Western Union Telegraph Company California

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", September 1976, page 17

Here is another chapter from The Telegraph in America by James D. Reid, published in 1879. This will be of special interest to our West Coast collectors.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

No territory in the Union apparently needed the telegraph more than the great States starting up into life on the Pacific coast. Nowhere, however, was it taken up with more seeming reluctance. The condition of society there at the period when the telegraph was first presented for public employment, was too chaotic to favor it, and money sought more productive channels.

The first movement to put the telegraph in operation in California, was made by Messrs. Oliver C. Allen and Clark Burnham of New York. These gentlemen obtained. from the legislature of California in 1852, a franchise giving them the exclusive right to operate a line between San Francisco, San Jose, Stockton, Sacramento and Marysville for the term of fifteen years, provided the line was completed by November 1, 1853. In the fall of 1852 the "CALIFORNIA TELEGRAPH COMPANY" was organized under this grant. Messrs. Allen and Burnham were the corporators. The officers elected were John Middleton, President, Joseph C. Palmer, Treasurer, James C. L. Wadsworth. Secretary, The directors were Franklin C. Gray, John W. Dwinelle, Sol. A. Sharp, A. J. Bowie, J. M. Estell, Lucien Hermann, John A. Reid, and John C. Fall. But money at that period was worth five to ten per cent a month. The telegraph promised no such returns, and 1852 went out with nothing accomplished.

In the spring Of 1853 another unsuccessful movement was made. Meanwhile, however, J. E. Strong canvassed the mining towns of Nevada, Grass Valley and Auburn, and secured funds sufficient to erect a wire upon trees between these places. It went into operation in July, 1853, and was the first line of telegraph erected on the Pacific coast. The insulation was of pitch-pine blocks, with suspended hooks, which were soon found useless.

In 1853 the California Telegraph Company was re-organized and re-incorporated under the name of the "CALIFORNIA STATE TELEGRAPH COMPANY." This company purchased of Allen and Burnham their franchises and material. The officers elected were John Middleton, President, Joseph C. Palmer, Treasurer, S. A. Sharp, Secretary; directors, S. P. Dewey, Charles IV. Cook, A. J. Bowie, H. W. Carpentier. The company, thus re-organized, meant business. It was at once determined to construct a line along the then highway of travel following the stage line to Marysville by way of Sacramento. For this purpose a contract was executed with Walter M. Rockwell, an energetic, reliable man, to construct the entire line, which was to be "mounted" with two wires -- one for "up" and one for "down" business. There seems to have been little perception of the permanent value of the undertaking, for the builder was allowed to erect the line of almost any material, and he used, indifferently, redwood, and pine and willow saplings. The first section was erected between San Francisco and San Jose. It did not then dawn upon the public mind that this frail structure was the first outstretching link which was soon to bind the peoples of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in fraternal intercourse.

When the wire came to be erected, there entered into the service James Gamble, now well known as the able and discreet General Superintendent of the great Pacific Division of the Western Union Telegraph Company, embracing the entire Pacific slope beyond Utah. He was energetic, shrewd, and practical, and had left his home, at Alton, Ill., to try his fortunes in the Mecca of the Golden Gate. He erected the first wire of the new line. The first message sent over it was sent by Mr. Gamble and received by Charles Bulkley of the Collins expedition. It was sent from a valley twenty-five miles out from San Francisco, where the banker Ralston afterward erected his palatial home. Gamble, on account of the dryness of the soil., had to use a keg of water to secure a ground connection! There was a much simpler mode in the east for such purposes. Mr. Gamble thought the soil too dry for the eastern method, the plan of which he understood. The line was completed to Marysville October 26, 1853. The tariff was $2 for ten words between San Francisco, Stockton, Sacramento and Marysville, and $1 between San Francisco and San Jose. When the line was completed, Mr. Gamble became manager at Sacramento.

The ALTA TELEGRAPH COMPANY was organized in 1853, and erected a connecting line from Sacramento to Nevada City, which was afterward extended to all the principal mining towns, and subsequently to San Francisco, when it entered into competition with the California State Telegraph Company. J. E. Strong had been superintendent and general manager of this company for three years, when it was placed under the management of Mr. Gamble, who resigned his post at Sacramento for that purpose.

