The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-01
When the Telegraph Came to Phoebe
By JOSIAH RoeERsoN.

| Deseret company for business handled
/ between Phoebe and Salt Lake. paying
/ in full the tolls and bills on other lines,
/ however, which handled the business
/ to points east and west of Salt Lake.
| The receipts for the first six days
amounted to some $716, with the checks
amounts paid at other offices-mak-
/ ing the business for that week in Oc-
/ tober about 81 600
! In November the receipts were over
| $500, with checks over $1,000, making
/ the business $4,000. In December there
was an increase in receipts and checks
of from 500 to $1,000, so that in March,
1872. the receipts We're $500. and the
checks made the business all of 5000.
Success Is Continued
This success continued to increase
/ tual receipts were 81, 900 and the checks
nearly $1,000. During the months of
July and August the Raymond & Ely
! company brought suit against the Her
mese company, all of which has been
heretofore published, and the shameful
/ bribery of the jury. During the trial
the Deseret Telegraph company built
| and erected a copper wire from its Of
| fee on Main street over the tops of the
! highest buildings 10 the court house.
and there kept a competent operator
every day of the trial for the trans
mission of specials to the leading news
papers of California, Nevada. Salt Lake
and the east. The Office also handled a
press report and a complete stock re-
port.
Business Is Divided.
| In October, 1872. the Western Union,
lfzi0 ha Hnp he
/ line had been reaping since its advent
into the camp, completed its line from
Hamilton. White Pine county. Nevada,
! to Phoebe, and consequently the re-
ceipts then became divided.
From this on until 1875 the receipts
/ for both companies diminished, as the
water had come into the Lightner shaft
of the Raymond & Ely company and
virtually stopped the hosting of their
carbonate ores, which for six months
at a time previously had averaged 500
! ounces of silver TO the ton and from IS
! to $50 in gold. The bars of bullion
shipped by Gilmore & SalisbuTy's stages
! from Phoebe to Salt Lake by the score
and hundreds averaged from $1,000 10
81, 500 to the bar in the specie value.
Line Works Well.
| The Deseret line, at the time of its
I ACdt-lllllS lbGuts ran through BdndCd,
! Hebron, St George, Beaver and from
Round valley 10 Gunnison. Utah: then
| round through all the settlements of
| Sanpete county, down through Salt
| Creek canyon to Nephi, to Salt Lake.
| ogden and thence via the Atlantic &,
Pacific lines from Ogden to California.
! This formed a circuit of over l 400
miles, passing through a large battery
and a pair OF repeaters at Salt Lake.
J he n
/ Virginia City, New. Notwithstanding
all this circuit of offices, the line
worked so well for weeks and months
| at time that the writer transmitted
in September. 1872, fifty-three messages
inside the hour from Phoebe TO San
| Francisco, which were checked as they
passed through the Salt Lake office.
and averaged $3.50 each In the same
month, one Sunday night. from 7:40 till
400 the next morning. II, 7S6 words were
! transmitted to the two leading papers
at San Francisco, two in Sacramento
and the Virginia City (Nev) Enter
prise. All of these offices were in the
circuit, but in spite of their number
and the length of the line, the wire
worked as smooth as glass
Some of the Prices.
Having said something about the
]
days, IT may perhaps be we'll to say a
/ few words about the expenditures. The
rent for the Office was $3.50, and the Of
! fee was only 15x20 feet at that; ten
! common red pine poles cost only $50:
] two line repairers' fares to Bullionville
/ twelve and a half miles,. $40: board,
/ S45 for month; lodging. single. bed, s25
per month; water bin for use of office
and battery, S2S.50- The water was de-
I 1fr-orad nv he barrel sx-SfaY,o
| thing else was in proportion.
| Being al the tail end of the line (as
every practical operator who has been
| there can well understand). the writer
/ labored under many trying circum-
stances. On account of the leaving
open Of keys by pupil operators for
hours al a time, the Interruptions of
ground wire plugs and the malicious
shooting off of insulatOrs by inconsid-
crate teamsters freighting from Salt
/ Lake and other points to Phoebe and
making target practice of the tele-
graph line as they passed by and I'M
/ der it. compelled the company to put a
pony express rider on the line from
/ Phoebe to Toquerville and making from
| thirty to fifty miles a day, reporting
morning, noon and night, so as to keep
the line in anything like good working
order BY this means the company was
enabled TO keep the line in reliable
working order. This was at an expense
/ of $3.50 month.
Great Future for Phoebe.
Even after the mines had ceased to
be anything nearly as productive as in
the palmy days of 20, II and until rs.
the Deseret company continued 10
maintain its office at Phoebe till the
whole of its lines and interests were
sold to the Western Union Telegraph
company in 1900.
That there still is a great future for
Phoebe is beyond question: and with the