In 1843, Morse secured permission for his Magnetic Telegraph Company to build an experimental line along the Baltimore & Ohio right-of-way between Baltimore and Washington. Foreshadowing the development of buried fiber optic cable, at the B&O's Mount Clare Shops, a special machine was designed to plow a trench and bury a lead-pipe containing the telegraph wires in one operation. When it was discovered that the wire inside the conduit had not been properly insulated, the entire line was restrung" on above-ground wooden poles, which eventually became the standard method of stringing the wire.
On May 24, 1844, the world's first telegraph message, 'What Hath God Wrought,' which was written by Anne Ellsworth, daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, was sent over the line by Morse. The next day, a telegram was sent from Washington to the Baltimore 'Patriot.'" Thus, the commercial use of the telegraph began on the railroad right-of-way.
Although telegraph companies became aware almost at once of the advantages to be derived from constructing their lines along the railroad, the restrictions with which the Baltimore & Ohio hedged its first telegraph agreement gave evidence that the railroad, far from seeing any value in the telegraph, barely suffered it to build along the railroad right-of-way. In fact, many less liberal railroads refused to be bothered with electric wires along their roadbeds."
That the telegraph was the natural complement of the railroad had been quickly recognized in Europe, where a system of train dispatching by telegraph had been brought into actual operation as early as 1839. The railroads using this system had been free from accidents arising from trains meeting or overtaking each other even though they were single track lines. American railroads experiencing almost daily accidents involving serious damage and, in some instances, loss of life were reluctant to trust the telegraph for the movement of their trains. Due to its slipshod construction, pioneer telegraphy in the United States was not very dependable.
The first train official to realize the potential of the telegraph and demonstrate it in the safe running of trains was Charles Minot, superintendent of the New York & Erie Railroad. As Minot watched the progress of the first commercial telegraph line through the Erie territory in 1849, it occurred to him that this new means of communication could be useful to his railroad. He asked his board of directors to grant the telegraph company a right-of-way along the Erie track from New York to the Great Lakes. The board laughed at him and declared it to be an absurd idea. He persisted and overcame their objections by suggesting an arrangement that would later become the standard of most railroads: clerks and depot masters would serve as telegraph operators so that there would be no extra cost to the railroad for unlimited use of the telegraph line.
The telegraph was used primarily to report train loads and reduce the waste of time and money spent in transferring loads. Trains were still running strictly by the timetable system in which an "inferior" train would have to wait at assigned turnouts for their meeting times with a "superior" train, even if the "superior" train were hours late. In the summer of 1851, Minot happened to be on "inferior" trains which had been waiting for several minutes for the "superior" train to meet and pass. He became impatient and stepped into the commercial telegraph office at the station and wired the next station to stop the "superior" train when and if it arrived. His engineer refused to move the train, so Minot ran the train to the next station, where the procedure was repeated until the "superior" train was met several stations down the line. Within weeks, all Erie trains were controlled by the telegraphed orders of a train dispatcher. Within a few years, most railroads adopted the practice of telegraphic train control.
During the 1850's, the advocates of a railroad-telegraph alliance gradually overcame the indifference or hostility of conservative railway managements. One railroad after another turned to the telegraph as an operations aid. Most new railroads had telegraphic lines built along their new rights-of-way. "The telegraphic service generally gave priority to the needs of the railroad, with the station agent also serving as the commercial representative of the telegraph company. The revenues resulting from the commercial usage were divided between the railroad and the telegraph company."
The partnership of wire and rail was not a one-sided affair. "Telegraph leaders found that lines constructed along railroad rights-of-way and allied with the railroads by favorable contracts were in such a strong position that rivals could not compete successfully with them." During the 1860's, the welding of telegraph and railroad interests began to be carried out extensively. The railroads needed fast and reliable communications both on and beyond their systems. The telegraph companies "sought rights-of-way which were easily and quickly accessible to repair crews (unlike those that meandered along bumpy rural highways or through forest, field, and swamp), and cheap operator labor and office facilities. Both partners satisfied their needs through the franchise agreements. 'By a division of expenses, and a joint use of line and offices,' the Boston Herald explained in 1883, 'vast areas of country are made tributary at a very small expense to the revenues of the telegraph company, while the low cost of maintenance of the lines on roads so frequently traversed, and under constant surveillance is an advantage that is obvious.'"
In general, the early contracts stipulated that the telegraph company was to supply poles and wire for the entire line, both for itself and for the railroad, and Morse instruments at certain specified stations which it believed would be valuable commercially; and it would maintain the main battery for working the wire day and night. If the railroad company desired telegraph connection at any additional stations, it was to furnish its own machinery and local battery.
The railroad company was to transport all poles, wire, and other equipment where needed for building the line, and pay $30 per mile for the original construction and instruments. It would also transport poles, wire, etc., thereafter for repairs, and would provide free transportation to officers and employers of the telegraph company when on business.
The railroad company was to instruct its men to watch the line, straighten and reset poles, mend wires, and report to the telegraph company. The railroad company agreed not to send any messages free except for its own agents on its own business. All receipts for messages at offices opened on the line of the railroad, by either party, were the property of the telegraph company. The two companies were to reciprocate in the use of wires when those of either were out of order, but the railroad wires were never to be interrupted when sending railroad business.
Finally, the railroad company was not to allow any other telegraph company to build a line upon its property.
It was these railroad contracts, entered into during the 1850's an 1860's, which made the position of Western Union almost unassailable. By 1866, it had acquired 340 telegraph companies. By the 1880's, more than three-fourths of the nation's railroads had such agreements with Western Union and 80 percent of the country's messages pulsed along Western Union wires connecting 12,386 offices. Most Western Union operators were employees of the hundreds of railroads with which the firm had its franchise contracts. Western Union operators made up only about a third of all those sending and receiving the company's business. Likewise, close to 80 percent of Western Union's offices were local railway stations which, under the franchise contracts, performed double duty as train stations and commercial telegraph facilities.
These early proposals were not accepted, but by November, 1846, the Washington and New Orleans Company was incorporated and began construction of a telegraph line. The Company thought it advisable to build along the route of the railroad that connected Washington D.C. with New Orleans. Soon thereafter a rival company entered the field and the race to complete a line to New Orleans began in earnest. When the wires had to leave the railroad right-of-way, they followed the stage coach road or the levee whenever possible.
Thus, the first commercial telegraph line was built in the antebellum south. In 1875, the Louisiana Telegraph Company was organized. It elicited much local newspaper comment as the incoporators attempted to obtain stock subscriptions from local citizens in order to finance the line. The following is an article found in the Donaldsonville Chief of August 7, 1875:
A company has been organized in New Orleans under the name of the Louisiana Telegraph Company, which is to begin the erection of a telegraph line from New Orleans to Shreveport. ... the wire will extend along the track of the New Orleans & Texas Railroad to Bayou Goula.
Similar articles appeared in the St. James Sentinel, the Opelousas Journal, and the Opelousas Courier, which noted: "...and we see no reason why it should not prove a paying institution to the Company as well as a great convenience to the public."