August 1, 1939 E.A. Pierce & Co Private Wires by darylo

August 1, 1939 E.A. Pierce & Co Private Wires

My maternal grandfather, Francis Cornelius Hunter, born in Savannah, GA in 1906 worked in the stock market business all his life as an investment banker--in fact, he helped open up some of the offices for Merrill Lynch way back when as a Manager. His work history goes like this:

Anderson Clayton Co, 1927-28, Savannah, GA

Asst. Mgr. H. Hentz & Co Savanah and Cloister
Hotel, Sea Island, GA 1928-30

Asst. Mgr Jno. F. Clark & Co, Savannah, 1931-
35 and with E.A. Pierce & Co, 1935-39

Manager, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane of Savannah, Atlanta, Richmond, VA, Oaklahoma City, Washington DC from 1940-49, Resident Partner 1949-59

Vice President, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. 1959

Director of above International also.

The photo above is some of the 15 private wire pages I scanned today of one date: August 1, 1939. I scanned them in the order of their release during that day because each one (except one) is actually date and time-stamped, with the time stamp like a little clock--it took me a while because some of them are just a minute apart (See sample of stamps here: https://365project.org/darylo/didn-t-make-cut/2021-03-02 ). As you can see from the samples I have provided here, they include some of the most up-to-date news of the day along with stock information. In 1939, E. A. Pierce merged with Merrill Lynch, and from my research, Pierce brought along with him the largest holdings in private wire in the country, which would certainly be useful in 1939. I had to look up my granddad in a Who's Who in Commerce Book I found online, and I found all the dates of his different management positions in his career--back when folks actually stayed with a singular company (or accumulating companies as the stock market biz was really a fledgling business when my grandfather started--as I understand).

I called my mother today too to see if she remembers where she was in 1939, and we worked together that she was either in Savannah or Atlanta, but I believe it was Savannah now that I found the Who's Who publication. But she moved with her brother Tom and my grandmother Ethel all over the place with Merrill Lynch--Atlanta, Richmond, Oaklahoma City, DC. By 6th grade, they settled in Washington DC.

One fabulous memory I have of my grandfather (as I only knew him in his retirement days on Hilton Head Island, SC) was his old ticker tape machine under a glass in his office (I stayed in the office on a pull-out sofa when we visited--my brothers always got the nice twin beds above and my parents got the second story large bedroom). I used to love the office for its strange items, memorabilia, and it had all the old photo books there! It was my own private library. It also had a medicine cabinet with my grandfather's antacid tablets that tasted like peppermint, and I would sneak eat them thinking they were his "candy." Ah, youth! Luckily, I never ate too many because I didn't get sick!

There are 15 Documents on this day I scanned. Tomorrow's documents will take place on August 31, and the next day will be Sept. 1--declaration of war. I am in possession of some of the most fascinating (and horrifying) unraveling of events of our lifetime. There are things like "FC" and other short letters at the ends of certain wires, so I don't know if they refer directly to my grandfather's initials or not. I imagine it was like a modern day list serve where different offices are communicating across the country with information. Will have to do some more digging on that.



Definitely very valuable family and historical information here. You are fortunate.
March 2nd, 2021  
Hot dog! Such impressive lineage! How special to have this important part of history connected to you!
March 2nd, 2021  
@danette I am indeed. Some history not so fortunate, which I'll get to. I'm hoping to donate these to an archive after I finish scanning.
March 2nd, 2021  
@grammyn hot dog indeed! Thanks for reading!
March 2nd, 2021  
wow this is brilliant daryl , what a superb project to document
March 3rd, 2021  
How incredible to have all this traceable history!
March 3rd, 2021  
A fascinating glimpse into your grandfather's life.
March 3rd, 2021  
@phil_howcroft @aikiuser @kwiksilver Thanks so much for following along! It's a bit overwhelming, but I will not lack for motivation on this project now for at least a month or two--plus I'm getting a ton done by scanning the docs so I can release them back into the world (hopefully an archive of some sort!). If not, they will be filed and boxed with lots of order to them!
March 3rd, 2021  
This is great - looking forward to your findings! I'm on a similar journey, albeit on a smaller scale.
March 4th, 2021  
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