And the men behind the brand are...
Charles Merrill and Edmund Lynch
Charles Merrill believed there were thousands of potential investors who weren't being served by traditional brokerage houses. He would service the small investor and collect their paltry $10 commission checks while the big brokers would stay with the social and economic elite.
Merrill had come to New York from Amherst College and the University of Michigan in 1907 to work in the financial office of a textile group. In 1909 he started on Wall Street at George H. Burr & Company, a commercial paper house looking to expand into bonds. Merrill became that bond department.
At the 23rd Street YMCA Merrill met Edmund Calvert Lynch, a Johns Hopkins graduate who was making his way selling soda fountain equipment. The two forged a lifelong friendship and Merrill found a place at Burr & Company for his new pal.
In January 1914 Merrill left to test his ideas about selling securities to the proletariat. He began in sublet space and in May moved to his own tiny place at
7 Wall Street. He persuaded Lynch to join him and in 1916 Merrill Lynch & Company was formed. Both men were 29.
The firm began as a distributor of new securities, especially in the emerging chain store business. Merrill Lynch brought out stock issues for S.S. Kresge,
J.C. Penney, Western Auto and Safeway. From the beginning Merrill believed in educating the public about markets and showing them how to become investors. They set standards that a broker must consider the customer's particular circumstances when suggesting investments. This was especially important when dealing with small investors.
By the late 1920s Merrill became worried by the speculative excesses of the stock boom. In 1928 he wrote his customers: "Now is the time to get out of debt. Sell enough securities to lighten your obligations or pay them off entirely." The advice was so diametrically opposite of other financial advisers at the time that Merrill was racked with self-doubt and consulted a psychiatrist. After a few visits his therapist handed his portfolio to Merrill to sell, saying, "If you're crazy, then so am I."
He had a tougher sell with his own partner. Merrill drafted a stern letter to Lynch early in 1929 stating that the firm must liquidate its debts. Lynch replied from Paris, "I don't agree with your thinking, but I will not disagree with your actions. If you wish, please sell all my holdings."
Merrill Lynch weathered the Stock Market Crash in 1929 but Merrill decided to sell his retail commission business and concentrate on investment banking, which he did for several years. Lynch died in 1938 at the age of 53 as the brokerage business was slumping. Merrill searched for a new direction for the firm.
He was one of a very few Wall Streeters to notice a 1939 Roper public opinion survey which showed almost total distrust, disinterest and misunderstanding of financial markets. Stockbrokers were routinely considered legalized bandits. Worse yet, one out of every eleven people thought the Stock Exchange was the place their butcher went to order pork chops.
Merrill ordered his own study to find out what people wanted in a securities firm. He came up with a blueprint for a new company that would be a "department store of finance bringing Wall Street to Main Street." Merrill advertised not only to build trust in his new firm but in Wall Street as well.
By the end of 1940 he had 12,000 new accounts out of an entire investor pool of 50,000. He was on his way to two million accounts.
But the average transaction brought in $10 and cost $14. Merrill Lynch, completely unprecedented in the brokerage business, published an annual report listing a loss of $309,000 in 1940. Increased efficiency in effecting transactions stemmed the losses. Profits would reach $5,000,000 by 1943.
Merrill then suffered a severe heart attack. Afterwards he was only able to return to the office on few occasions but kept a steady stream of memos and phone calls flowing from his house. He remained very much the Directing Partner until his death in 1956.
Showing posts with label Money Brands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money Brands. Show all posts
February 8, 2007
H & R Block
And the man behind the brand is...
Henry Bloch
Henry Bloch does his own tax return. And he urges every American to do the same, "People should really fill out their own returns when they can because it'll teach them a lot about economics. There's nothing like getting into your own tax return to teach you where your money's going." Fortunately for his business, many Americans ignore his advice.
