“Greetings of Fellowship and Good Feeling”: The Telegraph Comes to Los Angeles, 1860

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

A presentation last night to the Chino Hills Historical Society covered some of the history of the 14,000-acre area that is now Chino Hills State Park, with Hills of Everyone founder, Claire Schlotterbeck, who had a key role in preserving the land for the park, talking about how it came about as well as the group’s quest to save additional lands in the Chino and Puente hills ranges to preserve biodiversity and habitat, as well as for recreation.

Among the topics was how Telegraph Canyon, a main part of the park, got its name, so this seems a good opportunity to not only cover that, but to get into how telegraphy got to Los Angeles, as well. First, the earliest long-distance telegram was sent on 24 May 1844, using the code developed by New York University Professor Samuel B. Morse, with the message simply: “What hath God wrought?”

In subsequent use, telegraphy spread, though it was not until 1861 that Western Union completed the transcontinental telegraph line that proved valuable for many reasons, including the rapid transmission of news regarding the recently launched Civil War. Shortly before that, Los Angeles, fairly isolated on the southwest coast of the nation, was able to make its connection to San Francisco.

The 4 February 1860 issue of the Los Angeles Star cited the San Francisco Herald and its report that,

We are gratified to learn there is a speedy prospect of the extension of the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Line. Mr. George M. Williams, who has been long and usefully connected with the Alta Telegraph Company, goes down to-day for the purpose of extending the wires from Visalia to Los Angeles.

The Alta firm was formed several years earlier and built a line from San Francisco to Nevada City in the gold country and to Sacramento, as well as others in the Bay Area. In 1858, the Pacific and Atlantic was launched to construct a line from San José, at the southern extremity of the Bay region to Los Angeles and then east following the route of the new Butterfield Overland Mail stage system.

In its number of 30 May, the Los Angeles News informed its readers that,

We have heard that the steamer Senator, which leaves San Francisco Sunday next, for San Pedro, will bring a party connected with the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company, who are to commence setting the poles and spreading the wires from this city to Visalia, and also extend the lines eastward from this place. Soon we may expect to have telegraph communication direct with the metropolis of the Pacific [San Francisco]—and we trust the day is not too far distant when we shall also have telegraphic intelligence from the East; when we shall have immediate notice of everything of importance transpiring in the other States of the Union.

The paper added that, to date, the city relied on “slow-going ocean steamers” delivering newspapers and mail, though the Butterfield “proved a complete success” and “has worked to a charm, astonishing all those who predicted its failure, and delighting those who from the first believed in the success of the enterprise.”

The News then remarked, “now we have a rival of the Butterfield, in the Pony Express, which places us within eight days of New York” and it marveled “who would have dreamed of this ten years ago?” Anyone during the ferment of the Gold Rush who was to have suggested these means of delivery “would have been deemed insane.” Notably, the Butterfield and Pony Express routes passed just to the north of the Workman family residence on Rancho La Puente, using what is now Valley Boulevard.

Remarkable as all this was, however, the piece ended, “still the great want of the age is yet to be accomplished” as “the great Pacific Railroad yet remains to be built,” this meaning the transcontinental railroad.” The News observed that “it is a measure of vast and incalculable benefits to the people of every section of our country, and should, without further delay, receive the attention of the Government.” It was in spring 1869 that the transcontinental line was finally completed.

The News of 6 June addressed the telegraphic project is several short dispatches, commenting that the Butterfield firm was to add a Pony Express on its line once the telegraph was brought to the Angel City. It was added, based on information provided by P&A superintendent, James Street, that the express service could be running as soon as a month after the telegraph line was installed.

Street, moreover, informed the paper that “a sufficient number of poles will arrive from Santa Cruz to San Pedro about the 11th . . . to complete the telegraph line from this city to Visalia, as he was led to believe the route was open from San José to that San Joaquin Valley burg. This meant, optimistically, “by the 4th of July we shall have a continuous line from the city to San Francisco” and it was remarked that “they are working energetically to put the line through as soon as possible” with a group of workers starting from Los Angeles to construction the section to Fort Tejon, established in the mountains to the north about 75 miles a half dozen years earlier.

