Omaha daily bee., 1881-07-21
THE PACIFIC EcR

suretles ana admit That they cannot
say how long their paper will continue.
THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH.
AS the initial point of the Pacific
telegraph and place of residence of
the late Edward Creighton, one of its
projectors and builders, Omaha natur-
ally manifests a good deal of interest
in the "reminiscences Of hat great en-
terprise. In another column we re.
produce an article headed ''1he Talk
ing Wire" that recently appeared
in the San Francisco Erdm.
iner, which is a specimen
brick of fiction that has from time to
time been put in print concerning the
early history of the overland telegraph.
With the exception of the facts that
Edward Creighton was superintendent
of the Pacific telegraph, and Gen.
Conner was in command Of troops
stationed along the overland route to
protect the wires, the whole story of
our California cotemporary is the
product of a lively imagination.
In the first place we are told that
Gen. Connor, the noted California
Indian fighter, put Edward Creigh-
ton in charge of a squad of cavalry
and ordered him to protect and keep
up the Pacific telegraph line between
Fort Laramie and South Pass. The
fact is that Gen. Conner was placed
under the direction of Mr.. Creighton
to protect the Overland Tele-
graph and Mr.. Creighton
was at no time in charge
of a squad of cavalry. In 1866, at the
time this article represents the Pacific
telegraph as raided by Indians, the
editor of The BEE was manager of the
Pacific telegraph wires at Omaha I'M
der MIR. Creighton, superintendent,
and Mr.. w. b. Hibberd, assistant
superintendent. He therefore talks
by the card when he pronounces the
whole story about Mr.. Creighton's
exploits i'll thwarting the Indian raid
ers as unfounded. y
We are told, for instance, among
other of Mr.. Creighton's daring
achievements, that he and Ills squad
travelled through tho mountains at
night with the hoofs of their horses
muffied with blanket pads; that the
hammers with which they nailed inau-
lators on the telegraph poles were
thickly padded so as to mufle the
sound of the knocking. MI. Creigh-
ton himself would start cut alone in
the darkness and make a
circuit of the Indian camp
reach the line beyond the
break, attach his pocket instrument
and commence to talk to Omaha or
San Francisco, send messages to oper-
ators OIL the line and then return to
camp in time to escape capture. Now
Mr.. Creighton was a telegraph line
builder, but not q practical tele-
graph operator. He never
carried pocket instrument
because it was of no use to him, as he
could send no message or do any talk.
ing by sound over the wire. AS SUI
p~erintendent of the Pacific telegraph,
he employed repairers at different
stations on the old overland stage
route, whose business it was to keep
the line in repair, and they we're ac-
companied by squads of soldiers
whenever they thought that going
alone would be dangerous. 1t was
III 1864 and not in go that the In
clans raided the Pacific telegraph
wires. But they never carried of
any quantity of wire, except in one
instance, and that was in their attack
upon Julesberg, when over thirty
miles of telegraph were destroyed and
the wire carried off. In hat attack
and in every attempt to pull down
the lines, they were doubtless led by
renegade whites. The greatest trouble
experienced OF the Pacific telegraph
was not from Indians but from Pill
grims, as the emigrarts bound for the
Pacific coast were then known. 1t
was the Pilgrims that chopped tele
graph poles for kindling and fire.
quently interrupted the lines by
the use they. made of telegraph
pole fuel. At one time these inter
ruptions became so annoying that one
Martin Hogan, who was by all
odds the most daring of
of Mr.. Creighton's repairers placed
placards on the poles warning these
pilgrims against chopping them down,
under penalty of death, and Hogan
actually did capture and hang one of
these pilgrims for chopping down tele.
graph poles. Hogan did perhaps, as
much as any other person to make the
indians steer clear of the telegraph
lines. He was married to a Sioux
squaw and his intercourse
with the Indians enabled him to in
spire a good deal of dread as well as