Henry and his older brother Leon borrowed $5000 from a great-aunt to start the United Business Company in Kansas City in 1946 to provide advertising, accounting and legal services for small businesses. The first year was so bad Leon bailed out and went to law school.
Twenty-five year old Henry Bloch carried on during the lean year of 1947. He lived on $50 a month from the GI Bill and $15 he received for keeping the books at a hamburger stand. Then his entrepreneurial brother Richard joined him from the University of Pennsylvania. Richard built the business and Henry managed the accounts.
As a courtesy Henry and Richard Bloch did tax returns for their clients.
In 1954 they made $1800 for 300 returns. It was not worth the effort and they planned to abandon the service. But many clients appreciated the little extra and one persuaded the Blochs to take out a small ad in the local paper. If it failed the Blochs could leave the tax return business in good conscience.
But they made $25,000 in the short tax season and instead of dropping their tax business they dropped everything else. The Blochs changed the last letter of their corporate name from "h" to "k" to avoid any pronunciation problems in H & R Block. The Blochs were so successful in Kansas City they decided to open a New York office in 1956.
Neither brother wanted to leave Kansas City so they alternated in New York for two weeks at a time. They grossed $50,000 but only broke even with the expenses. Clearly one brother would have to relocate to New York. Still, neither one would leave.
So the Blochs took an ad in the New York Times to sell the business. The only respondent was two CPAs who offered $10,000, which was all they could afford. They weren't going to sell at 20¢ on the dollar so they charged the new owners 5-10% above gross revenues. As Henry later pointed out, "They became, in effect, our first franchise, though at the time we didn't know what a franchise was."
The new tax preparation service encountered vocal opposition from lawyers and accountants who considered tax returns their business. But the Blochs did the finest work possible at a fair price and they stood behind their work.
Two things were in the Blochs' favor. Americans were realizing a rapid increase in income and the tax laws became increasingly complicated. All H & R Block tax preparers were trained thoroughly in an 81-hour program their first year and annual refresher courses thereafter.
The Blochs worked to make a visit to the taxman as painless as possible.
They offered free coffee (eight million cups were served by the early 1960s) and playthings for the kids (over 100,000 crayons were distributed during the same time). H & R Block preparers were friendly but serious. A typical session took 45 minutes and cost around $40.
H & R Block was carried for years by word-of-mouth advertising but wide-scale ads began appearing in 1970 with Henry Bloch as his own spokesman. Bloch became so popular he began appearing in other companies commercials as well.
But it wasn't an ideal time for expansion. The Tax Reform Act of 1971 lopped three million taxpayers off the rolls, exactly the people H & R Block served.
The company would have to become less dependent on seasonal tax preparation. The early acquisitions, including a door-to-door handbill delivery service, were unsuccessful.
But Personnel Pool of America (employment agency), Compuserve (data transmission) and Hyatt Legal Services all did well. Through the expansion H & R Block remained a family business. Richard retired in 1978 after being diagnosed with terminal lung center which he has successfully battled.
Henry, who retained 45% of the stock when the company went public in 1962, and his son Thomas have managed the more than 9000 H & R Block offices since 1978.
Henry Bloch
Henry Bloch does his own tax return. And he urges every American to do the same, "People should really fill out their own returns when they can because it'll teach them a lot about economics. There's nothing like getting into your own tax return to teach you where your money's going." Fortunately for his business, many Americans ignore his advice.
Henry and his older brother Leon borrowed $5000 from a great-aunt to start the United Business Company in Kansas City in 1946 to provide advertising, accounting and legal services for small businesses. The first year was so bad Leon bailed out and went to law school.
Twenty-five year old Henry Bloch carried on during the lean year of 1947. He lived on $50 a month from the GI Bill and $15 he received for keeping the books at a hamburger stand. Then his entrepreneurial brother Richard joined him from the University of Pennsylvania. Richard built the business and Henry managed the accounts.
As a courtesy Henry and Richard Bloch did tax returns for their clients.
