The Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs.
In his autobiography, Andrew Carnegie, the famous turn of the century industrialist and philanthropist, recalls with great fondness the first steps he took in becoming a long-term investor in financial markets. At the time, Carnegie was a 20-year-old clerk with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. When his father passed away, he became responsible for supporting his mother and younger brother. Carnegie was working for Mr. Tom Scott, a superintendent at the railroad company and, perhaps his most influential mentor. “Mr. Scott asked me if I had five hundred dollars. If so, he said, he wished to make an investment for me. Five hundred cents was much nearer my capital. I certainly did not have fifty dollars saved for investment, but I was not going to miss the chance of becoming financially connected with my leader and a great man.”
Carnegie had to get the money from his mother who mortgaged the house and got the five hundred dollars loaned through her brother. “This was my first investment. In those good old days, monthly dividends were more plentiful than now and Adams Express paid a monthly dividend. One morning a white envelope was laying upon my desk, addressed in a big John Hancock hand to ‘Andrew Carnegie, Esquire’. At one corner was a round stamp of the Adams Express Company. I opened the envelope. All it contained was a check for ten dollars upon the Gold Exchange Bank of New York. I shall remember that check as long as I live…it gave me the first penny of revenue from capital – something that I had not worked for with the sweat of my brow. ‘Eureka!’ I cried. ‘Here’s the goose that lays the golden eggs.’
The rest, as they say, is history. He founded the Carnegie Steel Company, which in time, became U.S. Steel and a pioneer in investing. And, it all started with a dividend check from Adams Express.
Source: Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie, 1920.
Four Generations of Adams Express Shareholders
Although some families can trace ownership of a particular stock for two or maybe three generations, Adams Express can proudly claim at least one family can trace ownership to four generations. The Cyr family has owned shares of Adams Express for close to 140 years.
“We don’t know the exact date, but we do know that my great-great-grand Uncle John Chatterton, who owned a feed mill in Rutland, Vermont, purchased 400 shares shortly after the Civil War,” explains Howard Cyr, Jr. of Palmerton Pennsylvania. “It was not a lot by today’s standards, but (he) saw the wisdom of investing for the long term. When he passed away, the shares passed on to my great-grand Aunt Sarah Chatterton, who bequeathed her shares to my great Aunt Lucy Cyr, under the proviso that she could live off the dividends, but would pass the shares on to the next generation – which included six nephews and nieces. That’s how my father, Howard Sr. came to own 44 shares of Adams Express stock and how we got our shares.”
The family tradition continues with the current generation of Cyrs retaining their shares and seeing their stake in Adams Express grow. According to Howard Jr., “We’ve purchased additional shares and reinvested our dividends. From time to time, we’ve used the dividends to help with college education – we have six children.”
Howard Cyr
Palmerton, Pennsylvania