At the tail end of the 19th century, boasting a list of business contacts made reporting on gold and silver prospecting in a Colorado mining town called Leadville, Charles Dow left the frontier for the nation's financial hub, New York City. He found a job at the Kiernan News Agency, a service that distributed handwritten business news to banks and brokers, where he met two fellow financial reporters, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. In 1882, the three jumped ship to form a publishing venture of their own. Poor Bergstresser. Not only did he bankroll Dow Jones & Company with the savings he'd acquired by working his way