The News was asked by Street to spread the word that laborers were needed for the project, while readers were exhorted, “it is to be hoped that the citizens of Los Angeles will come forward promptly in aiding the progress and completion of the telegraph to this place.” For context, it commented,

Our business men have cause to rejoice in the bright future that awaits them. Our gold and silver mines are gradually pouring their precious ore into our midst, and all branches are fast rising from the depression which has borne them down. The telegraph company will employ a large party of men, and their supplies will be obtained from this place.

In the post-Gold Rush period, starting about 1855, conditions, hampered by a lack of demand for local beef cattle (while more palatable breeds were increasingly imported from places like Texas) worsened with the onset of the Depression of 1857, the worst in two decades. So, the hope in summer 1860 that matters were certain to improve should be borne in mind when we discuss the post-telegraph environment.

Two days later, Fred MacCrellish, editor of the San Francisco Alta newspaper and secretary of the P&A, arrived on the Senator for a few days’ visit and “expressed himself much pleased” with Los Angeles. The next day, under his name and that of President Reuben E. Raimond, an advertisement stated that local resident Henry N. Alexander “is authorized to receive subscriptions and assessments” on account of the telegraphy firm.

In its number of the 20th, the News relayed Street’s optimism that the line would be finished and messages received and transmitted by Independence Day and two days later the paper reported that a schooner arrived at San Pedro from the Santa Cruz area with telegraph poles to be placed on the route to Fort Tejon. On the 27th came news that the segment to Visalia was finished nine days prior, while two teams came to Los Angeles with Phineas Banning as the freighter, though his name was not mentioned, only his usual motto of “accustomed promptness.” After a few days, the materiel was to be sent to the Mission San Fernando, while Street indicated he would soon be in the area to proceed with the installation.

Consistent reporting in the News and Star during July gave the impression that completion was imminent, though the 4th of July estimate was far too ambitious and that day’s News amended the estimated completion date to the middle of the month. Two days after that, Street arrived in the city “from the end of the line” in the San Joaquin Valley and told the media “he had extended the poles as far as Fort Tejon, but the wire had not yet been stretched on them.” The Star of the 7th recorded that two-and-a-half tons of wire arrived by the Senator, while adding that “the poles are distributed from above as far [as] Fort Tejon” and Banning handling the conveying of those items, with it insisted that completion of the line could happen within ten days.

In its issue of the 11th, the News informed readers that “three loads of telegraph poles, and forty coils of wire” were coming through town from San Pedro for distribution, with the helpful detail that, from the north,

The line will follow the Los Angeles river, after reaching San Fernando, to this city, and enter town by the Mission road and Aliso street.

The Star of the 21st provided the update that “the holes for the telegraph posts will be completed into the city this evening,” while poles placed south of Tejon at Reed’s ranch and were being distributed from San Fernando to the Angel City. The paper asserted that “everything will be ready for the wire in a week or two.”

On the 27th, however, the News remarked that, while post holes were dug “and the poles are probably all set,” there was a problem as “it is much feared that there will not be a sufficiency of wire to reach this city.” This meant a major delay because more of the material would have to be sent from the East, because Street was unable to procure any in San Francisco. This substantial setback led the Star of the following day to comment:

We have so often announced the near approach of the telegraph, that we will hazard conjectures of completion no longer, and merely report progress. It is said the supply of wire will fall short of the quantity required to reach this city, and that the company have had to send to Sacramento for a further supply. We are promised the “lightning” in about three weeks; if it is not here by that time, we will [only] announce further progress.

In fact, Sacramento was not a source for wire either and it was a few weeks later that the News of 17 August professed ignorance of any new news, while Street reported that 20 tons were on a clipper ship sailing around the Horn of South America to San Francisco, while another five tons were being transported by steamer. The paper concluded with the hope that, once the wire in transit arrived, “the electric current [will] speed uninterruptedly between the metropolis of our coast,” that is, San Francisco, “and the ‘cow counties’,” of southern California, meaning, Los Angeles.

It was, in fact, nearly two more months before the wire arrived and completion of construction commenced. MacCrellish returned on 4 October, with the next day’s News stating “we understand the Telegraph line is now complete from San Francisco to this city, and will be in working order on Monday” the 8th. The Star of the 6th, cautious as it was, could now report that “within a few hours, not days, we will be within speaking distance of San Francisco.” MacCrellish and Street were “hard at work getting up the poles along the street, fitting up the office, etc. A later update appended to the article marked the arrival of Raimond and offered that “our citizens should mark their appreciation of the event, by some suitable demonstration.”

