M. B. Clark was born in Malmsbury, England, September 6, 1827. From early
boyhood until he was nearly of age he was employed in all the various
occupations of an agricultural district. About this time the United
States, as a promising country for the working man, was attracting
considerable notice in his native village, and young Clark, being
favorably impressed with reports from America, secretly resolved to
husband his means and follow the example of those who had recently gone.
In the Spring of 1847, he left home with but barely sufficient means for
the expenses of the journey. On the 17th of June in that year he landed at
Boston, amidst martial music and parade of military, celebrating the
battle of Bunker's Hill. This, however, was but poor consolation to the
English lad, who found himself penniless and friendless. He used every
effort to find employment without success, and in the meantime was obliged
to sleep wherever night overtook him. At last he obtained work on a farm,
in the little town of Dover, Massachusetts, at ten dollars per month. He
remained in this situation until October, when, with the regrets of his
employer, he left for the West.
On arriving in Ohio, he first obtained employment at chopping wood and
teaming, in Lorain county. In the following Spring he returned to
Cleveland and obtained a situation as helper in a hardware store. Here it
became apparent to him that he was sadly deficient in an educational point
of view, and that it offered an almost insuperable barrier to his
advancement in life. To remedy this, so far as possible, he devoted all
his leisure hours to study, and on the establishment of the evening
schools the following winter, he availed himself of them, and the
advantage soon became apparent.
With a view to the improvement of his circumstances, in 1851, he engaged
himself to Hussey & Sinclair, with whom he remained six years, when he
returned to his former employers, Otis & Co., and remained with them three
years longer.
In 1859, he established himself in the commission business, associating
with him John D. Rockefeller, the firm name being Clark & Rockefeller;
both young men of limited means. By strict attention and honorable conduct
they soon built up a lucrative business. In 1860, G. W. Gardner became a
member of the firm, and continued as such for two years, when he retired.
In 1863, Mr. Clark's attention was attracted to the manufacture of
petroleum oils, a business then in its infancy. In connection with his
partners, he erected a factory on the Newburg road, the capacity of which
was about fifty-six barrels of crude oil per day. They soon discovered
that there was money in the enterprise, and before the end of the year
they had increased the capacity of their works four-fold; and the
enterprise of this firm has aided materially in making Cleveland what it
is to-day, the successful rival of Pittsburgh in the manufacture of
petroleum oils. In 1865, the manufacturing branch was purchased by his
partner, and the general commission business was continued by Mr. Clark
until 1866, when he sold out his interest, remaining nominally out of the
business until June of that year, when he wearied of idleness and sought
active business once more. Purchasing the controlling interest in another
refinery, he set to work, vigorously, enlarging the capacity of the works
and bringing capital and energy to bear with such effect upon the business
of the firm, that it now ranks among the leading oil refining
establishments of the country.
[Illustration: Yours Respectfully, M. B. Clark]
Mr. Clark has been no niggard with the wealth that has accrued to him
from his business. During the war he contributed liberally and was active
in aiding the cause of the government by giving every practical measure
his cordial and generous support. In other matters he has manifested a
like liberal spirit. In politics he has acted with the Republicans, and
has been active in furthering the success of that party. In 1866, he was
elected member of the city council from the fourth ward, and was
re-elected in 1868. In religions matters he has always connected himself
with the Wesleyan Methodists, and has been a leading supporter of that
congregation in Cleveland.
Still in the vigor of life, Mr. Clark has the opportunity of doing much
more for the prosperity of the city by increasing the manufacturing
business, and this his practical nature leads him to do.
It will be seen that Mr. Clark has been the architect of his own
fortune. His sympathies are with the industrial classes, from which he
sprang, and in return he has the confidence and good will of a large
portion of that class.
Mr. Clark was married in 1853, and has a family of five children.
Jacob Lowman.
Jacob Lowman was born in Washington county, Maryland, Sept. 22, 1810. He
worked with his father on the farm until he was eighteen, at which time he
became an apprentice to the smithing department of the carriage building
trade. At the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1832, he came to Ohio.
He stopped in Stark county for a few months, and then came to Cleveland,
in search of work, which he readily obtained, with Elisha Peet, on Seneca
street, where Frankfort street now intersects it. He worked about a year
and a half, for which he received nine dollars per month and board. Being
of steady habits, he saved in that time about seventy-five dollars. Mr.
