Need help with telegraph history

wandering

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I'm looking for a reference on western telegraph lines from the 1860's to 1870's. Specifically maps that show when and where the lines went. I've checked all over the net and the LOC but can't find the information.

Would appreciate any suggestions.
 

wandering

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Yes, western US. Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming. I know the transcontinental telegraph was completed in 1861 and Virginia City, Montana got it in 1866. I'm hoping there is a reference out there that shows the various lines as a function of dates. Similar to what you see for the railroads.
Thanks.
 

Russell Secord

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Would it be a stretch to assume that the telegraph lines followed the railroads? I found a set of railroad maps in the Library of Congress (search for telegraph) but none for telegraphs.
 

Cathy C

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The telegraph lines actually preceded the railroads. Communications between the "front" and the "rear" (named that way likely because many of the builders were Civil War veterans) was critical to the speed of the building. While I don't know much about the states you mention, I know a bunch about telegraphs in that time period in Colorado. Would that help? :)
 

wandering

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Would it be a stretch to assume that the telegraph lines followed the railroads?

Yes, that was true in a lot of cases, however lines were also run in many other places.

While I don't know much about the states you mention, I know a bunch about telegraphs in that time period in Colorado. Would that help? :)

As luck would have it, I don't need information on Colorado. ;)

I've looked at the LOC railroad maps and some do have the lines listed, but not for the areas I need. Seems there had to be diagrams/maps of the lines used in construction and maintenance, but can't find them.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 

Jamesaritchie

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It was more that the railroads followed the telegraph early on. But telegraphs connected towns, and a great, great many towns had no railroad. They often did, however, have stage lines, and early on, telegraphs lines were likely to follow these.

I only worry about the specific area where a western story of mine is set. I've found it much easier to learn when a telegraph reached a specific town or city, than to research the telegraph history as a whole.

And, like many western writers, I often invent a small town for my own uses, and when I do this it can have anything I want it to have, including a telegraph.
 

wandering

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Thanks. The problem I have is that the historical town I am writing about doesn't have any information on the actual path for the telegraph lines. No railroads into the town, so I'm just going to use the stage line for the path.
 

Jonah Hex

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Taking advantage of this thread, can I ask you how the telegraph worked? For example, to send a message (with reply request) from a village in Arizona to a village in Montana, how did they do?
 
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Cathy C

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First, there weren't any "villages" in that part of the country. The general progression was:

an encampment (tents and such, but no roads except wagon tracks)
a settlement (buildings and perhaps a main road, but no government)
a town (elected/appointed officials who ran things and more formalized streets, sidewalks and such)
a city (more layers of officials, city government beyond a town hall and cross streets with some sort of platting of the land)

In the very early days of the telegraph, it was the railroad office where someone would travel to send a telegram. The person would either write out their message and hand it to a clerk with payment, or would speak the words to the clerk and give payment. The clerk would write it out and read it back to the customer to be sure they sent it correctly. Payment was by the word, and it was expensive (for the time), which is why messages began to be shortened to what might be the equivalent of a text message today. If someone wanted to say:

Bob: I need you to send me $10 and I need to talk to you about the ranch. One of the fences is broken and I need money to repair it. I think I rounded up all the cows. Dave

That message would cost the equivalent of a week's pay (or more, depending on the railroad--no standardized pricing.) But they didn't charge for the word "stop", which was the equivalent of punctuation. A period, if you will.

So, a long message would get shortened to something like this:

Bob--stop--Send $10--stop--fence broke--stop--sending letter to explain--Dave

The telegraph operator would click out the message to the closest station and would wait for receipt. They were also responsible to notify the person if the message got a reply, and most telegraph operators had an arrangement with the local bank to pay over money when funds were wired by telegraph from a different location.

Does that help?
 

Jonah Hex

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Hi Cathy C!
I've found your reply very useful! Just like the "grades" of towns, cities, ecc.
But I still have the curiosity to know how the message was sent: if the Tucson (but could be any other western station, better if the smallest :D) closest station was, i.e., Tubac, and the message needed to reach, i.e., Cheyenne, how did it do? The Tubac operator sent it to the nearest station, and so on did any operator up to Cheyenne?

PS. I hope my post is comprehensible. Have I hit all the verbs? :)
 
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