Utah's First Telegraph, 1861

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The Need For A Nationwide Telegraph

In 1860, Congress passed the Pacific Telegraph Act to subsidize the construction of a transcontinental telegraph line. Western Union president Hiram Sibley spearheaded the effort, consolidating regional entities to build two main segments toward Salt Lake City.

On March 12, 1860, representatives of the telegraphic industry including Hiram Sibley (Western Union company), Zenas Barnum (American Telegraph company), T. R. Walker (New York & Buffalo company), Dr. Green (New Orleans & Louisville company), and Colonel Bee (California company) all met in Washington with members of Congress to promote the need for a nationwide telegraphic network. (various newspapers of the March 12-16, 1860 period)

The Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 (officially titled "An Act to Facilitate Communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States by Electric Telegraph") was passed by Congress and signed into law by President James Buchanan on June 16, 1860.

The Secretary of the Treasury officially awarded the construction contract on September 20, 1860 to Hiram Sibley of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Sibley subsequently organized the construction effort by establishing the Pacific Telegraph Company to build westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Western Union subcontracted the work to other companies and individuals.

Pacific Telegraph Company was formed with Western Union support to construct the eastern section westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Work commenced at Omaha in July 1861. It reached Salt Lake City on October 17, 1861, with the first official messages sent the following day.

(The Pacific Telegraph Company was incorporated on January 11, 1861, by the Nebraska Territorial Legislature and officially organized on April 17, 1861, in Rochester, New York. Organized by Hiram Sibley and other directors of the Western Union Telegraph Company, the company was created to construct the eastern portion of the first transcontinental telegraph line from Omaha to Salt Lake City.)

Overland Telegraph Company was formed as a subsidiary of the California State Telegraph Company to construct the western section eastward from Carson City, Nevada. Its line reached Salt Lake City on October 24, 1861, completing the transcontinental link and immediately rendering the premium service of the Pony Express obsolete.

(The California State Telegraph Company was incorporated in California on April 5, 1861; the Overland Telegraph Company was incorporated in California on April 13, 1861. The Overland company was created as a subsidiary/branch of the California State Telegraph Company. Its primary purpose was to build the western segment of the transcontinental telegraph line from Nevada/California eastward to Salt Lake City.)

(An article in the San Francisco Bulletin newspaper on November 7, 1861, reported on the history of the Pacific Telegraph, also known as the Transcontinental Telegraph, or the Atlantic-to-Pacific Telegraph, in amazing detail. The article showed how the idea came to be, and how it was implemented. But most important, it reported on the industry association that controlled the telegraphic industry in the United States through collusion by several companies.)

(Read the article, as reprinted on November 10, 1861 by the Marysville [California] Appeal Democrat)

Utah's First Telegraph, 1861

October 18, 1861 - Completed between St. Joseph and Salt Lake City.

October 24, 1861 - Completed between San Francisco and Salt Lake City, completing the entire transcontinental telegraph.

The first telegraph service to Utah was a joint effort by two companies, not a single company.

The Pacific Telegraph Company built the line from St. Joseph, Nebraska, westward to Salt Lake City. Completed on October 18, 1861, Brigham Young sent his message on October 18, 1861 on a line completed by the Pacific Telegraph Company, which built the eastern portion of the line to Salt Lake City. The message was sent to J. H. Wade, who was the president of that company at the time. Also on the same day the acting governor of Utah sent a message to President Abraham Lincoln, congratulating the President on the completion of the line to Salt Lake City, and the President replied, "The completion of the telegraph to Salt Lake City is auspicious of the stability and Union of the Republic. The government reciprocates your congratulations."

The Overland Telegraph Company built the line from California eastward to Salt Lake City, connecting with the Pacific Telegraph line in Salt Lake City on October 24, 1861, to create the first fully transcontinental network.

Both companies were later absorbed into the larger Western Union in 1864.

October 18, 1861
From the Cincinnati Daily Press, October 19, 1861.

The Telegraph Open to Utah — Loyal Letter from Brigham Young.

Cleveland, October 18.—The following, being the first message over the Pacific Telegraph Line, was received here this evening:

"Great Salt Lake City, October 18.

"Hon. J. H. Wade, President Pacific Telegraph Company, Cleveland:

"Sir: Permit me to congratulate you upon the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line west to this city; to commend the energy displayed by yourself and associates in the rapid and successful prosecution of a work so beneficial, and to express the wish that its use may ever tend to promote the true interests of the dwellers upon both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of our continent. Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country, and is warmly interested in successful enterprises as the one so far completed.

"[Signed] BRIGHAM YOUNG."