Lowman then bought out his employer, and commenced at once on his own
account, at the same place. After two years, he built a shop where the
Theatre Comique now stands, and remained there eight years. At first he
labored alone, after awhile he had one journeyman, soon adding still
another, and another, till, at the end of the eight years, he employed
about fifteen men. He then removed to Vineyard street, having built shops
there to accommodate his increasing business. This was about the year
1842--3. After moving to the new buildings, his business constantly grew
with the city, and more men were employed. In 1851, Mr. Lowman commenced
the erection of a still larger building to meet his increasing demands; he
was then employing from thirty-five to forty men. About this time too, he
associated with him Mr. Wm. M. Warden, who had then been in his employ for
about ten years. Their facilities were sufficient till about the time of
the war, when they erected a large brick building on Champlain street, now
occupied as a smith shop, trimming shop, store room, etc., since which
they have employed about sixty men. Mr. Lowman, for a number of years, did
little beside a local trade, but for the last five or six years he has
built up quite a large foreign trade, shipping West extensively--Wisconsin,
Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana and Kentucky, being
the principal markets.
Mr. Lowman has been strictly temperate all his life. He has taken a lively
interest in the Sunday schools of the city, in connection with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been a member nearly since he
came to the city.
He was married in 1841 to Miss Minerva E. Peet, by whom he had four
children, three of whom are now living--the oldest son being in business
with his father. He suffered the loss of his partner in life in 1857. He
married again in 1863, to Mrs. Sarah D. Goodwin, of Lorain county, Ohio,
formerly of Vermont.
He attributes his success in business to the fact that he had an object in
view, and endeavored to attain it, strict attention to business, economy,
and studying to give satisfaction by his work.
He is only fifty-eight years of age, and well preserved, and in all
human probability will live to enjoy the fruit of his labor for many
years to come.
[Illustration: Yours Truly W. G. Wilson]
W. G. Wilson.
W. G. Wilson, now president of the Wilson Sewing Machine Company of
Cleveland, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, on the first of
April, 1841. His education was obtained at a village school house. When he
was in his thirteenth year his parents removed to Ohio, and the lad
remained with them until his eighteenth year, when he left home with a
somewhat indefinite idea of doing something for himself, although
possessing neither money nor friends to aid him in his start in life.
Until the year 1864, he wandered from place to place, turning his hand to
various employments, but was dissatisfied with them all, being convinced
that he had not yet found his right vocation or location.
In 1864, he was visiting some friends at Madison county, Ohio, when his
attention was attracted by a cheap sewing machine. Believing that money
could be made by the sale of such machines he purchased one, mastered its
mode of operation, and took a traveling agency. Finding this a more
profitable business than any he had yet undertaken, he prosecuted it with
vigor, and being of an inquiring mind, soon picked up important facts
concerning the business, the manufacture of the machines, and the profits
of the manufacturers and dealers. He discovered that the largest profits
were not made by those who retailed the machines, and, therefore, he set
to work to change his position in the business and so enlarge his profits.
In Fremont, Ohio, he formed the acquaintance of a young man in the grocery
business, who had thought at times of entering on the sewing machine
trade. A partnership was formed. Mr. Wilson contributed his whole
available means, sixty-five dollars, to which he added the experience he
had gained, whilst his partner contributed to the common stock three
hundred dollars. With this slender cash capital, but abundant confidence
in their success, the new firm came to Cleveland, which they selected as
the base of their operations on account of its superior shipping
facilities, and opened a wareroom in Lyman's Block, having previously made
arrangements with manufacturers in Massachusetts to make machines for
them. The new firm of Mather & Wilson were successful beyond their
expectations.
About a year had been passed in this way when suits were brought against
Mather & Wilson, in common with a number of other parties throughout the
West, for an alleged infringement of a sewing machine patent. Under the
pressure of these suits, which were prosecuted with a large capital to
back up the litigating parties, Mr. Wilson endeavored to secure the
co-operation of the more powerful of the defendants, but without success,
each party preferring to fight the battle singly. After a hard fight in
the courts, a compromise was effected, the suit against Mather & Wilson
withdrawn on each party paying his own costs, and they were allowed to
carry on the business unmolested.