In 1856 the NORTHERN TELEGRAPH COMPANY was organized to construct a line between Marysville and Yreka, and which was constructed under the management of J. E. Strong and I. M. Hubbard. Mr. Strong soon withdrew from this company and went to Oregon to attempt to build a line through the then wilderness to Portland. While he was thus occupied, Superintendent Gamble succeeded in making a through connection of the Alta California line to San Francisco via Benicia and Oakland by cables crossing the straits at Benicia and the bay between Oakland and San Francisco.

The cables, however, were of a very frail character, and the connection was not permanent. The Alta Telegraph Company's business was also small and irregular, and its lines soon afterward fell into the hands of two residents of San Francisco named J.M. and R. H. McDonald. Owing to competition and the unreliable character of the lines of the California State Telegraph Company, its business also declined, and the management was offered to Mr. Gamble, who became its Superintendent and Secretary. Meanwhile the cables of the Alta Company having wholly failed, their lines were extended round the bay via San Jose to San Francisco, thus trespassing on the franchises of the California State Telegraph Company. This was in the fall of 1857. The California State Telegraph Company immediately commenced suits to protect its rights. A spirited competition and litigation ensued, until July, 1860, when, wearied of a ruinous warfare, the Alta Company became merged into the California State Company. C. C. Butler, who was starved out of Jackson, Miss., and who afterward became manager of the Bain line at Buffalo, N. Y., was made secretary of the California State Company in 1856.

In 1859, Charles Simmons and William Blanchard took to California two of the combination printing telegraph instruments, with the idea of introducing them into the telegraph system of the Pacific coast. To test their value, a wire was assigned to them between San Francisco and Sacramento by the California State Telegraph Company, and for a time the printing instruments were worked with more or less success. But they were not needed. The Morse mechanism was preferred. No other has since then been employed.

At one time it was attempted to introduce somewhat extensively, what is known as "American Compound Wire," that is, a steel wire of small size, covered with a skin of copper, the superior conducting power of the copper compensating for the reduced size of the other. But it was only used to a limited extent, and proved a failure. The sea fogs and rain found their way to the steel, and rapid corrosion ensued. Most of it has been removed. It is now manufactured on a new plan which may yet secure its large employment.

In the winter of 1860, Mr. J. H. Wade, the agent of the Western Union Telegraph Company, arrived in San Francisco and broached the idea of an overland telegraph between the Pacific and Atlantic States. The proposition was heartily received In a few weeks the NORTHERN TELEGRAPH COMPANY, whose lines extended from Marysville to Yreka, under the management of I. M. Hubbard; the ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY, whose lines extended from San Jose to Los Angelos, under the management of James Street; and the PLACERVILLE AND HUMBOLDT TELEGRAPH COMPANY, whose lines extended from Placerville to Virginia City, Nevada, under the management of Fred. A. Bee; were merged into the California State Telegraph Company, with a united capital of $1,250,000, with the following officers: President, H. W. Carpentier; Vice-President, J. Mora Moss; Secretary, E. S. Miller; Treasurer., R. E. Brewster; General Superintendent, James Gamble, Assistant Superintendent, George S. Ladd.

As soon as the project of a line to the eastern seaboard took form, an application was made to the legislature for aid to construct the Western section. This was regarded with favor, and April 27, 1860, one hundred thousand dollars was granted for that purpose. Acting on the plan of the eastern company, an organization was effected for the construction of the overland line, with a capital of $1,250,000, and named the "Overland Telegraph Company." The shares were promptly taken by the shareholders of the California State Telegraph Company, and its President, Secretary and Treasurer became the officers of the new company. James Street was made general agent, I. M. Hubbard, superintendent of construction, and James Gamble, General Superintendent. Mr. Gamble was left to direct the entire work. It was a post of great responsibility, but was carried out with skill, vigor and enthusiasm to its successful completion. It was built in two sections, starting from Salt Lake City and Carson, and finished October 26th of the following year, two days after the eastern parties had arrived at Salt Lake City. On its completion, the Overland Telegraph Company was merged into the California State Telegraph Company, November 6, 1861, with a united capital of $2,500,000. In April, 1862, George S. Ladd, who entered the service in 1857, was elected Secretary of the Company.

