History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 95

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 95

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As early as 1837, Professor Morse petitioncd Con- gress for assistance to enable him to demonstrate the value of his invention by constructing a telegraph linc between Washington and Baltimore, but con- gressmen " ridiculed his invention as a mere chimera, and the bill was never called up." At the session of 1842, however, he renewed his application, and, mainly through the efforts of Hon. John P. Kennedy, of Baltimore, chairman of the House committee to whom the bill had been referred, Congress was in- duced on the 3d of March, the last day of the session, to pass an act appropriating thirty thousand dollars " to test the practicability of establishing a system of electro-magnetic telegraph in the United States." The

expenditure of the appropriation was intrusted to the Secretary of the Treasury, who appointed Leonard D. Gale and James C. Fisher assistants to Professor Morse. The original intention had been to lay the wires under ground in lcaden pipes along the line of the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but the experiment proved a failure, and was abandoned after an expenditure of fifteen thou- sand dollars. Poles were then erected and a line of wire constructed mainly after the present metliod be- tween the two cities. The first trial was made on the 9th of April, 1844. A message was sent a distance of six miles over the wire, which was of very indif- ferent construction, and an answer received " in two or three seconds." On the 7th of May the line was in full operation for a distance of twenty-two miles. " The fluid," we are told, " traversed the whole twenty-two miles and back again, making forty-four miles, in no perceptible part of a second of time. On Friday, the 24th of May, 1844, the line was com- pleted, and the first telegraphic message was sent from Washington to Baltimore by Miss Annic Ellsworth, daughter of the commissioner of patents. This mes- sage was in these words: "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!" The first message of the President of the United States to Congress ever transmitted over the wires was sent to the Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1846. Of the thirty thousand dollars appropriated by Congress for making the experiment, three thou- sand five hundred dollars remained unexpended.

About July 10, 1844, Professor Morse, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, ap- pointed Henry J. Rogers, of Baltimore, " the in- ventor of the American telegraph," assistant super- intendent " of the line of electro-magnetic telegraph between Washington and Baltimore," with his office in the latter city. Mr. Rogers made many improve- ments in the telegraphic system, and was the inventor of the Rogers commercial code of signals, afterwards adopted by the United States and British govern- ments. On the 15th of March, 1845, the first tele- graph company was formed, with the name of " The Magnetic Telegraph Company," the object of the in- corporators being to construct a line from Washington to New York, and in a little over a year (June 6, 1846) it was informally opened. It was not, how- cver, in regular operation until several days after- wards.

About this time the war with Mexico commenced, Gen. Taylor having crossed the Rio Grande in May, and there was intense anxiety throughout the country for prompt and trustworthy intelligence from the scene of hostilities. News was received at Washing-

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ton via the Southern mail, and telegraphed to Balti- more, Philadelphia, New York, and intermediate points. A Baltimore newspaper (the Sun), in order to obtain the war news at the earliest possible moment, established a "pony express" from the steamboat wharf to the telegraph-office in Washington. The desire to procure the promptest intelligence from the seat of war naturally suggested the extension of the telegraph system in the Southwest. During the pre- vious year (April 8, 1845) the first Southern contract had been signed by Amos Kendall, agent for Professor Morse, with H. H. O'Callaghan, of the New Orleans Crescent City, for the extension of the line from Washington to New Orleans, Mr. O'Callaghan having established during the winter an exclusive private express on a portion of the Southern route, by means of which he was enabled to beat the United States mail twenty-four hours in reaching New Orleans, but it was reserved for Henry O'Reilly, aided by Assistant Superintendent Rogers, to construct a complete line of telegraph between the seaboard and the Missis- sippi.

Mainly through the efforts of Mr. Rogers, a num- ber of Baltimore capitalists were induced to subscribe, and on the 12th of January, 1848, the American Telegraph Company was formally organized, the in- corporators being H. McKim, Zenus Barnum, Moor N. Falls, William McKim, D. Pain, Josiah Lee, Henry J. Rogers, and George C. Penniman. The manager of the new company was Mr. O'Reilly, and the office was in the depot of the Baltimore and Sus- quehanna Railroad. Some time previously, however, the construction of a line between Baltimore, York, Columbia, and Harrisburg, Pa., had been commenced. Another company, known as the Western Telegraph Company, was organized Nov. 11, 1848, with John F. Pickell, president ; Thomas J. McKaig, treasurer ; and Howard Kennedy; secretary and superintendent. The lines extended from Washington to Frederick, Md., and thence to Wheeling, Va., Pittsburgh, Pa., Louisville, Ky., Cleveland, Ohio, and from these points to the South and Southwest. Prior to the organiza- tion of the above companies the lines westward had been constructed, and the first telegraphic dispatch received in Baltimore from the West reached that city from Cincinnati on the 20th of August, 1847, by way of Philadelphia.

