In 1892, Clark, Ward, & Co. clerks
Charles Hayden (later the benefactor of the
Hayden Planetarium) and
Galen L. Stone opened a new brokerage house,
Hayden, Stone & Co. Foreseeing the needs of
electrification, Hayden made his fortune by investing in
copper mining. The new investment firm prospered, expanding from its Boston base to open a
New York City branch in 1906. In 1970, the prestigious Hayden, Stone found itself in financial trouble along with many other large securities firms. Hayden, Stone was acquired by
Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt (often jokingly referred to as
Corned Beef With Lettuce), whose partners included
Sandy Weill and
Arthur Levitt, and renamed itself
CBWL-Hayden, Stone, dropping the CBWL from the name just two years later, allowing Weill to rid himself of the
Corned Beef With Lettuce moniker. The new Hayden Stone, Inc. then completed possibly its most significant acquisition to that point, merging with
Shearson, Hammill & Co. Once again, Weill chose to adopt the target's branding to become
Shearson Hayden Stone. The Hayden Stone name was finally abandoned in 1979, following the acquisition of
Loeb, Rhoades, Hornblower & Co. to form
Shearson Loeb Rhoades. Just two years later, in 1981, Weill sold the combined company to
American Express to form
Shearson/American Express. At one point, the firm was considered to be the third largest "wire-house" in the country behind only
Merrill Lynch and
Bache & Co. ==Acquisition history==