Fort Bridger, Utah, October 18.—The Pacific Telegraph Line was completed to Salt Lake City at one o'clock to day. The line between Salt Lake City and San Francisco will be finished in a few days.

Following this came a message from the Acting Governor of Utah to President Lincoln, which was immediately responded to by the President.

From the Altoona Tribune, October 31, 1861.

Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 18, 1861.

To the President of the United States: — Utah, whose citizens strenuously resist all imputations of disloyalty, congratulates the President upon the completion of an enterprise which spans the continent, unites two oceans, and connects remote extremities of the body politic with the great government's heart. May the whole system thrill with quickened pulsations of that heart, the parricidal hand of treason be punished, and the entire sisterhood of States join hands in glad reunion around the national fireside.

Frank Fuller,
Acting Governor of Utah.

The President replied:

Sir: — The completion of the telegraph to Salt Lake City is auspicious of the stability and Union of the Republic. The government reciprocates your congratulations.

Abraham Lincoln.

October 25, 1861
St. Johnsbury [Vermont] Caledonian, November 1, 1861.

Overland Telegraph to the Pacific Completed. -- The great enterprise of making a telegraph from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean has been completed. The following despatch was received at New York last Friday [October 25th]:

"San Francisco, October 25th.—To the mayor of New York: San Francisco to New York sends greetings, and congratulates her on the completion of the enterprise which connects the Pacific with the Atlantic. May the prosperity of these cities be increased thereby, and the projectors of this important work meet with honor and reward. H. F. Teschemaker, mayor of San Francisco."

The Pacific telegraph was completed to San Francisco Thursday [October 24th], and was in fine working order that evening. The first through message transmitted over the line is from Stephen J. Field, chief justice of California, in the absence of the governor, to Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, but it was not communicated until Friday, in consequence of the line being closed east of St. Joseph before notice was received of the line working Thursday night. The enterprise is a complete success. Press dispatches and private business forwarded from St. Joseph up to 12 o’clock Thursday night were laid before the public in California Friday morning.

California Telegraph (1853-1860)

When the two telegraph lines met at Salt Lake City in late October 1861, California already had an existing and extensive local and regional telegraph network operating for eight years prior to the completion of the transcontinental line on October 24, 1861.

October 24, 1853
The California State Telegraph Company completed the state's first line on October 24, 1853. It connected San Francisco to Marysville by way of San Jose, Stockton, and Sacramento.

1854–1858
The Alta California Telegraph Company and the Northern California Telegraph Company built competing lines into gold rush mining towns of Nevada City, Grass Valley, Placerville, and north to Shasta and Yreka.

1858–1859
The telegraph line was extended eastward from Placerville over the Sierra Nevada, reaching Genoa in Utah Territory on November 29, 1858, and Carson City in August 1859.

(Nevada Territory was created on March 2, 1861, from the western part of Utah Territory.)

October 1860
The Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company completed a telegraph line stretching south from San Jose to Los Angeles in October 1860.

October 1860
The telegraph line was extended to the edge of the Carson Sink to the newly established post at Fort Churchill, which at that time was at the far western edge of Utah Territory. The line was constructed by the Placerville and Humboldt Telegraph Company (often referred to as the "Pony Express Telegraph" line).

Fort Churchill was located on the Carson River, about 28 miles east of Carson City, and about 50 miles west of where the Carson River disappears into the Nevada desert. The fort was established in July 1860 to protect settlers, prospectors, and the Overland Mail route, including the Pony Express which had been established in April 1860.

Because the wire ended at Fort Churchill for nearly a year, the fort became a major hub for news transmission. Pony Express riders carrying dispatches from the East would sprint to the telegraph office at Fort Churchill, allowing their news to be wired instantly into California months before the transcontinental line was linked to Salt Lake City in October 1861.

April 1861
To build east from Fort Churchill and across Nevada, the California State Telegraph Company created the Overland Telegraph Company as a subsidiary. When construction began on the transcontinental line, California telegraph crews started from their existing end-of-line at Fort Churchill toward Salt Lake City, while the Pacific Telegraph Company built westward from Nebraska.

(The California State Telegraph Company was incorporated in California on April 5, 1861; the Overland Telegraph Company was incorporated in California on April 13, 1861. - Daily Alta California, December 29, 1861)

May 1861
The California State Telegraph Company acquired or merged with most of its regional competitors by May 1861.

(Read the Wikipedia article about telegraph in California)

November 1861
The Overland Telegraph Company, the telegraph line between Salt Lake City and Carson City, was merged into the California State Telegraph Company in November 1861, shortly after the Overland company completed its line into Salt Lake City from the west.