Henry O'Reilly, to whom the people of the West are primarily indebted for the extension of the tele- graph, was a native of New York, and was a printer's apprentice about the time that Horace Greeley and Thurlow Weed were learning the rudiments of the craft. Subsequently he was employed in the editorial

department of various newspapers printed in New York City, Albany, and different points in the west- ern portion of the State. At that early day the mails were transported by canal, and Mr. O'Reilly often met the canal-boat, received his package of Eastern newspapers, and hurried back on his horse to give his readers " the latest intelligence." He subse- quently removed to Rochester, where he established the Daily Advertiser, the first daily newspaper be- tween the Hudson River and the Pacific coast, and while pursuing his vocation in Western New York strenuously urged the enlargement of the Erie Canal, and incidentally attacked the inefficient management of the State authorities with great force and vigor. The first call, issued by Murray Hoffman, for the State Constitutional Convention of 1846, was brought about by him. In company with one other gentle- man, Mr. O'Reilly " held a meeting, organized, passed resolutions, and then waited upon Mr. Hoffman as a delegation, asking his acceptance of the post of leader." Mr. Hoffinan consented and wrote the declaration of wants, " and so carefully was the matter conducted by Mr. O'Reilly, that the first intimation the 'regency' had of the uprising was the pouring in of the journals from all parts of the State filled with glowing articles on the new movement."

Mr. O'Reilly was kecnly alive to every public im- provement, and when the permanent success of the Morse telegraph was demonstrated, he was among the first to appreciate its wonderful possibilities. About this time, as previously stated, the Morse patentees were endeavoring to sell the exclusive right to that invention to the United States government, the price being fixed at one hundred thousand dollars. Con- gress, however, delayed action on the proposition, and in the mean time a contract was closed with Mr. O'Reilly and others, giving them the right to put in operation the Morse patents from the seaboard west- ward. The contract was general in its character, and the franchises conferred were extremely valuable. It covered not only the original patent to Morsc, but all subsequent improvements. Mr. O'Reilly was not a practical electrician, but he went to work with an en- crgy and determination which were finally crowned with success. He had been informed by experts that to cross rivers with the electric current it was only necessary to sink a copper platc on each bank. He followed their directions, but discovered that the cop- per plates were practically worthless, and substituted for them great poles or masts and stretched the wire from one to the other across the stream. The Morse patentees considered copper the best material for the wires, but finding that No. 16 copper wire was so

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ductile that when wet it " sagged", down between the poles low enough to catch pedestrians under the chin, he replaced it with iron wire, and, in fact, was the first person to use iron for that purpose. He intro- duced many other improvements, and was not detcrred by obstacles which must have disheartened a less reso- lute man. His experience with capitalists was any- thing but encouraging. "Jacob Little, then king of Wall Street, told the canvasscr that the telegraph was a chimera, and put his name down for one hundred dollars as a matter of charity. Banks refused to lend a dollar on the security of 'a bit of wire,' and it was only by his personal enthusiasm that Mr. O'Reilly was able to get money enough to put his lines up." The first section was from Harrisburg to Lancaster, Pa., and when this line was at last in successful operation, capital became less coy and the necessary funds were soon obtained for completing the line to Pittsburgh. This was done during the winter of 1846-47, and the working parties suffered great hardships from cold and exposure during their passage over the Alleghenies. On the 1st of January, 1847, a message was flashed over the wires from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and on the 20th of August in the same year Cincinnati was placed in telegraphic communication with Phila- delphia and other points in the East. On the 18th of September, 1847, the St. Louis Republican made the following announcement :

" An effort is now being made to test the practicability of con- necting St. Louis with the Eastern cities and New Orleans hy means of the magnetic telegraph. Mr. O'Reilly, who has re- cently constructed and put into operation the line from Pitts- hurgh to Cincinnati and Louisville, and is forming a connection with his lines along the lakes, and is also rapidly extending the line from Louisville via Nashville to New Orleans, proposes to give the citizens of St. Louis the benefit of this lightning speed hy the first week in December, provided they will take from twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand dollars stock in that line, say from Louisville or Indianapolis to this city."

