CBOT founder Matthew Laflin's 1840 gunpowder partnership with Solomon Smith created a dynasty spanning Northern Trust ($18.7T AUC), Illinois Tool Works ($86.6B), and Briar Hall. In 2025, BNY Mellon tried to buy Northern Trust. The family said no.
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard arrived in Chicago in 1818 as a teenage fur trader. By 1848, he was the first name on the Chicago Board of Trade charter. How one man bridged two incompatible economies and built the institutions that made Chicago.
In April 1848, 82 Chicago merchants founded the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), creating standardized grain grading and futures contracts that became the foundation for CME Group's $846 trillion global derivatives market.