CTMQ

Destroying the myth that there is nothing to do here

green mountain modern house
  • 169 Towns
    • Town Completion Introductions
    • Town Completion Celebrations
  • Museums
    • Museum Visits
  • Hikes
    • CFPA Hikes
    • Land Trust Hikes
    • Town Land Hikes
    • State Parks & Forests
    • Peakbagging
  • Curiosities
    • Geography
    • Biology & Geology
    • National “Stuff”
    • Superlatives
    • Habitation
    • Transportation
    • Structural Engineering
    • Religious
    • Remembrances
    • Events
    • Cultural Trails
  • Food & Drink
    • Restaurants
    • Food Lists & Trails
    • Potent Potables
  • CT Beer
    • Breweries
    • Beer Reviews
    • CTMQ&A
  • Miscellanea
    • Highpointing
  • Blog
    • Books
    • Travel
  • About
    • FAQ
    • Family
    • Smith-Magenis Syndrome
    • Press
CTMQ > Curiosities > Remembrances > Charles Dow Birthplace

Charles Dow Birthplace

Leave a Comment

From Hell Hollow Road to Wall Street
Charles Dow birthplace, Sterling

Route 49

dow1The funny thing about Sterling is that no one thinks of it as a sterling place. I rather enjoy it. I enjoy its anonymity and far offness. I enjoy how parts of Sterling feel like Nebraska and other parts feel like Maine. I love that they retain Hell Hollow, Hell Hollow Road and Hell Hollow Pond (CTMQ Visit here).

I don’t love that they don’t have any museums, but I’ll take what I can get. The wonderful Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm is here, as is the Pachaug State Forest which contains a few of my beloved blue trails.

But this little Charles Dow marker has been my nemesis. I’ve driven the length of route 49 in Sterling a couple times before looking for it to no avail. But this time I had Hoang with me to scan one side of the road while I looked at the other. Finally… Success!

The following is from some brochure about random Quiet Corner stuff I picked up years ago:

Charles J. Dow, Jr.’s, birthplace (born in 1851) is marked by a plaque on beautiful Ekonk Hill with its incredible view. Charles started his career as an apprentice to become a reporter and printer. He worked for the Windham Transcript, later for the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts where he was eventually promoted to the assistant editor, and then for the Providence Journal. Mr. Dow had a remarkable ability to grasp the importance of economic news and translate it into meaningful articles for the readers. His career really took off after the publication of a series of articles he wrote on the silver mining boom. By 1879, Charles had moved to New York City where he was employed as a financial reporter, and very soon thereafter, as an editor for the Kiernan News Agency on Wall Street. While working at Kiernan, he was reacquainted with a former colleague from Providence, Edward Jones. In 1882, the two men began their own financial reporting services, Dow Jones & Co., in the basement of a candy store on Wall St. Dow Jones began publishing a daily financial report that realized near instant success.

dow

In 1889, their newsletter became the Wall Street Journal. In 1884, Charles Dow came up with the idea for the Dow Jones Average. He selected eleven representative stocks traded on the market, averaged their closing prices and reported the average as an indicator of market activities. Initially, these were transportation firms. Jones realized the importance of other major industries and spent the better part of the next decade developing a list of companies on which to base the average. The Dow Jones Average was first published in the Wall Street Journal in 1896. It is still there today, as well as on all news broadcasts on radio, television, and the Internet. The Dow Jones Average is no longer a true average, rather a more sophisticated weighted formula using a larger group of stocks.

Just another random thing about Connecticut that interests me far more than it should.

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusreddit

Filed Under: Curiosities, Remembrances Tagged With: Monuments and Plaques, Sterling, Windham County

Sponsored Links

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Visit our sponsors

Hops http://www.ctmq.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/HB-250-X-125-Animated.gif

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
Press & Media Inquiries
Advertise on CTMQ

Latest Museum Visits

The heart of CTMQ

CT Beer Reviews

I didn't forget about you people. Here are the most recent reviews. Cheers!

Sponsored Links

Recent Comments

  • Christina Sayer on Brewery Legitimus
  • Scott on Pygmy Village
  • Nicole on The Stack: Ghost Highway Ramps
  • Tonya on You Won’t Believe How Crappy This One Website Is!
  • Julie Vecchitto on Everything Harwinton
Disclaimer
Mission Statement

Copyright © 2018 · Connecticut Museum Quest