Who Founded Western Union?

Hiram Sibley helped organize the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in 1851. He led the consolidation that produced Western Union in 1856 and became its first president. He also backed construction of the transcontinental telegraph line, completed in 1861.

Hiram Sibley was born in 1807 in North Adams.

Sibley was born on February 6, 1807 and died on July 12, 1888. He was also a philanthropist.

Ezra Cornell (1807-1874) built early telegraph lines and merged his holdings into the 1856 consolidation that formed Western Union. He became one of its largest shareholders and later used that wealth to co-found Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Cornell was born on January 11, 1807 and died on December 9, 1874. He co-founded Cornell University and served as president of the New York Agriculture Society and as a New York State Senator. Ezra Cornell was born in 1807.

Samuel Selden co-founded the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in 1851 alongside Hiram Sibley (this company was later renamed Western Union). Selden held the absolute critical patent rights to the House printing telegraph, providing the foundational legal and technological monopoly that allowed the company to rapidly consolidate the incredibly fragmented early telegraph industry.

Samuel Selden was born in 1800 in Lyme.

Jeptha Wade built telegraph lines in the Midwest and brought them into the 1856 Western Union consolidation. He helped organize the western part of the transcontinental telegraph effort and later served as president of Western Union.

Jeptha Wade was born in 1811 in Romulus.

Jeptha Homer Wade was born on August 11, 1811 in Romulus, New York, and died on August 9, 1890. He was a portrait painter and made early daguerreotypes before taking an interest in the telegraph after moving to Adrian, Michigan, in 1840.