In 1954 they made $1800 for 300 returns. It was not worth the effort and they planned to abandon the service. But many clients appreciated the little extra and one persuaded the Blochs to take out a small ad in the local paper. If it failed the Blochs could leave the tax return business in good conscience.
But they made $25,000 in the short tax season and instead of dropping their tax business they dropped everything else. The Blochs changed the last letter of their corporate name from "h" to "k" to avoid any pronunciation problems in H & R Block. The Blochs were so successful in Kansas City they decided to open a New York office in 1956.
Neither brother wanted to leave Kansas City so they alternated in New York for two weeks at a time. They grossed $50,000 but only broke even with the expenses. Clearly one brother would have to relocate to New York. Still, neither one would leave.
So the Blochs took an ad in the New York Times to sell the business. The only respondent was two CPAs who offered $10,000, which was all they could afford. They weren't going to sell at 20¢ on the dollar so they charged the new owners 5-10% above gross revenues. As Henry later pointed out, "They became, in effect, our first franchise, though at the time we didn't know what a franchise was."
The new tax preparation service encountered vocal opposition from lawyers and accountants who considered tax returns their business. But the Blochs did the finest work possible at a fair price and they stood behind their work.
Two things were in the Blochs' favor. Americans were realizing a rapid increase in income and the tax laws became increasingly complicated. All H & R Block tax preparers were trained thoroughly in an 81-hour program their first year and annual refresher courses thereafter.
The Blochs worked to make a visit to the taxman as painless as possible.
They offered free coffee (eight million cups were served by the early 1960s) and playthings for the kids (over 100,000 crayons were distributed during the same time). H & R Block preparers were friendly but serious. A typical session took 45 minutes and cost around $40.
H & R Block was carried for years by word-of-mouth advertising but wide-scale ads began appearing in 1970 with Henry Bloch as his own spokesman. Bloch became so popular he began appearing in other companies commercials as well.
But it wasn't an ideal time for expansion. The Tax Reform Act of 1971 lopped three million taxpayers off the rolls, exactly the people H & R Block served.
The company would have to become less dependent on seasonal tax preparation. The early acquisitions, including a door-to-door handbill delivery service, were unsuccessful.
But Personnel Pool of America (employment agency), Compuserve (data transmission) and Hyatt Legal Services all did well. Through the expansion H & R Block remained a family business. Richard retired in 1978 after being diagnosed with terminal lung center which he has successfully battled.
Henry, who retained 45% of the stock when the company went public in 1962, and his son Thomas have managed the more than 9000 H & R Block offices since 1978.
E.F. Hutton
And the man behind the brand is...
Edward Hutton
For someone who would be included among America’s greatest capitalists Edward Francis Hutton’s business career got off to an inauspicious beginning. At 17 he secured a position in the mailroom of a prestigious New York mortgage company. Hutton’s climb from the ground floor didn’t get far. He took leave on an unauthorized vacation and was summarily fired.
Hutton next surfaced as a check writer in the Manhattan Trust Company.
The president criticized his sloppy penmanship one day and suggested a stint in night school. Hutton quit in a huff. But he did enroll in Packer’s Business School. Hutton became convinced that capitalism was the key to success. With a friend Hutton purchased a seat on the Consolidated Stock Exchange, forming the brokerage of Harris, Hutton & Company.
Strikingly handsome, Hutton hobnobbed in New York’s high society where he fell in love with the daughter of one of the leading members of the New York Stock Exchange. When he asked for her hand in marriage Hutton was dismissed as a worthy suitor because the Consolidated Stock Exchange was viewed by the Big Board as a street bazaar for hucksters and third-rate brokers. Hutton didn’t hesitate - he dissolved the partnership and married the girl in 1902.
On their honeymoon to the West Coast Hutton realized that San Francisco and Los Angeles possessed no direct link to Wall Street. Financial information arrived slowly via a patchwork of telegraph feeds with stock quotes. Hutton became determined to establish a quality national brokerage to serve the west coast.
