Background
Dow was born on 6 November 1851 in Sterling, Connecticut, the son of a farmer.
Dow was born on 6 November 1851 in Sterling, Connecticut, the son of a farmer.
Knowing that he did not want to be a farmer, the tall, stooped, bushy-bearded Dow decided to try journalism. Dow did not have much education or training, but he managed to find work at the age of 21.
Charles Dow started his career at the age of 21 with the Springfield Daily Republican, in Massachusetts. He worked in Sterling, Connecticut from 1872 until 1875 as a city reporter for Samuel Bowles, who taught his reporters to write crisp, detailed articles.
He also reported for the Providence Evening Press.
Charles Danielson, the editor there, had not wanted to hire the 26-year-old, but Dow would not take no for an answer.
In 1877, he published a History of Steam Navigation between New York and Providence.
Three years later, he published Newport: The City by the Sea.
The bankers wanted the publicity in order to gain investors in the mines.
In 1879, Dow and various tycoons, geologists, lawmakers, and investors set out on a four-day train trip to reach Colorado.
Dow learned a great deal about the world of money on that journey as the men smoked cigars, played cards, and swapped stories.
The businessmen seemed to like and trust Dow, knowing that he would quote them accurately and keep a confidence.
Dow wrote nine "Leadville Letters" based on his experiences there.
In 1880, Dow left Providence for New York City, realizing that the ideal location for business and financial reporting was there.
The 29-year-old found work at the Kiernan Wall Street Financial News Bureau, which delivered by messenger hand written financial news to banks and brokerages.
Jones and Dow had met when they worked together at the Providence Evening Press.
Jones, a Brown University dropout, could skillfully and quickly analyze a financial report.
He, like Dow, was committed to reporting on Wall Street without bias.
Other reporters could be bribed into reporting favorably on a company to drive up stock prices.
In November 1882, they started their own agency, Dow, Jones & Company.
The business' headquarters was located in the basement of a candy store.
Bergstresser's strength lay in his interviewing skills.
Jones once remarked that he could make a wooden Indian talk. In the days before annual reports and press releases, getting information often took much patience and diplomacy.
Dow and Jones' reporters visited the brokerages, banks, and company offices, looking for news.
These copies were called "flimsies. "
Waiting messengers then raced down Wall Street delivering the "flimsies" to subscribers.
This process was repeated several times a day.
Eventually a late edition and a seven a. m. edition were added, based on private wires and stock prices in London. In November 1883, the company started putting out an afternoon two-page summary of the day's financial news called the Customers' Afternoon Letter.
Because the "flimsies" were inefficient to produce and difficult to read, the company started using a hand-operated press in 1885.
However, their publications were still delivered by messenger until 1948.
In 1889, the company had 50 employees.
The first issue of The Wall Street Journal appeared on July 8, 1889.
It cost two cents per issue or five dollars for a one-year subscription.
Dow was the editor and Jones managed the deskwork.
It will aim steadily at being a paper of news and not a paper of opinions. "
The paper's motto was "The truth in its proper use. "
Its editors promised to put out a paper that could not be controlled by advertisers.
The paper had a private wire to Boston and telegraph connections to Washington, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
It also had correspondents in several cities, including London. Dow often warned his reporters about exchanging slanted stories for stock tips or free stock.
Crusading for honesty in financial reporting, Dow would publish the names of companies that hesitated to give information about profit and loss.
The paper soon had power and respect.
In the 1896, Dow saw that the recession was ending.
These corporations sought markets for their stock shares.
The wildly speculative market meant investors needed information about stock activity.
By tracking the closing stock prices of twelve companies, adding up their stock prices, and dividing by twelve, Dow came up with his average.
The first such average appeared in The Wall Street Journal on May 26, 1896.
In 1897, the company created an average for railroad stocks. Dow also developed the Dow theory, which stated that a relationship existed between stock market trends and other business activity.
He also concluded that if both indexes reached a new high, it signaled a bear market was underway.
He thought they should be only one tool of many that investors used to make business decisions. In 1898, The Wall Street Journal put out its first morning edition.
The paper now covered more than just financial news.
It also covered war, which it reported without rhetoric, unlike many of the other papers.
Dow also added an editorial column called "Review and Outlook, " and "Answers to Inquirers, " in which readers sent investment questions to be answered.
Endorsed a Presidential Candidate
Edward Jones retired in 1899, but Dow and Bergstresser continued working.
Dow wrote his last editorial in April 1902.
Vermont Royster, a later editor of the The Wall Street Journal said that Dow always believed that business information was not the "private province of brokers and tycoons.
Neither as a writer nor as a person did he ever lose touch with Main Street.
Charles Dow wrote of raw capitalism and the information that drove investments, turning people into millionaires in a moment.