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New England Journalist: Highlights in the Newspaper Career of Charles H. Dow
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Abstract
A major accomplishment sometimes overshadows the background that made accomplishment possible. The creator of Wall Street's most famous investment formula was, in fact, a journalist and entrepreneur of note. His total contribution to the financial community was far larger than the theory for which he is remembered today.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1960
References
1 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 6, 1902.
2 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902.
3 The Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1932.
4 The Springfield [Massachusetts] Daily Republican, Dec. 5, 1902.
6 Oliver J. Gingold, who joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal in 1900 at the age of 15 years when Dow was editor, writes concerning Dow: “I recollect Mr. Dow as a tall, portly, imperturbable man with a beard, rather stooped. I never recollect his smiling and he did not talk much to anybody.” [Letter to the author dated March 13, 1950.] There is no doubt that this reticence was a pronounced characteristic of Dow's personality. Almost everything written concerning his life and character mentions it.
6 For information on Dow's genealogy see Dow, Robert Piercy (compiler), The Book of Dow (Rutland, Vt., 1929)Google Scholar, passim.
7 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 4, 1902.
8 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902.
9 In the City Directories of Springfield, Massachusetts, Dow is listed as Assistant Editor of The Springfield Republican for the years 1872–1873, 1873–1874, and 1874–1875. His residence is given as 60 Carew Street, and also 34 and 36 Terrence Street.
10 This was Samuel Bowles III. His father, who founded the newspaper in 1824 as a weekly, was Samuel Bowles II. It became a daily on March 27, 1844. Upon the death of Samuel Bowles III his son, Samuel Bowles IV, assumed control of The Springfield Republican. Due to the similarity of names it is peculiar that more confusion did not exist. In the early period of his career Samuel Bowles III was known as “Young Sam,” and after his death he was often referred to as “the elder Bowles.” See Mott, Frank Luther, American Journalism (New York, 1950), pp. 264–265, 453–454Google Scholar.
11 For an account of the life of Samuel Bowles see Merriam, George S., The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (2 vols.; New York, 1885)Google Scholar.
12 See Lee, James Melvin, History of American Journalism (Boston, 1923), p. 402Google Scholar. In this account Bowles advises a man whose death had been erroneously recorded in the paper that he cannot print a correction but will bring him back to life by putting his name in the birth column in the next issue.
13 Merriam, , Life of Samuel Bowles, Vol. I, p. 199Google Scholar.
14 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 359.
15 Brooks, Van Wyck, New England: Indian Summer (New York, 1940), p. 317Google Scholar.
16 Dow's work as a city reporter is described in the obituary in The Springfield Republican, Dec. 5, 1902.
17 Charles R. Miller, who later served for nearly forty years (1883–1922) as editorin-chief of The New York Times, was on the staff of the paper at the same time as Dow. S. B. Griffin, who later became managing editor of The Springfield Republican, was also a contemporary staff member. For an account of the experiences of Charles R. Miller on The Springfield Republican, see Bond, F. Fraser, Mr. Miller of the Times (New York, 1931)Google Scholar. Both Miller and Dow joined the staff of the Republican in 1872, and left in the same year, 1875. Dow is not mentioned by Bond.
18 Letter to the author dated Oct. 26, 1949.
19 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902; The Providence Journal, Dec. 5, 1902, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 4, 1902.
20 The account of Dean's editorship may be found in Printers and Printing in Providence, 1762–1907, Prepared by a Committee of Providence Typographical Union Number Thirty-Three as a Souvenir of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Its Institution [1907].
21 Half a Century With The Providence Journal (Compiled and Issued by The Journal Company for Private Distribution, Printed for Preston and Rounds Company by E. L. Freeman and Sons, 1904), p. 72Google Scholar.
22 From the age of 14, when Danielson entered a village printing office in Connecticut, until his death forty years later he was concerned with printing or the newspaper field. He acquired an interest in The Providence Journal on Jan. 1, 1863, and in less than a month a new paper The [Providence] Evening Bulletin, was successfully added to the Journal. Danielson took full charge of both papers in 1866 and remained in command until his death on March 25, 1884. It is an illuminating commentary on the caliber of editors of the day that Danielson's predecessor as editor of The Providence Journal was Professor James B. Angell. Angell had resigned from the faculty of Brown University in 1860 to take the editorial reins of the paper. In 1866 he became President of the University of Vermont and later served as President of the University of Michigan. For accounts of the life of Danielson see “A Hundred Years of the Providence Journal,” Supplement of The Providence Journal, July 23, 1929; Half a Century With the Providence Journal, pp. 18–19, and A Memorial of George Whitman Danielson (Providence: Privately Printed, 1885)Google Scholar.