He began his married life by accepting a partnership with his cousin in a Cincinnati bond house. Hutton found himself trapped in a sleepy, unaggressive house with no interest in his plans to set up a coast-to-coast financial network.
He went back to New York and purchased a seat on the New York stock Exchange with his friend George Ellis. E.F. Hutton & Company began trading on October 12, 1903.
Hutton proved to be a financial salesman extraordinaire. He beat the streets uncovering new accounts until he was ready to pursue his dream of a west coast brokerage. His plan called for a private wire from New York to San Francisco providing investors with critical time for securities decisions. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Western Union went only as far as Salt Lake City and was in no hurry to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Hutton proposed to shoulder half the price of construction and maintenance of a line from Utah to San Francisco, up to $50,000. When it was completed Hutton had the only private transcontinental wire in the country.
When the E.F. Hutton office opened in December of 1904 his San Francisco brokers could execute orders in minutes as opposed to hours and more for other houses. The biggest players in San Francisco were soon E.F. Hutton clients.
For years many investors on the West Coast thought E.F. Hutton was the Stock Exchange.
Much less known in New York the brokerage continued to be aggressive.
Rather than wait for clients Hutton established hotel branches for the convenience of wealthy travelers. Ellis proved to be the ideal partner for the mercurial Hutton; he was methodical, cautious and reserved.
Tragically both his wife and son died before Hutton was 45. He married the daughter of C.W. Post, who founded the Postum Cereal Company. It was a curious pairing of opposite personalities but his staid, proper wife convinced the impulsive Hutton to take the chairmanship of Postum Cereal. In 1923 he stepped away from his senior partnership in E.F. Hutton & Company.
With Postum Hutton directed the merger of fifteen nationally known grocery manufacturing companies into the General Foods Corporation in 1929. Hutton served as chairman of the new conglomerate until 1935. Coincidentally, he divorced his second wife that same year.
In later years Hutton founded the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to give awards to individuals and organizations that promote patriotic ideals. He penned a newspaper column titled “Think it Through” which appeared in more than 60 papers across America before he passed away at the age of 86.
Edward Hutton
For someone who would be included among America’s greatest capitalists Edward Francis Hutton’s business career got off to an inauspicious beginning. At 17 he secured a position in the mailroom of a prestigious New York mortgage company. Hutton’s climb from the ground floor didn’t get far. He took leave on an unauthorized vacation and was summarily fired.
Hutton next surfaced as a check writer in the Manhattan Trust Company.
The president criticized his sloppy penmanship one day and suggested a stint in night school. Hutton quit in a huff. But he did enroll in Packer’s Business School. Hutton became convinced that capitalism was the key to success. With a friend Hutton purchased a seat on the Consolidated Stock Exchange, forming the brokerage of Harris, Hutton & Company.
Strikingly handsome, Hutton hobnobbed in New York’s high society where he fell in love with the daughter of one of the leading members of the New York Stock Exchange. When he asked for her hand in marriage Hutton was dismissed as a worthy suitor because the Consolidated Stock Exchange was viewed by the Big Board as a street bazaar for hucksters and third-rate brokers. Hutton didn’t hesitate - he dissolved the partnership and married the girl in 1902.
On their honeymoon to the West Coast Hutton realized that San Francisco and Los Angeles possessed no direct link to Wall Street. Financial information arrived slowly via a patchwork of telegraph feeds with stock quotes. Hutton became determined to establish a quality national brokerage to serve the west coast.
He began his married life by accepting a partnership with his cousin in a Cincinnati bond house. Hutton found himself trapped in a sleepy, unaggressive house with no interest in his plans to set up a coast-to-coast financial network.
He went back to New York and purchased a seat on the New York stock Exchange with his friend George Ellis. E.F. Hutton & Company began trading on October 12, 1903.
