The more things change …
IN THE CITY
by Lisa Neal Shaw
An old saying states, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Wall Street, international investing and financing a war are some of our most prominent headlines today, but these were also factors driving the early United States economy. Thanks to a generous donation, library patrons can now read about the early history of American finance written by one of Presque Isle’s own: Ned Downing.
When I walk out of the library to mail passport applications, I can look up the street and see the house Ned Downing grew up in. According to Dick Graves’ “Forgotten Times”, the house at the corner of Third and State streets is “often referred to as the Cobby Downing place,” although it has been an office space for Dr. Tompkins’ optometric practice since the late 1980s.
I recently had the pleasure of communicating with Ned via e-mail, and he shared the following memory: “In the winter I used to sled down the State Street hill past the Masonic Hall, always taking a left over the hill onto the library lawn. I learned the Dewey Decimal system there. I’m not sure but I think either my father or grandfather built the P. I. Library or at least part of it. My Dad was good friends with Mark Turner for whom the library is named and I’m sure my Dad built the old Sears and Roebuck Building on Main Street which was owned by Mark. I’ll never forget the day when as a little boy I was throwing rocks at the old sign on the library lawn and one of the rocks bounced off the sidewalk and smashed the front windshield of Police Chief Watson Burlock’s patrol car! Did I get into hot water!”
Who knew then that the rock-throwing, snow-sliding youth learning his 500s would grow up to be one of the leading authorities on Wall Street’s early days? Ned Downing’s “The Revolutionary Beginning of the American Stock Market”, published in 2010 by the Museum of American Finance, has been a work long in coming for him. Downing’s dedication starts thus: “I dedicate this book to the memory of my son, Christopher, who died in an automobile accident in January 2001. Shortly before this tragedy I completed a draft of this manuscript and sent one copy out to a publisher. The publisher turned it down because he didn’t think a book about our country’s financial history would make money. After Christopher died I lost all motivation to publish this or any other story. Two years later my computer’s hard drive crashed. It contained my only copy of this and two other unpublished manuscripts. I wrote it off. It just wasn’t meant to be.” And yet here in 2011 sits Downing’s book on my desk, clearly in fact meant to be, and I’ll leave the rest of the story of how the book came to fruition after all to the reader.
If a book about the American stock market sounds dry, rest assured this book is anything but. Its 73 pages are fraught with war, international intrigue, love affairs, and beautiful representations of documents including a bill of lading for 35 treasure chests containing over 2,500,000 French livres to finance the Revolutionary War; the first Colonial American security — issued for a failed military expedition against Canada by a humble Mainer; and a cashier’s check issued from “the Bank,” which was in fact the only bank in the United States in 1782. Downing’s book also contains a useful glossary of banking and finance terms, many of which have had their working definitions change significantly over the years.
Ned further explains his enthusiasm and impetus for this book: “I have spent nearly the last 50 years researching the financial history of the United States. Not much was known about the early financial history of our country’s formative years when I started. I began collecting coins when I was 9 or 10 years old. Researching the first coins made by the U.S.A. after our new Constitutional system of government was implemented, I became interested in the desperate economic conditions that made those coins necessary. Currency had become worthless — not worth a ‘Continental’! The miracle of our bankrupt country, brought low by the massive unpaid expenses of the 1775-83 Revolutionary War, and its spectacular resurgence after the new 1789 Constitution was passed and Alexander Hamilton implemented his 1790 plan to restore the public credit — this became the basis of my lifetime avocation of collecting and researching original autograph letters, financial instruments and documents that tell our country’s story from this period.”
It is again winter in northern Maine. The nation is once more under a war debt, and the library is once more under construction. Of the kids I see zipping through the library yard, perhaps also “landing in hot water,” I wonder if one of them is the next Ned Downing.
Whoever is the next to study our country’s finances has a couple of advantages now. First, Helen Merriam will be presenting a three-day workshop on personal finance and financial literacy in general at Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 22, 23 and 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 pm with a free lunch provided each day for participants. The workshop is also free to the public, and if you would like more information, please contact the library or look us up online at Presque Isle Librarians on Facebook.
Second, stop in and check out Ned Downing’s book “The Revolutionary Beginning of the American Stock Market”. If you would like to reserve the book or find out how to order a copy for yourself, or if you would be interested in having us persuade Mr. Downing to visit his old stomping grounds and give a book talk, the same contact information applies. We’ll warn the police chief not to park too closely to the library sign!
Lisa Neal Shaw is the reference librarian at Presque Isle’s Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library. She can be reached at 764-2571 or via e-mail at lisanealshaw@presqueislelibrary.org.
