Evening star., 1897-05-05
h S T O RIG WORD s
First Message Sent From West of the
Alleghenies.
Annual Meeting In, Washington TODAY
OF the Tclegraphic Historic
cal Society.


The annual meeting of the Telepr,nbio
Historical Society was held today at the
rooms of the board OF trade. The election
OF officers for the ensuing year resulted in
the choice Of the following: President
"liilam Il. Wilson of Philadelphia; first
wee president, 1. M s1MiYer of Cincinnati.
second vice president, Francis w. Jones of
Ne" York city; third VICE president, Will
IAN u. Sargent of Brooklyn; secretary and
treasurer. George C-rMaSpard of Washing
.oh' u. e.; executive council, Charles Sell
den, baltimore, j. Compton, Nashville: ].
f. Petit, Chicago, and William H. Young.
Washington, D. C.
Inc meeting began at ten am, and for
lhe hrst hour the retiring president, Mr..
D. H. kaunmann, occupied the chair A
previous and important engagement COM
pelied Mr.. Kaufman to leave the session
at i! O'Clock. and the first vice president.
William B. Wilson, was called by Mr..
Kaufman to take his place.
An Interesting Document.
Secretary Maynard laid before the soci-
ely copy of the first telegram sent over
the wire west of the Allegheny moutains
10 washington. This was secured by Vice
president Wilson and was as follows:
Headquarters Pennsylvania Militia,
PiTTSBURG, December %, 1S46
pm.
To the President of the United States.
The compliments of Adjutant General
BoWman to hi excellency, James K. Polk.
PRESIDENT of the. United States. The oI
pennsylvania Regiment will be organized
and ready to leave this place by the 9Th
OF January. The weather is mild and the
riVer IN good order. Through the politeness
OF Henry OReilly, 1 have the honor con.
ne,feu ns,fe on on me of making the first communi-
catlon by telegraph west of the Allegheny
mountains to the President of the I1nitag
states over the Atlantic and Ohio TaIo.
graph line. 'o Aeae
'e'shed) G. w. BOWMAN,
Adjutant General
Gen. Bowman. Mr.. Wilson stated IN ~,
letter forwarding the Interesting doo,'
lnent, was at Pittsburg at that fima or-
Sanizlng the I'd Regiment of PennsyIva MIA
tha o.uM,eers. M. gathering there for service In
t tae tneAlcan war, which accounts for his
neadquarters being in that cftv instead ns
Harrisburg, the capital of the state.
aenry OReilly, whose name was mem
of ototeo ,e IN the dispatch, was superintendent
Papers Read.
Fapers were read as follows: 'Historv
VI the Morse Telegraph by Mr.. Thomas
H. Leonard OF Boston; History Of Sub
marine Gables and River Crossings" by
Mr. Henry A. Reed Of New York, and
history of Early Telegraphers of Cincin-
Wy Mf. 1. N. Miller OF that CITY,
anons ~ tnose referred to in Mr.. Miller 6
paper was Edison, who it was noticed, Mr..
MINER SAID, had great habit of getting
SICK whenever there was a dull day in the
telegraph operating room. Instead, how
ever. OF going home and to bed, Edison in
varianly went to the public library. where
ne studied everything obtainable on the
subject Of electricity
"A vote Of thanks was rendered to Mr..
kaunmann and the other retiring officers
Tor their faithful performance of duty dur
ing the past year. rsi9ais6 10 Messrs. Lock-
WOOD, Reed and Miller For the papers pre-
pared by them aBd read at the annual
meeting. The memherseexpect to complete
the business of theannual session and ad-
5ourn during this afternoon.