Hutton proved to be a financial salesman extraordinaire. He beat the streets uncovering new accounts until he was ready to pursue his dream of a west coast brokerage. His plan called for a private wire from New York to San Francisco providing investors with critical time for securities decisions. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Western Union went only as far as Salt Lake City and was in no hurry to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Hutton proposed to shoulder half the price of construction and maintenance of a line from Utah to San Francisco, up to $50,000. When it was completed Hutton had the only private transcontinental wire in the country.
When the E.F. Hutton office opened in December of 1904 his San Francisco brokers could execute orders in minutes as opposed to hours and more for other houses. The biggest players in San Francisco were soon E.F. Hutton clients.
For years many investors on the West Coast thought E.F. Hutton was the Stock Exchange.
Much less known in New York the brokerage continued to be aggressive.
Rather than wait for clients Hutton established hotel branches for the convenience of wealthy travelers. Ellis proved to be the ideal partner for the mercurial Hutton; he was methodical, cautious and reserved.
Tragically both his wife and son died before Hutton was 45. He married the daughter of C.W. Post, who founded the Postum Cereal Company. It was a curious pairing of opposite personalities but his staid, proper wife convinced the impulsive Hutton to take the chairmanship of Postum Cereal. In 1923 he stepped away from his senior partnership in E.F. Hutton & Company.
With Postum Hutton directed the merger of fifteen nationally known grocery manufacturing companies into the General Foods Corporation in 1929. Hutton served as chairman of the new conglomerate until 1935. Coincidentally, he divorced his second wife that same year.
In later years Hutton founded the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to give awards to individuals and organizations that promote patriotic ideals. He penned a newspaper column titled “Think it Through” which appeared in more than 60 papers across America before he passed away at the age of 86.
Dun and Bradstreet
And the men behind the brand are...
Robert Dun and John Bradstreet
The Duns emigrated from Scotland and settled in Ohio in the early decades of the 1800s. All prospered greatly save for Robert Dun. He died in 1835 and his 9-year old son Robert Graham grew up as a poor relation in one of the wealthiest families in Ohio.
At 16 Dun began his business career as a store clerk. In 1851 he eagerly jumped at the opportunity to join the Mercantile Agency, founded in 1841 as America's first credit reporting firm. Credit and its management were the engines driving young America's commercial expansion. The agency provided information to manufacturers and retailers on far-flung country stores. The Mercantile Agency promoted and protected trade in the Untied States.
The industrious Dun was promoted to partner in 1854 and in 1859 he acquired the entire interest in the Agency, now a nationwide credit-reporting agency with 16 offices in the United States, two in Canada and one in London. Three months earlier the Mercantile Agency's first Reference Book - complete with lock - had been published.
The book featured credit information on 20, 268 firms, arranged alphabetically by town and state. The key, copied from a London firm, provided four ratings for each name and a summary. A- No. 1 was the best rating. The name of the company issued to was embossed on a dark brown sheepskin cover.
The Reference Book sold for $200.
The Reference Book was published in part as a response to competition from John Bradstreet, to whose name Dun's would be linked long after his death. Bradstreet came to New York from Cincinnati to expand his business. He issued weekly reports and in August 1857 produced his first bound volume of credit reports: Bradstreet's Book of Commercial Reports. The book featured a system of ratings composed of somewhat vague numbers, perhaps influenced by the threat of libel suits. It was the first serious competition to the Mercantile Agency.
Bradstreet died in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War which crippled much of the credit reporting business. The Mercantile Agency not only lost its southern clients during the war but the need to report on southern markets.Dun himself believed the North would go bankrupt and the South would prevail, emerging as the "garden spot of the Continent."
Dun's success and Bradstreet's early profitability spawned so many rival companies after the war ended that even Dun's nearly 10,000 reporters couldn't keep track of them all. Dun worked diligently to keep his agency out of the inevitable scandals and accusations.