Shortly afterwards Mr. Wilson sold out his interest in the firm. A few
weeks subsequently he made an agreement with H. F. Wilson, whereby the
latter was to perfect and patent a low priced shuttle machine, and assign
the patent to the former. In two months the machine was in the patent
office, and in 1867 the manufacture was commenced in Cleveland. No money
or labor was spared in perfecting the machine, which achieved an instant
success and became exceedingly profitable.
In 1868, the Wilson Sewing Machine Company was organized with a paid up
capital of one hundred thousand dollars, the principal portion of their
stock being owned by Mr. Wilson, who is president of the company. The
business of the concern has grown until it now reaches five hundred
machines per week, and branch houses have been established in Boston and
St. Louis, with general agencies in the principal cities of the United
States. Through the rapid development of their business the company have
recently purchased a tract of land at the junction of Platt street and the
Pittsburgh railroad crossing, in Cleveland, for the purpose of erecting a
large building for the manufacture of their sewing machines, that will
give employment to between two and three hundred men.
The Wilson Sewing Machine Company is one of the latest established
manufactories in Cleveland, but promises to take rank among the most
important. It deserves especial mention among the record of Cleveland
enterprises, as producing the first local sewing machine that has
succeeded, although many attempts have been made.
Albert C. McNairy.
This department of the present work would be imperfect without a reference
to the firm of McNairy, Claflen & Co., which ranks among the heaviest and
most important contracting firms in the country.
Albert C. McNairy, the head of the firm and a man of great enterprise and
energy of character, was born June 14, 1815, at Middletown, Connecticut,
and was early engaged in work of a similar character to that now
undertaken by the firm. In 1848, he constructed the famous Holyoke Dam,
across the Connecticut river at Holyoke, which is over a thousand feet
between the abutments, and thirty feet in height. In 1851, he became a
member of the bridge building firm of Thatcher, Burt & Co., of Cleveland,
whose operations in the construction of bridges were very extensive. In
1864, the firm name became McNairy, Claflen & Co., by the admission of
Henry M. Claflen, who had been in the employ of the firm since 1854. In
1866, Mr. Thatcher and Mr. Burt retired and Harvey T. Claflen, (who had
been connected with the establishment since 1852,) and Simeon Sheldon
were admitted.
From 1851 to a recent date, the Howe Truss Bridge was nearly the only
bridge made by the concern. They now are largely engaged in the
construction of iron bridges and all kinds of railway cars. The concern
has built three thousand two hundred and eighty-one bridges--about sixty
miles in the aggregate. The streams of nearly every State east of the
Rocky Mountains are spanned by their bridges, and it is a historical fact
that not one bridge of their construction has fallen.
Three hundred and fifty men are employed by the firm, and the aggregate of
their business reaches two millions of dollars yearly.
The firm is now constructing the New York and Oswego Midland
Railroad, from Oneida to Oswego, a distance of sixty-five miles, and
furnishing the cars.
The general management of the affairs of the company is in the hands of
Messrs. McNairy and Henry M. Claflen. The management of the works is
assigned to Harvey T. Claflen, whilst the engineering department falls to
the particular superintendence of Mr. Sheldon. The Messrs. Claflen are
natives of Taunton, Massachusetts, and Mr. Sheldon of Lockport, New York.
J. H. Morley.
J. H. Morley is a native of Cayuga county, New York. He came to Cleveland
in 1847, and commenced the hardware business on Superior street, under the
firm name of Morley & Reynolds. This firm continued, successfully, for
about twelve years, after which, for some time, Mr. Morley was engaged in
no active business. In 1863, he commenced the manufacture of white lead,
on a limited scale. Three years subsequently, a partnership was formed
with T. S. Beckwith, when the capacity of the works was immediately
enlarged. Every year since that time they have added to their facilities.
Their factory has a frontage on Canal and Champlain streets, of over three
hundred feet. Their machinery is driven by a hundred horse-power engine,
and four hundred corroding pots are run. About one thousand tons of lead
are manufactured yearly, and find a ready market in Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Iowa and New York.
Telegraphy.
The telegraphic history of Cleveland is mainly written in the story of the
connection with this city of the two leading telegraphers whose
biographical sketches are given in this work. The master spirit of the
great telegraphic combination of the United States, and the chief
executive officer of that combination, have made Cleveland their home and
headquarters. Their story, as told in the immediately succeeding pages, is
therefore the telegraphic history of Cleveland.