The completion of the line between the Atlantic and Pacific caused, as already mentioned, general joy. It was an event of great political and commercial importance to California. A large and lucrative business followed its opening. The success of its construction revealed the possibility of a railroad. and was soon followed by the laying of the iron rail. They now work together in a grand mission of union and commerce.

Up to 1863 no telegraphic connection had been made with Oregon. J. E. Strong had started a line thither, but not succeeding, conveyed it to the California State Telegraph Company, who in 1864 extended it through Washington Territory to Victoria on Vancouver's Island, and also along the sound to Frazer's River as far as New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia. This work was executed under the direction of R. R. Haines, as District Superintendent, and was one of exceeding difficulty, the route being densely timbered, without roads or even trails, and much of it through swamps and marshes.

In September, 1865, the United States Telegraph Company showed its hand on the Pacific coast, and directed James Street to build a line from San Francisco to the Missouri river. Mr. Gamble resigned his position as general superintendent of the California State Telegraph Company, to take charge of this work, which was pushed with so much vigor that in January, 1866, it was completed to Virginia City, and, during the spring, was completed as far as Salt Lake City. Just then the Western Union Telegraph Company having purchased a control in the stock of the California State Telegraph Company, offered terms of consolidation with the United States Telegraph Company. These were accepted. The proposed opposition across the continent thereupon ceased.

In January, 1867, the Western Union Telegraph Company decided to take direct control of the lines on the Pacific coast. At the annual meeting, of the California State Telegraph Company, January 16, 1867, George Hart Mumford was elected President; Henry Haight, Vice-President; George S. Ladd, Secretary and Treasurer; James Gamble, General Superintendent. In May, 1867, the lines of the California State Telegraph Company were formally leased to the Western Union Telegraph Company, since which all the principal lines on the Pacific coast have been worked as the Pacific Division of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

It was in connection with this work that Mr. George Hart Mumford, afterward Vice-President and Secretary of the Western Union Telegraph Company, began his telegraphic career, and whose melancholy death in Paris, July 25, 1875, broke so many hopes which had been formed respecting him. He was born in Rochester, N. Y., in 1840. His education was completed at Harvard, where be graduated with great honor. He practiced law for a brief period in the office of his uncle, Judge O. H. Palmer, in Rochester, N. Y. He was sent to California in 1864, when only twenty-three years of age, to evoke order out of the chaos in which the affairs of the Russian Extension enterprise had become involved. By his discreet and vigorous management he saved to the Western Union Company a large amount of property, and released, with acknowledged skill, the entanglements to which the sudden termination of that great work had given rise.

In 1865 Mr. Mumford returned to California, charged with the reorganization of the California State Telegraph Company, now, under the masterly arrangements originated by Mr. Wade, in control of the telegraph lines of the Pacific coast. This was a work of extreme delicacy. It required both nerve and prudence. He was appointed General Agent of the Western Union Company on the Pacific coast. As Agent be gradually acquired possession of a majority of the stock of the various companies, and was elected President of the California State Telegraph Company. He. married, in 1865, Miss Dana, the accomplished daughter of Gen. Dana, of San Francisco, and, on the leasing of the Pacific lines, was called to New York to be Secretary of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

It would have been contrary to average human nature, if California had neglected to exercise its genius in the matter of insulation. The invention of insulators was a kind of scientific measles through which all telegraph managers have had to pass with more or less danger. California seems to have not only had the disease, but, like some companies in the east, many forms of it. The first insulators used were based upon the very accurate scientific formula that wood, when dry, being a non-conductor, and gum-shellac also a non-conductor, ergo, dry pine boiled in gum shellac must be an insulator par excellence. So the pioneer wires were insulated with plugs boiled in shellac, inserted in wood arms, and into which Mr. Kendall's iron hook with a screw end was inserted on which to suspend the wires. 