Prior to 1866 much of the credit-reporting in America tended to be highly subjective opinions based on a man's character. Dun's extensive reporting network used capital worth and statistical ratings. He took advantage of every new advance in technology to increase efficiency. In 1867 the Mercantile Agency became the first business to use typewriters, doing away with tedious copying of records by hand.
Dun's genius lay in his ability to secure and retain the services of men of the highest quality. Although he was sole owner of the business the profits were shared with his associates. Under Dun's leadership the Mercantile Agency emerged from the bewildering array of credit reporting firms as the unqualified leader in the industry.
When Robert Graham Dun, art collector, wine connoisseur, avid bass fisherman and bird-hunter, died in 1900 at the age of 74 from cirrhosis the Mercantile Agency consisted of 140 offices compiling information on business firms of all descriptions across the globe. Upon his death one editorial wrote, "R.G. Dun is known all over the world, and he has established an institution that will probably live as long as commerce lives."
Robert Dun and John Bradstreet
The Duns emigrated from Scotland and settled in Ohio in the early decades of the 1800s. All prospered greatly save for Robert Dun. He died in 1835 and his 9-year old son Robert Graham grew up as a poor relation in one of the wealthiest families in Ohio.
At 16 Dun began his business career as a store clerk. In 1851 he eagerly jumped at the opportunity to join the Mercantile Agency, founded in 1841 as America's first credit reporting firm. Credit and its management were the engines driving young America's commercial expansion. The agency provided information to manufacturers and retailers on far-flung country stores. The Mercantile Agency promoted and protected trade in the Untied States.
The industrious Dun was promoted to partner in 1854 and in 1859 he acquired the entire interest in the Agency, now a nationwide credit-reporting agency with 16 offices in the United States, two in Canada and one in London. Three months earlier the Mercantile Agency's first Reference Book - complete with lock - had been published.
The book featured credit information on 20, 268 firms, arranged alphabetically by town and state. The key, copied from a London firm, provided four ratings for each name and a summary. A- No. 1 was the best rating. The name of the company issued to was embossed on a dark brown sheepskin cover.
The Reference Book sold for $200.
The Reference Book was published in part as a response to competition from John Bradstreet, to whose name Dun's would be linked long after his death. Bradstreet came to New York from Cincinnati to expand his business. He issued weekly reports and in August 1857 produced his first bound volume of credit reports: Bradstreet's Book of Commercial Reports. The book featured a system of ratings composed of somewhat vague numbers, perhaps influenced by the threat of libel suits. It was the first serious competition to the Mercantile Agency.
Bradstreet died in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War which crippled much of the credit reporting business. The Mercantile Agency not only lost its southern clients during the war but the need to report on southern markets.Dun himself believed the North would go bankrupt and the South would prevail, emerging as the "garden spot of the Continent."
Dun's success and Bradstreet's early profitability spawned so many rival companies after the war ended that even Dun's nearly 10,000 reporters couldn't keep track of them all. Dun worked diligently to keep his agency out of the inevitable scandals and accusations.
Prior to 1866 much of the credit-reporting in America tended to be highly subjective opinions based on a man's character. Dun's extensive reporting network used capital worth and statistical ratings. He took advantage of every new advance in technology to increase efficiency. In 1867 the Mercantile Agency became the first business to use typewriters, doing away with tedious copying of records by hand.
Dun's genius lay in his ability to secure and retain the services of men of the highest quality. Although he was sole owner of the business the profits were shared with his associates. Under Dun's leadership the Mercantile Agency emerged from the bewildering array of credit reporting firms as the unqualified leader in the industry.
When Robert Graham Dun, art collector, wine connoisseur, avid bass fisherman and bird-hunter, died in 1900 at the age of 74 from cirrhosis the Mercantile Agency consisted of 140 offices compiling information on business firms of all descriptions across the globe. Upon his death one editorial wrote, "R.G. Dun is known all over the world, and he has established an institution that will probably live as long as commerce lives."
