Augustus Eugene "Gene" Staley (25 February 1867 – 26 December 1940) founded a business of repacking and selling cornstarch under his own Cream brand in Baltimore in 1898. On 6 November 1906, he incorporated the business as A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company (A. E. Staley) in order to start his own production of food starch. In 1909, Gene Staley purchased an inoperative cornstarch plant in Decatur, Illinois. He paid $45,000 and spent three years rebuilding and upgrading the plant with capital that he had raised from stockholders. The factory began processing on March 12, 1912.