(The Overland Telegraph Company and the California State Telegraph Company, both held their annual stockholders meeting on the same day, October 28th, in the same location, at 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock, respectively. E. S. Miller was the secretary of both companies. On November 6th, the two companies met and elected the same directors to both companies. - Daily Alta California, November 6, 1861; November 7, 1861)

Telegraph Line Parallels The Railroad

The November 1862 public law that created the Pacific Railroad also stated that the telegraph lines of the Pacific Telegraph Company, the Overland Telegraph Company, and the California State Telegraph Company be allowed to move their lines "so that the present line of telegraph between the Missouri River and San Francisco may be moved upon or along the line of said railroad and branches as fast said railroad and branches are built." (various newspapers of the November 8-12, 1862 period)

Western Union

The Western Union Telegraph Company was founded in 1851 as the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company before being renamed Western Union in 1856 to reflect its goal of creating a unified, nationwide telegraph network.

Although Western Union sponsored and backed both builders of the transcontinental telegraph from the start, the lines that met in Salt Lake City were absorbed into Western Union’s direct system in two stages.

March 17, 1864
Western Union formally absorbed the Pacific Telegraph Company, giving Western Union direct control of the telegraph line between Salt Lake City and the Missouri River.

(Research in a broad variety of newspapers from 1860-1864, suggests that Western Union always held a large but not controlling interest in the Pacific Telegraph Company. Charles M. Stebbins was a major holder of stock in both companies, but was building a telegraph line from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to El Paso, Texas, matching the route of the government's mail contract. The government subsidies for the construction of the "Pacific Telegraph" were transferred to the Central Route at the same time as the mail contract, in March 1861, and Western Union held the contract to build the missing 1,200 miles of telegraph line from Fort Kearney, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City, to Carson City, Utah Territory (later Nevada Territory). When the government mail contract was moved to the Central Route in March 1861, Stebbins abandoned the southern route in favor of involvement in the central route. When work began on the Pacific Telegraph started in July 1861, Stebbins took the contract to build the portion between Fort Kearney and Julesburg. He was one of the directors of the government-subsidized Pacific Telegraph when it was created in January 1861. In November 1862, although still a young man, Stebbins retired from business and settled in Atchison, Kansas, having disposed of his business interests to the Western Union company.)

November 18, 1864
The Western Union Telegraph Company gained controlling interest of the California State Telegraph Company by purchase of large blocks of stock from persons owning the same large blocks of stock in the California company. The reported price was over a half million dollars. (Daily California Express, November 22, 1864, "last Friday")

January 17, 1867
The California State Telegraph Company held its annual meeting, with the same officers and directors as the Western Union company and the Russian-American Telegraph company. (Marysville California Appeal Democrat, January 17, 1867)

May 1867
After acquiring control of the California State Telegraph Company in 1866 (which included the Overland company after November 1861), in May 1867 Western Union fully absorbed its operations and lines (including the western route into Salt Lake City).

June 1, 1867
The California State Telegraph Company ceased doing business on May 31, 1867, and from June 1, 1867, all business will be conducted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, Pacific Division. (San Francisco Call Bulletin, June 1, 1867)

By May 1867, Western Union held unified, direct ownership over the entire transcontinental line through Salt Lake City.

The Deseret Telegraph (1865)

From The Founding of Utah, by Levi Edgar Young, 1923, page 407.

The Deseret Telegraph. — The Deseret Telegraph Company was composed of Utah men, and it was not long before this company had the remote settlements of the Territory connected by wire with Salt Lake City. The people of Salt Lake City, in a special meeting held on April 10, 1865, had voted to erect a telegraph line through to the southern settlements. In a letter of Mr. Samuel W. Richards, written December 3, 1865, and addressed to a friend in England, he says:

Public enterprise in Utah is active. There is now being surveyed, and the poles and material being delivered upon the line, for a telegraph line through the entire route of settlements in this territory, from north to south, a distance of about 500 miles. Its advantages, connecting nearly all the settlements with this city, are obvious, and only in keeping with the general progress of the day in this country,

In the early part of January, 1867, the telegraph-line was opened to St. George, Utah, and during the same year it was extended into Idaho. In order to encourage the youth of the Territory to study telegraphy, the president of the company, Brigham Young, announced through the columns of the Deseret News in December, 1867, that,

Wherever there is a Telegraph station established along the line, there will be one or two operators needed, and every settlement that wishes to have a station, should select one or two of its most suitable young men, and send them to this city this winter with sufficient means, to go to school to learn the art of telegraphy.

For many years the Deseret Telegraph Company remained in operation, but was eventually taken over by the Western Union Telegraph Company.

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