Dow Jones
And the men behind the brand are...
Charles Dow and Edward Jones
Charles H. Dow and Edward D. Jones were reporters digging up stories in Providence, Rhode Island for the Evening Press while looking for a way to advance their careers to New York City. Dow left first, landing as a job reporting on mining stocks in 1880. Dow worked in the Stock Exchange scribbling shorthand notes on the cuffs of his shirt.
Financial news in those days went largely unreported save for sporadic reports from the office of the John J. Kiernan News Agency. The financial bulletins, known as "flimsies" because of the thin paper on which they were printed, were delivered by messenger boys. Dow soon went to work for Kiernan and summoned his friend Jones to join him in the business.
By the fall of 1882 as their contacts increased the two men developed their own ideas of how financial news should be reported and left to form Dow Jones & Co. in a basement at 15 Wall Street, next door to the Exchange. Dow and another Kiernan man, Charles M. Bergstresser, were reporters who brought the day's news back to Jones at the desk. Jones wrote the stories on agateware stencils and the copies were dispatched to clients by messenger. They called their paper the "Customers Afternoon Letter."
By 1887 hand-writing bulletins was too slow to keep up with the increasing demand for timely financial news. A hand-cranked revolving cylinder began churning out the letter on 5" x 9" pieces of paper. On July 8, 1889 the letter became The Wall Street Journal, a four-page afternoon daily replacing the letter, although printed bulletins remained part of the business until 1948.
An out-of-town correspondent, Clarence W. Barron, joined the paper to contribute news from the Boston financial district. A ponderous "ticker" was developed in 1897 to provide instantaneous news. Dow Jones leased the machines which had to be hand-wound every half-hour but ushered in the information age.
A morning edition of the paper was added in 1898 and Jones retired the following year at the age of 43. In 1902 Dow sold the remainder of the business to C.W. Barron. Dow and Jones passed from the public eye but not before they stamped their names permanently on the financial community.
Charles Dow and Edward Jones
Charles H. Dow and Edward D. Jones were reporters digging up stories in Providence, Rhode Island for the Evening Press while looking for a way to advance their careers to New York City. Dow left first, landing as a job reporting on mining stocks in 1880. Dow worked in the Stock Exchange scribbling shorthand notes on the cuffs of his shirt.
Financial news in those days went largely unreported save for sporadic reports from the office of the John J. Kiernan News Agency. The financial bulletins, known as "flimsies" because of the thin paper on which they were printed, were delivered by messenger boys. Dow soon went to work for Kiernan and summoned his friend Jones to join him in the business.
By the fall of 1882 as their contacts increased the two men developed their own ideas of how financial news should be reported and left to form Dow Jones & Co. in a basement at 15 Wall Street, next door to the Exchange. Dow and another Kiernan man, Charles M. Bergstresser, were reporters who brought the day's news back to Jones at the desk. Jones wrote the stories on agateware stencils and the copies were dispatched to clients by messenger. They called their paper the "Customers Afternoon Letter."
By 1887 hand-writing bulletins was too slow to keep up with the increasing demand for timely financial news. A hand-cranked revolving cylinder began churning out the letter on 5" x 9" pieces of paper. On July 8, 1889 the letter became The Wall Street Journal, a four-page afternoon daily replacing the letter, although printed bulletins remained part of the business until 1948.
An out-of-town correspondent, Clarence W. Barron, joined the paper to contribute news from the Boston financial district. A ponderous "ticker" was developed in 1897 to provide instantaneous news. Dow Jones leased the machines which had to be hand-wound every half-hour but ushered in the information age.
A morning edition of the paper was added in 1898 and Jones retired the following year at the age of 43. In 1902 Dow sold the remainder of the business to C.W. Barron. Dow and Jones passed from the public eye but not before they stamped their names permanently on the financial community.
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