The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-04-02
-ONTANA'S first telegraph line
was built into the territory in
" 1886. That doesn't mean, how

tors, On wet days the leakage of power
was great. Batteries were weak, breaks
in the line were frequent.
frequently the Salt Lake office would
send message gss,, to VII vifg Rnnn C W5stb oe It It
was getting through or not. The mes
sages were listed in numerical order,
however, and when the bad weather
was over and communication GOOD
again, the operators would check up
by number and see II all OF tne tele-
grams had been received, pay 'Iey
h bssReS. the 0nes missing "0u'o Ne ''-
That first telegraph line into Mon
tana was constructed in 1866 by Jonn
Creighton Of Omaha for the Western
Union company, on contract. 1t ran
from Salt Lake City to Virginia ClGy,
following the state 5oad vs snevush 'i'e
The first manager OF the Virginia
citv office was Barney Hughes: When
the office opened for business NOV =,
1855. the first message sent over ~
was from Gov. Green Clay SnnGn o.
Montana to Andrew johnson, preslaent
of the United States. 1t e a. Aol-
lows: ,roe,dent If
the United States: ~
Montana sends greetings. We are
this day brought into hourly COM
m%Inication with the United states
and the world. God save me UNION enait,
"Goyernor Of Montana"
Tn 1857 the line was built on to Hell.
ana and S. A. Wiley was instaIeo
there as manager, remaining IN tnas aG
capacity a year and q nan; n p ao0o
the line was pushed on to tort bets
ton. where W. E. Freder1ckS, ohe ~
The members of the party mat pune
the line into Montana III Aooo' oeo"1A~
manager.
wild Succeeds Hughes
Barney Hughes was succee9eu az
VIRGINIA CITY by Levi S.. Wild, Wno
sne5t. the remainder of his life in MOL
faana and was for many years managea
If the Butte office OF n WesVetL
Union wiley in 1870 and l87! was Ctie
state agent for the company W1tn e 81
Quarters at Deer Lodge. y0En Ha4ar
succeeded him at Helena: WHEY az amd
went to New York, his natlVe sV"o7'
The eariv-day operators not only nag
IN he good senders and receivers, DuI
on aro1,nd men, delivering messages
rana;rinp instruments and, II ILe
iightning happened to hit 2 poe, Icy 10y
frequently had to put on tne cn1 111ran
and mend the breaks IN tre VIZ Stunt
a. a. Mi off within the city limits, ne
70 pun hod a large audience, the mem
hers Of which we're always as l!ee WALL
ns;t;c;sm as they were with ADVICE.
The great fire which practlcany
r;neG oft, Helena in 1871, destroyed ey.
ervthing connected with n IeAegt 4Rba
office there with h eXcept,utt looks,
Instruments and the account Xiii"
There happened to be stored n a pu anae
~ which escaped the flames, Sonle
aHg i;is and some jars from when
batteries were improvised anu GULL
m%unication restored. ~
One Of the operators between Vrgin "a
civ and Salt Lake City, staIloteo o.
Pleasant Valley, was las !a.S ne
Mantle, afterwards pupiSl.Et States
6u..t from Montana. One OF ms IRE.
o,,ant complaints was thai messagSe
g1,ent right through his Office 70 ~ H.
ano and his batteries were So "eaA 'A"'
he couldn't hear hem. ~
porers Received 1000 Words Eacn
n,;r;np h seventies the M0ntaiaa
received just as mucn S &c
eraphic news as did the neWsp pai,ch
On the PACIFIC ~ II "d p Helena
InSenendent and the Montana Posi- a.
W;roinia CITY received 1000 WORDS eaS IN
49, were nc 8-hour tricks LOT Ctte
anerators. They were sometimes on ou.y
for ~ hours at a stretch. one ~
earliest trials to which the M ~ t1,o
~telegraphers were subjected, was ~
newspaper corresponeen;so a wa R,,11 ON
WESTON. one for the New York llmes
nmd one representing a Chicago paper:
The;r REPORTS of the p~roceeoilss
reached the telegraph office at Helelia
q S o'clock in the evening u ~
took IL hours to send them. Inc Wv
stor would have to stop WORK every lloI
and then to bathe his almost paralyzeo
aa arm in cold water in order to
sestnra the feeling so he could pro-
4 large sector of the line between
Fort Benton and Helena a at one
time torn down by a buffalo hero. II
was weeks before wa"
restored between the Two wills
Costs Were High
Tolls were high IN tnose years. f;, ct
1867 when the Helena office was 1usI
opened it cost $40 to send 10 words TO
New York. In 1870 the price was re-
d,1ced TO $3.50 and in 1872 to So. snort
" thereafter the price for 10 words 10
New York was reduced to $2:50. Caple
tolls ranged from $3.50 to SIS a Word.
Of course the local tolls in Montana
were much less than that, a nd o9s
they were high enough. In fact the tele-
graph business looked lucrative enough
to induce P. A. Largey, later n Of the
states mining magnates. to build a
private line from Bozeman to Hell
ena, Deer Lodge, Butte, and Fort Ben
ton. Largey's private line, charging 81
for a 1O-word message, yielded its own.
er S / 1000 a month. After operating it
for some time Largey sold it to the
Western Union for which compay ne
acted as operator later at Helena.
The movements of the stages were
reported over the telegraph at that
time much as are the movements OF
trains today. That began with the con-
struction of the overland telegraph
across the plains to California in 1862.
The wire wa "out" for 10 days once
between Virginia City and Pleasant
Valley on the old Bannack road, when
billiards. tied up the stages and the
linemen could not get out to make re-
nairc Mantle the onerat0r at Pleasant