Where in the World is Giles?
Thirty years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Perry of Champaign, Illinois were traveling through Europe. While in Spain, the Perrys met a couple from Hyde Park, New York. The Perrys soon found out that Giles and his wife had spent a good part of their time traveling around the world – the “ultimate travelers” according to Mr. Perry.
“One day we got to talking about financing travel. Giles told me that he was traveling on Adams Express dividends. Never having owned a share of stock, I took the opportunity to ‘pick his brain’ on the stock market, with particular emphasis on Adams Express,” said Mr. Perry. On their trip back home from Spain, Mrs. Perry suggested that they should start investing in Adams Express – if for no other reason than “in memory of the Giles we’d met.”
The Perrys started out with an initial investment of 1,000 shares. Over time, through the reinvestment of their dividends, they accumulated a significant amount of shares. Those shares were enough to fund their travel aspirations, which have been extraordinarily ambitious.
“My wife and I continued to travel and were fortunate enough to be able to visit over 180 countries. On each occasion, my wife always raised the same question, ‘who will Giles be this time’ – but we never met a real replacement for ‘our Giles’.”
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.