firm and eventually ended up at Blair and Company with a job that put him back in St. Louis as a branch manager.
"And one day he didn't feel like he was being treated fairly and he said 'I quit,' walked across the street, went in the Boatman's Bank building, rented some space and started Edward Jones because he wanted to build a company that treated people fairly."
Mr. Jones was more than savvy; he was a hard worker. He married Ursula Greesadick in 1923. They had four children and at one point he also ran her father's brewery.
"Ursula's father turned the business over to Mr. Jones and so he would go to the brewery and work in the mornings there and then he would come out to the firm and work at the brokerage firm in the afternoon."
So to keep up with the Joneses, at least this Jones, would be quite a task, but let his name on that big building at 270 and Manchester be a reminder of what's possible.
