John J. Kiernan (February 1, 1847 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Kings County, New York Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...

– November 29, 1893) was an American politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Life

Kiernan began work as a messenger boy with the Magnetic Telegraph Company, and later with

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...

. In 1869, he opened his own financial news service, Kiernan Wall Street Financial News Bureau, using a stock ticker. About 1880, he hired

Charles Dow Charles Henry Dow (; November 6, 1851 – December 4, 1902) was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Dow also co-founded ''The Wall Street Journal'', which has become one of the ...

and Edward Jones as financial reporters. Dow and Jones left in 1882 to found the company which would soon launch

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

, and Kiernan went into partnership with William P. Sullivan. Soon after the business got into trouble, and Kiernan left it in 1888. Kiernan was a member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

(2nd D.) from 1882 to 1885, sitting in the 105th, 106th, 107th and 108th New York State Legislatures. He died on November 29, 1893, of "heart failure and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

Sources

''The New York Red Book''
compiled by Edgar L. Murlin (published by James B. Lyon, Albany NY, 1897; pg. 403)
Sketches of the Members of the Legislatures
in ''The Evening Journal Almanac'' (1883)

in NYT on November 30, 1893

External links

''The Pioneer of Wall Street: John J. Kiernan''
at Irish America {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiernan, John J 1847 births 1893 deaths Democratic Party New York (state) state senators Politicians from Brooklyn Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) 19th-century American politicians