Jeptha H. Wade.
Foremost on the roll of those who have won a distinguished position in the
telegraphic history of the West, is the name of Jeptha H. Wade, until
recently president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and who still,
although compelled by failing health to resign the supreme executive
control, remains on the Board of direction, and is one of the leading
spirits in the management.
Mr. Wade was born in Seneca county, New York, August 11, 1811, and was
brought up to mechanical pursuits, in which he achieved a fair amount of
success. Having a taste for art, and finding his health impaired by the
labors and close application consequent on his mechanical employment, he,
in 1835, turned his attention to portrait painting, and by arduous study
and conscientious devotion to the art, became very successful. Whilst
engaged in this work, the use of the camera in producing portraits came
into notice. Mr. Wade purchased a camera, and carefully studied the
printed directions accompanying the instrument. These were vague, and
served but as hints for a more careful investigation and more thorough
development of the powers of the camera. By repeated experiments and
intelligent reasoning from effects back to causes, and from causes again
to effects, he at length became master of the subject, and succeeded in
taking the first daguerreotype west of New York.
When busy with his pencil and easel taking portraits, and varying his
occupation by experimenting with the camera, news came to him of the
excitement created by the success of the telegraphic experiment of
building a line between Baltimore and Washington. This was in 1844. Mr.
Wade turned his attention to the new science, studied it with his
accustomed patience and assiduity, mastered its details, so far as then
understood, and immediately saw the advantage to the country, and the
pecuniary benefit to those immediately interested, likely to accrue from
the extension of the telegraph system which had just been created.
Without abandoning his devotion to art, he entered on the work of
extending the telegraph system. The first line west of Buffalo was built
by him, between Detroit and Jackson, Michigan, and the Jackson office was
opened and operated by him, although he had received no practical
instruction in the manipulation of the instruments. In the year 1848, an
incident occurred, which, though at the time he bitterly deplored it as a
calamity, was, in fact, a blessing in disguise, and compelled him
perforce to embark on the tide which bore him on to fame and fortune. He
was an operator in the line of the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company,
at Milan, Ohio, when a conflagration destroyed all the materials and
implements forming his stock in trade as a portrait painter. After a
brief consideration of the subject, he decided not to replace the lost
implements of his art, but to cut loose altogether from the career of an
artist, and hereafter to devote himself solely to the business he had
entered upon with fair promise of success.
[Illustration: Very Truly Yours, J. H. Wade]
The first years of telegraph construction were years of much vexation of
spirit to those engaged in such enterprises. Difficulties of all kinds,
financial, mechanical, and otherwise, had to be encountered and overcome.
There were those who objected to the wires crossing their land or coming
in proximity to their premises, fearing damage from the electric current
in storms. Those who had invested their capital wanted immediate large
returns. Some of those who had to be employed in the construction of the
lines were ignorant of the principles of electrical science, and their
ignorance caused serious embarrassments and delays. Defective insulation
was a standing cause of trouble, and telegraphers were studying and
experimenting how to overcome the difficulties in this direction, but
without satisfactory result. In the face of all these difficulties, Mr.
Wade proceeded with the work of extending and operating telegraph lines.
In addition to the interest he had secured in the Erie and Michigan line.
he constructed the "Wade line" between Cleveland via Cincinnati, to St.
Louis, and worked it with success. The "House consolidation" placed Mr.
Wade's interest in the lines mentioned in the hands of the Mississippi
Valley Printing Telegraph Company, and before long this consolidation was
followed by the union of all the House and Morse lines in the West, and
the organization of the Western Union Telegraph Company. In all these acts
of consolidation the influence of Mr. Wade was active and powerful.
Realizing the fact that competition between short detached lines rendered
them unproductive, and that in telegraphing, as in other things, union is
strength, he directed his energies to bringing about the consolidation,
not only of the lines connecting with each other, but of rival interests.
The soundness of his views has been proved by the unremunerativeness of
the lines before consolidation and their remarkable prosperity since.
Mr. Wade was one of the principal originators of the first Pacific
telegraph, and on the formation of the company he was made its first
president. The location of the line, and its construction through the
immense territory--then in great part a vast solitude--between Chicago and
San Francisco, were left mainly to his unaided judgment and energy, and
here again those qualities converted a hazardous experiment into a
brilliant success. Mr. Wade remained president of the Pacific Company
until he secured its consolidation with the Western Union Telegraph
Company, to accomplish which, he went to California, in the latter part of
1860, and succeeded in harmonizing the jarring telegraphic interests
there. On the completion of this consolidation, Mr. Wade was made
president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, his headquarters being
in Cleveland.