On the 11th of November following it said,-

" We are informed on reliable authority that Mr. O'Reilly is rapidly progressing with the construction of the telegraph in this direction. It is now completed and in operation to Vin- cennes, and it is expected that the wires will he put up and the communication completed from Louisville to the east hank of the Mississippi in the month of December."

On the 26th of the same month a meeting in aid of the enterprise was held at Mechanics' Hall. "The attendance," remarks the Republican,

" was large, hut not so large as we think the importance of the occasion should have called forth. We are really surprised at the apathy and indifference which a large portion of our mer- chants and men of business evince towards measures which are almost exclusively for their own benefit. Col. Rohert Camphell was called to the chair, and John J. Anderson appointed seere- tary. Judge Ellis, of Vincennes, one of the trustees of the

subscribers for the stock, made several explanations concerning the manner of taking the stock, how it was held, etc., after which Mr. O'Reilly addressed the meeting in explanation of his contracts, the extent to which he had carried his lines, their connection, their influence, and the purposes he had in view. A committee of five, consisting of Messrs. MeGunnegle, Si- monds, Rosier, Clarke, and Yeatman, was appointed to wait upon the citizens to procure subscriptions."

The President's message, delivered to Congress Dec. 6, 1847, was transmitted from Philadelphia to Vincennes by telegraph, and thence by "pony ex- press" to St. Louis.

On the 8th of the same month announcement was made that the subscriptions for stock in the "St. Louis and Louisville Telegraph Company" would be closed " until Thursday, at least until trustees are elected and they shall determine what further meas- ures are necessary." Three days later (Dec. 11, 1847) the Republican congratulated Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Moore, agent of the mail contractor, on the speed and accuracy with which the President's mes- sage had been delivered at St. Louis. The time oc- cupied in the transmission was three days. The message was sent to Congress on Tuesday, and the telegraphing from Philadelphia to Vincennes and intermediate cities commenced at seven o'clock on Tuesday evening and was concluded at a quarter be- fore nine P.M. Wednesday. An interruption of sev- eral hours occurred, owing to derangement of the wires between Louisville and Cincinnati. When the operators were through with the message they were so exhausted that they refused to transmit any more tele- grams.

The Republican pronounced the feat to be " one of the greatest triumphs of the age." From Vincennes to St. Louis, between which points there was as yet no telegraph line, the message was transmitted by a special express organized by Mr. Eastman, of East, man's line of stages, and the "senior editor [of the Republican] went to Vincennes to receive the copy and bring it to St. Louis." Including stoppages and delays, the time of transmission by telegraph from Philadelphia to Vincennes was twenty-six hours and fifty minutes ; the time actually employed, about nine- teen hours. The " pony express " left Vincennes for St. Louis shortly after eight o'clock A.M., and reached Belleville, about one hundred and twenty-five miles, in twenty-four hours and fifty minutes. The message " was placed in the hands of our compositors, and in two hours and a half it was in type, and in a few minutes afterwards was delivered to thousands of people." The Republican was the only paper in St. Louis to receive the message by telegraph.

On the 18th of December the Republican an-

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INSURANCE, TELEGRAPH, POSTAL SERVICE, GAS, AND HOTELS.

nounced that the posts and wires had been ereeted as far as the east bank of the river, and that in a short time the connection with the eity proper would be established. A trial of the wires from the point of completion on the Mississippi to Vincennes was made, and resulted satisfaetorily. Two days later (Dec. 20, 1847) the same paper informed its readers that " the most extraordinary undertaking of the age, the completion of a line of eomninunication by mag- netie telegraph from the Atlantic eities to the east bank of the Mississippi," had been accomplished. The time consumed in the work of construction was less than eighteen months. The company's offices were located on the third and fourth floors of the St. Louis Insurance Office, at the corner of Olive and Main Streets, and it was announced that business would be transacted there as soon as the wires were extended across the river to the eity. In the mean time an office was established in a house in the upper end of East St. Louis, and messages were transmitted thenee to Eastern points. On the 20th of December the regular operation of the line eomnieneed, and the Republican announced that in a day or two it would begin the publication of the proceedings of Congress and all important events transpiring in the East, " almost to the very moment of putting the paper to press." On the 22d the Republican published the following :

" Dispatches by telegraph for the Republican. " LOUISVILLE, December 21st, 9 P.M.