The inauguration of telegraph service was held on the 8th, with the News two days later running a headline of “TELEGRAPH COMPLETED!” as well as the strange subhead of “The Country Safe” and “MUSIC—’YANKEE DOODLE!'”. The paper then pronounced that,

On Monday night, the first dispatch came flashing over the wires, announcing that communication was established between this city and San Francisco. It is a great event, and one to be remembered in ages yet to come. The obstacles which the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company have had to encounter, would have daunted stouter hearts; but when it is remembered that the company is composed of such men as Raimond, MacCrellish and Street, who know no such word as fail, wonder ceases.

At 10 p.m., Mayor Henry Mellus, who died the day after Christmas, sent a brief message to Henry F. Tesemacher, chair of the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors with the brief greeting of,

Allow me, on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles, to send you greetings of fellowship and good feeling, on the completion of the line of telegraph, which now binds the two cities together.

In reply, Tesemacher stated, “on behalf of the citizens of San Francisco, I congratulate Los Angeles, trusting that the benefit may be mutual.” The News added that it was understood that the transcontinental telegraph line was to be along a southern route, so “it is to be hoped that our citizens will rally at once in aid of [the P&A line] eastward,” but, with the outbreak of the Civil War just months away, the cross-country line, when finished on 24 October 1861 at Salt Lake City (presaging the transcontinental railroad completed nearby at Promontory under eight years later), of course, went north.

The paper also remarked that,

Many of our citizens have done nobly, and aided materially in this great enterprise. Among them we find the name of John Temple, Esq., as stockholder to the amount of a number of thousand dollars.

A pole placed east of the city as precursor to the work that ended up forestalled was ceremonially placed by Milton Latham, who was elected governor, but really wanted to be appointed United States Senator after a vacancy following the incumbent’s death in a duel with a former California Supreme Court justice, served only nine days before resigning to accept that national position. Lieutenant Governor John G. Downey of Los Angeles then ascended to the top spot and served for not quite two years, being the first southern California resident to hold that job.

Notably, there was mention in 1860 of San Bernardino wanting to soon be set up for telegram service as part of the planned eastern extension, but it had to wait a baker’s dozen of years for that to happen. The route, however, was quite circuitous. In 1870, a telegraph connection was made from Los Angeles to Anaheim (shortly afterward Telegraph Road was established along this route and much of its exists today.)

In April 1873 came the news from the Anaheim Gazette that a project to connect Anaheim to San Bernardino was underway starting at the beginning of the year and conducted by Western Union. This firm, in 1866, bought the California State Telegraph Company, which acquired the Pacific and Atlantic several months after the Los Angeles line was completed.

In early August, the paper learned that the route was chosen “through the Xacal canyon to Slaughter’s, and thence on an air [straight] line to San Bernardino, passing a short distance to the north of the Jurupa hills,” though it was added that this was not yet approved. The reference to “Xacal” appears to mean Soquel Canyon, one of three such examples that terminate at their western extremities in the Orange County city of Brea near Carbon Canyon Regional Park.

The final route, however, was a canyon, the name of which apparently is not known before it was dubbed Telegraph. Hikers entering Chino Hills State Park from the Discovery Center on Carbon Canyon Road can walk for several miles through this canyon. Continuing through the park to its eastern limits, there is a Slaughter Canyon with the 71 Freeway meeting Butterfield (yup, named for the stage route mentioned above) Ranch Road and Euclid Avenue. Just to the north, along Pomona-Rincon Road, the old highway and road from Los Angeles to Yuma, Arizona, is the Yorba-Slaughter Adobe, with longtime owner Fenton M. Slaughter being the namesake of the canyon.

The telegraph line from Anaheim to San Bernardino was finished in short order (apparently with no issue with poles or wire) and, on 18 September 1873, the latter city’s Guardian celebrated that “THE TELEGRAPH COMPLETED!!” The first message was sent from the former to Western Union superintendent James Gamble and included, “San Bernardino greets the rest of the world by telegraph! The Western Union is just completed to this place!”

Telegraphy remained a very common form of communication, even as the telephone came into being in 1876, until about the Roaring Twenties, though telegraph lines were utilized for teleprinters by news agencies, as well as for wire transfers of funds. In late January 2006, Western Union ended its telegram and commercial messaging offerings, though one might look at the telegram as the texting of its time.