At a meeting of the Board of Directors, in July, 1867, a letter was
received from Mr. Wade, declining a re-election to the office of
president. The following resolutions were unanimously adopted by
the Board:
_Resolved_, That in receiving the letter of J. H. Wade, Esq., declining
re-election to the presidency of this company, we cannot pass it to the
officiai files without recording our testimony to the distinguished
service he has rendered to the general system of American Telegraphs,
and especially to the company whose management he now resigns.
Connecting himself with it in its earliest introduction to public use,
and interesting himself in its construction, he was the first to see
that the ultimate triumph of the telegraph, both as a grand system of
public utility, and of secure investment, would be by some absorbing
process, which would prevent the embarrassments of separate
organizations.
To the foresight, perseverance and tact of Mr. Wade, we believe is
largely due the fact of the existence of one great company to-day with
its thousand arms, grasping the extremities of the continent, instead of
a series of weak, unreliable lines, unsuited to public wants, and, as
property, precarious and insecure.
_Resolved_, That we tender to Mr. Wade our congratulations on the great
fruition of his work, signalized and cemented by this day's election of
a Board representing the now united leading telegraph interests of the
nation, accompanied with regrets that he is not with us to receive our
personal acknowledgements, and to join us in the election of a successor
to the position he has so usefully filled.
Office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, New York, July
10th, 1867.
William Orton, President.
O. H. Palmer, Secretary.
As before mentioned, Mr. Wade remains a director and leading spirit in the
Board, where his suggestions are listened to with respect and acted on
without unnecessary delay. In addition to his connection with the
telegraph Company, Mr. Wade is heavily interested in several of the most
important manufactories, in the railroads, and in the leading banks of
Cleveland. The wealth he has accumulated is mostly invested in such a
manner as to largely aid in building up the property of Cleveland, a city
in which he feels a strong interest, not only from the fact that it has
been for the past twenty years his place of residence, but that the wealth
enabling him to enjoy the beautiful home he has secured there, was made in
Cleveland.
It has already been noted that Mr. Wade, when a painter, took the first
daguerreotype west of New York. Soon after his entering upon the business
of telegraphy, he put into practice, for the first time, the plan of
enclosing a submarine cable in iron armor. It was applied to the cable
across the Mississippi, at St. Louis, in 1850. Weights had been applied
to the previous cables, at regular distances, on account of the sand,
change of bottom, drifts, and other difficulties that interfered with the
safety of the cable. Mr. Wade conceived the idea of combining weight and
protection in the cable itself. He constructed it with eighteen pieces of
wire, placed lengthwise around the cable, and bound together with soft
iron wire at intervals. While the spiral cordage of hemp, such as was
used at that time on the cable from Dover to Calais, would stretch, and
allow the strain to come on the cable itself. This invention caused the
strain to come on the armor. It was a complete success, and lasted until
the line was abandoned. Mr. Wade also invented, in 1852, what is now
known as the Wade insulator, which has been used more extensively,
perhaps, than any other.
Among the strong points in Mr. Wade's character, is his readiness and
ability to adapt himself to whatever he undertakes to do. The evidence of
his common sense, business foresight and indomitable perseverance, has
been proved by the success attending the various pursuits in which
circumstances have placed him. Finding, in early manhood, his mechanical
labor undermining his health, he turned his attention to portrait and
miniature painting, to which he applied himself so close that after a
dozen years or more at the easel, he was compelled to abandon it and seek
more active and less sedentary pursuits. Having so long applied himself to
painting--the business of all others the most calculated to disqualify a
man for everything else--but few men would have had the courage to enter
so different a field, but Mr. Wade seemed equal to the task, and with
appropriate courage and renewed energy grappled with the difficulties and
mystories of the telegraph business, then entirely new, having no books
or rules to refer to, and without the experience of others to guide him,
and having, as it were, to climb a ladder, every round of which had to be
invented as he progressed. But nothing daunted him. Through perseverance
and system he succeeded, not only in supplying the United States in the
most rapid manner with better and cheaper telegraphic facilities than has
been afforded any other country on the globe, but in making for himself
the ample fortune to which his ability and energy so justly entitle him.