"W. N. Haldeman's respects to the St. Louis press, and con- gratulates them on the crowning feat of IIenry O'Reilly's en- terprisc, the instantaneous communication of the Mississippi with the Atlantic.

" The river here has fallen two feet. It came within eight inches of the flood of 1832. The weather is cold. No news this morning. Chancellor Kent died on the 13th inst.

" (This is the only dispatch from Louisville, and we have nothing from the Atlantic cities. The flood has deranged the wires between Madison and Cincinnati, and communication by telegraph is cut off ; but still we ought to have later dates from New York and Philadelphia, if there was not some defect on a more distant part of the line. Nothing is said of the foreign news.)"

On the 10th of January, 1848, telegraphie eom- munieation was established between the eities of St. Louis and Alton by the indefatigable O'Reilly, who announced his intention, in view of the approaching completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, to extend the line to Galena and Chicago. About this time Mr. O'Reilly began what was destined to be a tedious and only partially successful series of attempts to introduce the telegraph into the city of St. Louis. He proposed to do this by erccting two lofty poles on either bank of the river and stretching the wire across from one pole to the other. One of these poles was

erected in front of the St. Louis Insurance office, and a large lamp was placed on top of it to serve as a beaeon for boats on the river and " for persons travel- ing by night." On the 24th of January the Repub- lican stated that an unsuccessful attempt had been made to extend the wire from Bloody Island to the western shore. When near the shore the reel got fast and the wire broke.

On the 30th of January the citizens of St. Louis tendered Mr. O'Reilly a publie dinner in testimony of the energy and skill with which he had prosecuted the construction of the telegraph from the East to St. Louis. The letter of invitation was as follows :

" To HENRY O'REILLY, EsQ. :

"SIR,-The undersigned, citizens of St. Louis, as a slight testimonial of their sense of obligation for the efficiency and perseverance displayed by you in the extension of the tele- graphic line to this city, and for the very favorable cstimate they have formed of you personally, beg Icave to tender to you a public dinner at such a time as may suit your convenience.

"John O'Fallon, Helfenstein, Gore & Co., J. E. Yeatman, Berthold, Ewing & Co., John Simonds, William T. Reyn- olds & Co., G. K. McGunnegle, John J. Anderson & Co., Luther C. Clark, Kenneth, Mckenzie & Co., G. K. Budd, Smith, Brothers & Co., T. II. Larkin, P. Chouteau, Jr., & Co., U. Rasiu & Conn, Wilson & Brothers, Keith, Ray & Co., Samuel Treat, G. Matthews & Brother, Houscman & Lowry, W. Barton, J. Lemon, Charles P. Chouteau, Thomas T. Gantt, T. B. Dutcher, S. M. Bay, King & Fisher, Bryan Mullanphy, Anderson & Conn, John M. Wimer, W. W. Grecne, Bogy & Miltenberger, Chouteau & Valle, Jolın M. Krum, Carson & Voorhies, William Milburn, Roe & Ker- cheval, Kirtly & Ryland, Henry Von Phul, Keemle & Field, A. Miltenberger, Peake & Baker, James Bryan, John R. Hammond, Lawrason Riggs, M. L. Clark, Robert Campbell, D. D. Mitchell, B. B. Dayton, James B. Clen- denin, Lyman Farwell, J. C. Tevis, L. A. Benoist & Co., Edward Tracy, II. S. Geyer, D. H. Armstrong, Thomas . O'Flaherty, Henry M. Shreve, George Knapp, C. Ladew & Co., Jesse Woodruff, Ferd. Kennett, Wayman Crow, Leslie & Lord, John O. 'Agnew, N. E. Janney, H. MacShane, M. Blair, Sproule & Keys, Francis P. Blair, Jr., Patrick Gor- man, A. P. Ladew & Co., Bermhoud & Son, James H. Lucas.

"ST. LOUIS, Jan. 30, 1848."

Mr. O'Reilly replied as follows :

"ST. Louis, Jan. 31, 1848.

"GENTLEMEN,-I have already participated so largely in your hospitalities, and have been honored with such manifestations of your confidence in connection with the enterprise which has excited your attention, that no formal testimonial of your kind- ness, such as you now propose, could impress me more deeply with a sense of indebtedness for your favor, and while I would rejoice to participate in the festivities with which you propose to commemorate an event that you consider of public import- ance, circumstances compel me respectfully to decline your proffered invitation."