It was an improvement on the cotton rags and beeswax of Lancaster, Pa. Until the winter rains came, the boiled plugs worked admirably enough, but when the clouds of the declining year burst, sorrow of an electric sort everywhere prevailed. The lines were operated throughout the winter with the utmost difficulty.

To remedy the evil, a rubber cap and iron shield (Fig. 2), the invention of J. E. Strong, was substituted. It was an improvement on the wooden plug, but rapidly deteriorated, and was soon abandoned. Another form of rubber, which originated with the American Company, and was somewhat largely manufactured in the east (Fig. 3), was employed on portions of the California lines, but without success. 

They gathered dust upon their surface, easily retained moisture, and transmission became painful and laborious. 

For some reason, also, an insulator made at Kenosha, Wis. (Fig. 4), which bore tokens of excellence, and secured an apparently complete separation of the exposed parts by a large dry surface, was also found to be a failure, and had to be abandoned. 

The Brooks' insulator (Fig. 5) was employed on different sections, chiefly on the main line along the railroad, and for some time gave satisfaction. These two latter forms were much and often referred to as the finest examples of insulation which had yet been introduced, and are not without an excellency which (FIG. 5) renders them useful under certain conditions. They were soon, however, superseded by simpler methods, or retained in use to a very limited extent. On a sample of the Brooks' insulator in one of the California executive archives of scientific experiment and buried hopes, there is recorded "This will do if kept well greased." This was true not of Brooks' insulator only, but of various other modes of insulation, which were excellent so long as clean. "Greasing" is, indeed, a very important element, both with things and men. Experience With numerous modes finally led to the adoption of Cornell's glass and pin method of insulation, used for the copper wires of the early lines, but now enlarged, modified in form, and strengthened for bearing the iron wire. Of these, several forms were introduced, but which were all essentially alike. The Cauvet insulator, glass and pin, was introduced in 1865. 

Then followed the screw glass and pin of the California Electrical Construction and Maintenance Company (Fig. 6), which is essentially the insulator now in general use. 

It was adopted, somewhat modified in form (Fig. 7), by the Western Union Telegraph Company, after a thorough examination of all other modes, and is likely to prove the standard American telegraph insulator of the future. The subject of insulation has long ago ceased to agitate the sleep of the modern superintendent. 

Mr. Mumford remained as the representative of the Western Union Telegraph Company on the Pacific coast until 1871, when he was elected one of the vice-presidents, and removed to New York.

On the departure of Mr. Mumford, the general management of the Pacific coast was given to Mr. Gamble as General Superintendent, with George S. Ladd as assistant. Mr. Ladd resigned in 1873, and was succeeded by Mr. Frank Jaynes. Mr. Jaynes was for many years cashier of the company at San Francisco, and rose by force of merit and character from the ranks where he had served as operator.

A number of faithful men are still connected with the California lines. George Senf, familiarly known as "Graffey," has been for many years manager at Virginia City. and has been in the Pacific coast service twenty-three years. John Leatch, chief operator at Sacramento, is also a pioneer, having served in responsible positions, with fidelity, for over twenty years. Frank Bell, district superintendent in Nevada, has been closely identified for the last fifteen years with the construction and superintendence of the mountain lines. He has had the difficult task of maintaining them in the midst of the deep snows of the Sierras, and has never been known to flinch from duty in the face of the severest storms. Peter H. Lovell, who was always a pioneer, continually on the outskirts of civilization, who had charge of the original overland line, still follows his mules regularly every year to repair and maintain the old pioneer line, which is still kept up on that route. It is a dreary and monotonous region, with few inhabitants save the Red man, whom "Pete," as he is familiarly known, neither loves nor fears. If there is an outside line to build, or a new route to explore, Pete is called upon to do it. F. S. Vandenburgh was also prominently connected with the service from 1859 until 1866, when he entered the service of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and has ever since been superintendent of their telegraph department. This company has telegraph lines along its different railway routes which are operated in connection with the "Atlantic and Pacific" Telegraph Company.