And when care and over-work in the telegraph business had made such an
impression upon his health as to induce him to retire from its management,
and give more attention to his private affairs, he was again found equal
to the emergency, and has proved himself equally successful as a financier
and business man generally, as he had before shown himself in organizing
and building up the telegraph speciality.
Anson Stager.
One of the most widely known names in connection with telegraphy in the
West--and not in the West alone, but probably throughout the United
States--is that of General Anson Stager. From the organization of the
Western Union Telegraph Company, General Stager has had the executive
management of its lines as general superintendent, and the position has
not only brought him into close relations with all connected in any way
with the telegraph, but has given him a larger circle of business
acquaintances than it falls to the lot of most men to possess. The natural
effect of his position and the extraordinary course of events during his
occupation of that position, have brought him into communication, and
frequently into intimate confidential relations, with the leading men in
commerce, in science, in journalism, in military affairs, and in State and
national governments.
[Illustration: Very Respectfully Yours, Anson Stager]
Anson Stager was born in Ontario county, New York, April 20, 1825. At the
age of sixteen he entered a printing office under the instruction of Henry
O'Reilly, well known afterwards as a leader in telegraph construction and
management. For four or five years he continued his connection with the
"art preservative of all arts," and the knowledge of and sympathy with
journalism which he acquired through his connection with it during this
period of his life, enabled him during his subsequent telegraphic career
to deal understandingly with the press in the peculiar relations it holds
with the telegraph, and has occasioned many acts of courtesy and good will
which the managers of the press have not been backward in recognizing and
acknowledging.
In October, 1846, General Stager changed his location from the
compositor's case to the telegraph operator's desk, commencing work as an
operator in Philadelphia. With the extension of the lines westward, he
removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and then crossed the Alleghenies to
Pittsburgh, where he was the pioneer operator. His ability and
intelligence were speedily recognized by those having charge of the new
enterprise, and in the Spring of 1848, he was made chief operator of the
"National lines" at Cincinnati, a post he filled so well that, in 1852, he
was appointed superintendent of the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph
Company. Immediately following his appointment to that position the
company with which he was connected absorbed the lines of the New York
State Printing Telegraph Company, and General Stager's control was thus
extended over that State.
Whilst holding the position of executive manager of the lines of this
company, the negotiations for the consolidation of the competing and
affiliated lines into one company were set on foot. General Stager warmly
favored such a consolidation on equitable terms and set to work vigorously
to promote it. On its consummation, and the organization of the Western
Union Telegraph Company his services in that respect and his general
fitness as a telegraph manager, were recognized by his appointment as
general superintendent of the consolidated company. The position was, even
then, one of great responsibility and difficulty, the vast net work of
lines extending like a spider's web over the face of the country requiring
a clear head, and practical knowledge to keep it free from confusion and
embarrassment, whilst the delicate and complicated relations in which the
telegraph stood with regard to the railroads and the press increased the
difficulties of the position. The rapid extension of the wires increased
the responsibilities and multiplied the difficulties yearly, but the right
man was in the right position, and everything worked smoothly.
The extensive and elaborate System of railroad telegraphs which is in use
on all the railroads of the West and Northwest owes its existence to
General Stager. The telegraphs and railroads have interests in common, and
yet diverse, and the problem to be solved was, how to secure to the
telegraph company the general revenue business of the railroad wires, and
at the same time to enable the railroad companies to use the wires for
their own especial purposes, such as the transmission of their own
business correspondence, the moving of trains, and the comparison and
adjustment of accounts between stations. How to do this without confusion
and injustice to one or the other interest was the difficult question to
be answered, and it was satisfactorily met by the scheme adopted by
General Stager. That scheme, by the admirable simplicity, complete
adaptability and perfection of detail of its system of contracts and plan
of operating railroad telegraph lines, enabled the diverse, and seemingly
jarring, interests to work together in harmony. Telegraph facilities are
always at the disposal of the railroads in emergency, and have repeatedly
given vital aid, whilst the railroad interests have been equally prompt
and active in assisting the telegraph when occasion arises.