On the 8th of February the following notiee was published in the St. Louis papers :

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

" TO THE PEOPLE OF MISSOURI, WISCONSIN, AND IOWA :

"I deem it my duty to give you notice that the elaim of Henry O'Reilly to construet and use Morse's telegraph on any line in any direction beyond St. Louis is utterly fraudulent. He has no such right, and never had. Equally fraudulent are his pretenees that he has other systems which he ean use be- sides Morse's. They are either pure humbugs or direet viola- tions of Morse's patents. His object is to fill his pockets with your money, and then leave you exposed to lawsuits and triple damages in the United States courts for violating Morse's patents. If any of your towns and villages want a telegraph, they ean get it without the danger of lawsuits or damages by application to the undersigned at Washington City, or to Wil- liam Tanner, Esq., Frankfort, Ky., or to Josiah Dent, Esq., St. Louis, Mo. AMOS KENDALL, Agent for Proprietors. " LOUISVILLE, Jan. 24, 1848."

Thus was inaugurated a contest which resulted in a long and expensive litigation. O'Reilly became involved in lawsuit after lawsuit with the Morse patentees, and after a stubborn resistance was forced to yield. His Western telegraph franchises were transferred to a combination of capitalists, who organ- ized the Western Union Telegraph Company, which has since absorbed a number of similar enterprises, until now it has become one of the great telegraphic corporations of the world, its lines radiating in every direction throughout the United States. During his control of the Western franchises O'Reilly constructed about eight thousand miles of line. Comparatively little, if any, of the original line remains, as it was crudely and hastily built, and has long since ·been replaced by a more reliable system of wires. O'Reilly was impoverished by his lawsuits, and for a number of years held the position of store-keeper in the New York Custom-House, from which he retired in 1878 at the age of seventy years. His chief occupation in recent years, aside from his official duties, has been the revision and classification of his papers for the use of the future historian of telegraphy in the United States. His memoirs, exhibits, papers, and books, in print and manuscript, number one hundred and fifty volumes, and are now in the collection of the New York Historical Society. On one occasion, after his removal from the custom-house, Mr. O'Reilly, it is stated, said,-

" I scek now only a quiet retirement, and would prefer to keep entirely out of the public view, but when the real history of the discovery and the devel- opment of the telegraph system of this country is written many misplaced honors will fall away from those who have won them."

On the 14th of March, 1848, the St. Louis Repub- lican congratulated its readers on the fact that the wires would be brought across the river " this week." Two tall masts, it added, “ have been erected, each about one hundred and seventy-five feet high, one on

the bank of the river in the water-works lot, and the other on Bloody Island opposite. The span at this place is considerably less than where the original at- tempt was made to carry it over the river."

On the 20th and 21st of the same month meetings of the stockholders of the " Louisville, Vincennes and St. Louis Telegraph Company" were held for the purpose of organizing under a charter granted by the Indiana Legislature. A temporary organization was effected in order to enable Mr. O'Reilly to transfer the lines to the company previous to his contemplated departure from that section of the country. The following were chosen temporary directors : Henry O'Reilly, William Bratch, George T. M. David, Samuel Wise, Sanford J. Smith, William R. McCord, John Ross, Thomas Bishop, A. T. Ellis.

The directors subsequently met and completed the organization of the " Ohio and Mississippi Telegraph Company" by electing the Hon. A. T. Ellis presi- dent, John Ross secretary, and Sanford J. Smith treasurer. The transfer of the line between St. Louis and Louisville, as also of the extension from Illinois- town to Alton, was then made by Mr. O'Reilly to the company. Steps were also taken for the engraving of appropriate certificates for stock.

During a heavy gale on the 4th of May, 1848, the tall mast near the shot-tower, upon which the tele- graph wire was suspended, was blown down, and the operation of the telegraph interrupted. In conse- quence of this accident the company was forced to resort to the old system of sending the messages across the river, and transmitting them from Illinois- town. On the 1st of June following it was an- nounced that the line of O'Reilly's telegraph had been extended from St. Louis to Springfield, Ill., and that in a short time it would be completed to Peoria, Chicago, Galena, Quincy, Burlington, and other im- portant towns on the Illinois and upper Mississippi. The announcement of the completion of the line to Springfield was accompanied by the following dispatch from the editors of the Springfield Register to the editors of the St. Louis Republican :

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 95

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358