23 The pamphlet was prepared for the Providence and Stonington Steamship Company, and is a reprint, with some abridgement, of the article entitled “Our Steamboats.” It was republished in 1942 by the Steamship Historical Society of America, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass., as the second publication of its Reprint Series.
24 This is a description of Rhode Island's charitable and corrective institution coupled with a history of the care of the pauper, insane, and criminal members of society within the confines of Rhode Island. It appeared in The Providence Journal, and in a supplement to The Evening Bulletin, on July 14, 1878. To our knowledge it has not been republished. It was collected as a booklet of clippings by a librarian at Brown University and identified by a notation in ink on the cover as “State Farm described by Dow of the ‘Journal.’“
25 As the title indicates, the article is an historical account of prisons, and famous prisoners, in Rhode Island. It appeared in The Providence Journal on Jan. 20, 1879. We find no record of it having been republished. In “The State Farm” Dow refers to “Prisons and Prisoners” as coming from the pen of the same author.
26 Dow's arrival was noted in the Leadville Daily Chronicle, May 27, 1879, as follows: “Mr. Charles Dow is in town doing the carbonate department of the Providence Journal which, by the way, is the best local paper on the Atlantic frontier.”
27 The Springfield Republican, Dec. 5, 1902; The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902; The Providence Journal, Dec. 5, 1902; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 4, 1902.
28 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902.
29 For an account of the financial editors and reporters of the New York press in the early 1870's see Smith, Matthew Hale, Twenty Years Among the Bulls and Bears of Wall Street (New York, 1871), pp. 519–533Google Scholar.
30 Noyes, Alexander Dana, The Market Place (Boston, 1938), pp. 38–55Google Scholar.
31 Hudson, Frederic, Journalism in the United States, from 1690 to 1872 (New York, 1873), pp. 434–437Google Scholar.
32 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902.
33 This manifolding process was used by the Associated Press in the early 1870's. See Rosewater, Victor, History of Cooperative News-Gathering in the United States (New York, 1930), p. 143Google Scholar.
34 The Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1932. The article is entitled “Wall Street News Gathering a Half Century Ago” and signed “H. A.”
35 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902; The New York Times, Dec. 5, 1902; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 4, 1902; The Providence Journal, Dec. 5, 1902.
36 Gregory, Winifred (ed.), American Newspapers, 1821–1936 (New York, 1937), p. 471Google Scholar. Since Dow arrived in New York in 1880 and founded Dow, Jones & Company in 1882, this connection was probably one of relatively brief duration at any event.
37 Edward D. Jones was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1856, and was a student at Brown University of the Class of 1877. However, he left the halls of learning for the more exciting role of a newspaper reporter. In 1876 and 1877 he was a reporter on The Providence Evening Press. In 1878 the Providence City Directory lists him as Editor of The Providence Star and in 1879 and 1880 he is listed as Editor of The Sunday Dispatch. According to a letter Jones wrote to Dow, Jones & Company at the time of Dow's death, and published in The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 5, 1902, he first became acquainted with Dow in 1876 in Providence. Jones withdrew from Dow, Jones & Company on Jan. 9, 1899. He died in Providence in 1920.
38 Barton's, Aug. 24, 1931. The article is entitled “Home Sweet Home” and, according to the comments of the editor in the same issue, was written by Thomas F. Woodlock.
39 The description of the operations of the firm in 1884 is based primarily upon a letter from John C. Gerrity to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal and published in that news-paper on Aug. 27, 1948. Gerrity was employed as a messenger boy by Dow, Jones & Company in 1884.
40 Unpublished letter from G. H. Ramsden to C. E. Kissane, The Wall Street Journal, dated May 1, 1932. Ramsden was in the employ of The Wall Street Journal in 1885 and claims that the printing operation was inaugurated in February of that year. He states the press was installed at 71 Broadway, the old Oil Exchange. Also, see The Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1932, under heading “New Home for 50th Birthday.” The date is likewise given as 1885.
41 The Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1932.
42 Hamilton, William Peter, The Stock Market Barometer (New York, 1922), p. 22Google Scholar.
43 The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1902.
44 The Boston News Bureau was established by Clarence W. Barron in 1887. It was the New England correspondent of Dow, Jones & Company. See Barron's, Aug. 24, 1931.
45 See The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 6, 1902. A letter from C. R. Heike reads in part, “I have been a daily reader of The Wall Street Journal for a number of years, and I have greatly appreciated the leading financial articles of the paper, most of which, as I understood, came from the pen of Mr. Dow.”
46 The Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1932.
47 Gingold, Oliver J., “My First 50 Years in Wall Street,” The Exchange, Vol. XII (April, 1951), p. 6Google Scholar.
48 The Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1932.