The relations between the journalistic interests of the country and the
telegraph, through the various press associations for the gathering and
transmission of news by telegraph, have also given occasion for the
exercise of judgment and executive ability. The various and frequently
clashing interests of the general and special press associations and of
individual newspaper enterprise, and the necessity, for economical
purposes, of combining in many instances the business of news gathering
with news transmission, make the relations between the press and telegraph
of peculiar difficulty and delicacy, and probably occasioned not the
smallest portion of General Stager's business anxieties. It is safe to
say, that in all the embarrassing questions that have arisen, and in all
the controversies that have unavoidably occurred at intervals, no
complaint has ever been made against General Stager's ability, fairness,
or courtesy to the press.
Whilst the Western Union Telegraph Company has been developing from its
one wire between Buffalo and Louisville into its present giant
proportions, General Stager has had a busy life. His planning mind and
watchful eye were needed everywhere, and were everywhere present. The
amount of travel and discomfort this entailed during the building of the
earlier lines may be imagined by those who know what a large extent of
country is covered by these lines, and what the traveling facilities were
in the West before the introduction of the modern improvements in railway
traveling, and before railroads themselves had reached a large portion of
the country to be traveled over.
With the breaking out of the rebellion, a new era in General Stager's life
commenced. With the firing of the first rebel gun on Fort Sumpter, and the
resultant demand for troops to defend the nation's life, the Governors of
Ohio, Illinois and Indiana united in taking possession of the telegraph
lines in those States for military purposes, and the superintendent of the
Western Union Telegraph Company was appointed to represent these in their
official capacity. General Stager acted with promptness and vigor, and no
small share of the credit accorded to those States for the promptness with
which their troops were in the field and striking effective blows for the
Union, is due to General Stager for the ability with which he made the
telegraph coöperate with the authorities in directing the military
movements. When General McClellan took command of the Union forces in West
Virginia and commenced the campaign that drove the rebels east of the
mountains, General Stager accompanied him as chief of the telegraph staff,
and established the first system of field telegraph used during the war.
The wire followed the army headquarters wherever that went, and the enemy
were confounded by the constant and instant communications kept up between
the Union army in the field and the Union government at home. When General
McClellan was summoned to Washington to take command of the Army of the
Potomac, General Stager was called by him to organize the military
telegraph of that department. This he accomplished, and remained in charge
of it until November, 1862, when he was commissioned captain and assistant
quartermaster, and by order of the Secretary of war, appointed chief of
the United States Military Telegraphs throughout the United States--a
control that covered all the main lines in the country. He was
subsequently commissioned colonel and aid-de-damp, and assigned to duty in
the War Department, and was also placed in charge of the cypher
correspondence of the Secretary of War. The cryptograph used throughout
the war was perfected by him, and baffled all attempts of the enemy to
translate it. At the close of the war he left the active military service
of the government, retiring with the brevet of Brigadier General,
conferred for valuable and meritorious services.
At the close of the war the Southwestern and American Telegraph Companies
were consolidated with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and a
re-organization of the latter company effected. The general
superintendency of the Consolidated company was urged upon General Stager,
but as this would necessitate his removal to New York, he declined it,
preferring to live in the west. For a time he meditated retiring
altogether from the telegraph business and embarking in newspaper life,
for which his early training had given him a taste, and towards which he
always maintained an affection. Eventually the company persuaded him to
remain in connection with them, and to suit his wishes, the field of the
company's operations was divided into three divisions, the Central,
Eastern and Southern. General Stager assumed control of the Central, which
covered the field with which he had so long been identified, and which
left him with his headquarters in the home he had for years occupied, in
Cleveland. Early in 1869, the duties of his position rendered it necessary
that he should remove to Chicago, which he did with great reluctance, his
relations with Cleveland business, and its people, being close and
uniformly cordial.
General Stager is a man with a host of friends and without, we believe,
one enemy. His position was such as to bring him into contact with every
kind of interest, and frequently, of necessity, into conflict with one or
other, but his position was always maintained with such courtesy, as well
as firmness, that no ill feeling resulted from the controversy, however it
terminated.
Socially he is one of the most genial of companions; in character the
personification of uprightness and honor; firm in his friendships and
incapable of malice toward any one. Well situated financially, happy in his
domestic circle, of wide popularity, and possessing the esteem of those
who know him best, General Stager is one of those whose lot is enviable,
and who has made his position thus enviable by his own force of character
and geniality of disposition.