*
i3be Conservative *
OI.l ) TIME TKLKGUAril KEMINIS-
CKNCKS.
[ 11V It. C. CI.OWUV. ]
[ The following interesting nncl graphic
sketch of the first telegraph in Nebraska
was written by Col. R. O. dowry , and
but for an unexpected call to the East ,
would have been read by him at the
Omaha Reunion a year ago : ]
I suppose that it is allowable on an
occasion of this kind to indulge in per
sonal reminiscences , and this must be
my apology for alluding to myself in
connection with what I am about to say.
"With the exception of the statistics and
sketches compiled in the "History of the
Telegraph" by that good man James
D. Reid the early records of the tele
graph and the experience of our pioneers
have been , in a great measure , lost to
our fraternity and the world. It may
be well , therefore , and not out of place
for those of us who are "Old-Timers , "
to recount at our reunions some of our
personal experiences. I claim to bo an
"Old-Timer , " having entered the tele
graphic service in April , 1852. Of
course , it must be understood , especially
by my lady friends , that I was very young
at that time. In fact I always feel
young no matter how old I may look. I
think it was a Frenchman who said ,
that "we are only as old as we feel. "
I began my telegraphic career as a
messenger boy and student in a small
country town in Illinois. I was com
pelled to give six months' free service as
messenger for the privilege of learning
to telegraph , and while I tried to per
form my duties faithfully , I managed to
liave a good deal of spare time for boyish
amusements such as swimming in the
summer , skating in the winter , etc. My
tutor was an austere Scotchman , and I
well remember his first lesson after I
entered the office. It consisted of in
structions how to wind up the register ,
which was as simple a task as winding
up an ordinary clock.
I also vividly remember what a solemn
operation he made of it. It was my duty
to deliver telegrams to our customers ,
and also to deliver billet-doux to the
manager's best girl ; to sweep out the
office , and to clean the local Grove
Battery. The good manager was not
far enough advanced in chemistry to
clean the zincs by dipping them in a
weak solution of sulphuric acid and
water and brushing the mercury over
them he had never heard of such a
thing and neither had I. I was coni-
polled to pour the quicksilver on to a
broad board and rub the zincs on it for
hours at a time until the mercury ad
hered to the surface of the zinc. I
afterwards told him about the acid plan ,
but he hooted the idea as an absurd
innovation and a ruinous waste of zinc.
He did not believe in such nonsense ,
neitheir did ho believe in the modern
practice of reading by sound. Even
after I had taken a messoge by sound
while on a visit to his office sometime
after I had graduated , ho tore it up ,
started the register and had the mes
sage repeated ! but notwithstanding all
these peculiarities ho was a most ex
cellent and honorable gentleman , and I
can heartily say "Peace to his ashes. "
I believe that I was amongst the first ,
if not the very first , operator in St.
Louis who regularly received messages
by sound. In those days all messages
were written by the operators with a
pencil on soft paper and afterwards
copied in ink on the telegraph blanks by
an expert penman.
One day Judge Caton , my employer ,
asked me if I thought I could write the
messages in ink upon the blanks as I re
ceived them from the sounder and thus
dispense with the copying process. I
told him that I would try to do so , but
feared that the sharp points of the steel
pen would stick in the paper. I well
remember his reply he said , "Robert ,
go right out and purchase a first-class
gold pen to suit your hand and I will
pay for it. " The gold pen was pur
chased , my boyhood friend , the copyist ,
lost his place , and the Judge saved forty
dollars a month , which was a large
amount of money in those days. The
old gentleman is hale and hearty with
hair and beard as white as snow. He
has attained wealth and honor in his old
age , and he well deserves them. During
the strike of 1883,1 was greatly affected
by a visit from the Judge at my office
in Chicago. Ho said he heard I was in
trouble and he wanted to assist me ; that
his eyesight was not as good as it used
to be and ho did not think he could re
ceive and copy a message , but he knew
he could send just as well as ever. I
found it unnecessary to put him at the
key , but if his eyesight had been good
at that time ho would have noticed that
my eyes were decidedly moist.
I feel that I have a peculiar right to
welcome you to Omaha. As Superin
tendent of the Missouri and "Western
Telegraph Company I brought the first
wire here , and on September 5 , I860 ,
opened the first telegraph office that was
established in this city. The wire was
brought into a vacant room over the
store of William Ruth , in the old pioneer
block on Faruam street. Our terminal ,
or pioneer operator , Richard Ellsworth ,
who had in his possession a full set of
instruments , was detained on a steam
boat which was stranded on a eand bar
in the Missouri River below here. I
accompanied the builders who brought
the line in on the highway and had with
me a pocket instrument which I placed
on an empty dry goods box and opened
up telegraphic communication with the
outside world for the first time. The
following , which I find in my scrapbook -
book , was printed in the Daily Nobras-
kian of Sept. 8 , 1800 :
"We are indebted to R. 0. Clowry ,
Esq. , the gentlemanly and efficient
superintendent of the Missouri and
Western Telegraph Company , for gra
tuitous despatches furnished today's
paper. The storm of last evening inter
fered with the working of the wires ,
and the despatches are more highly
prized from the fact that by the special
favor of the gentleman named , they
were received today. The publication
of the first regular despatches is quite
an era in the history of Omaha , and wo
may bo pardoned a little vanity over the
Nobraskiau being the medium through
which they are published. Our de
spatches are the same as published in
St. Louis papers this morning.
"Omaha is in telegraphic communi
cation with St. Louis , and from there
with all parts of the United States. We
make the announcement with some
little pride. The wires were put up at
this point on Wednesday evening , the
6th inst. , and the last link thanks to
the Missouri Telegraph Company that
was to connect Omaha with New York ,
supplied A small battery was put in
operation the same evening , and one or
two unimportant despatches from
Brownville received and answered. On
Thursday the connection eastward was
completed , and now we can employ the
flashes of electricity to communicate
with our friends in eastern lauds.
"Who will dare say now that Nebraska
is too far west , and that Omaha is in a
wilderness ? Why , we have a telegraph
here ! Omaha is the farthest western
telegraph point now , it is true , but the
poles are nearly up and the wire on
hand , so that two mouths will not elapse
ere the same communication will be had
with Fort Kearney , nearly two hundred
miles to the west of us.
"Westward the star of empire wings
its way , and westward speeds every
enterprise the developed resources of a
young empire may demand. Some one
has said that 'the emigrants' way over
the western prairies is marked by camp
fires long consumed and bones that
bleach in the sunshine. ' But the ex
perience of later years has demonstrated
that the winds have scarcely scattered
the ashes of the emigrants camp fire , ere
the human sea which follows deposits
in their last resting-place the remains of
the unfortunate who may have fallen
by the way , and in the place of the camp
station we find cultivated farms with
comfortable dwellings and enterprising
occupants and in some instances note
the flourishing village spring up as if by
magic. Who shall set a limit to Anglo-
Saxon enterprise ?
"Six years ago the site of Omaha was
a favorite camping ground of the tribe
of Indians whose name it bears. Four
years since , the dwellers here watched
the arrival of a boat with an
anxiety grown feverish by long waiting.
In those days of slow coaches and bad
roads , letters that effected a transit from
New York to Omaha in three weeks ,