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24-670: Even though they succeeded in making the deliveries, they did not get the contract. They went bankrupt after the Transcontinental Telegraph opened in October 1861, as its competition eliminated the need for some mail service. Majors supplied rail ties for the crews of the Union Pacific Railroad working on the First transcontinental railroad . After the railroad was completed, he continued to haul freight to towns not yet served by

48-565: A 15-year-old lad named Billy Cody, later known as Buffalo Bill . Cody became one of his most famous Pony Express riders. In 1853, Majors was awarded federal contracts to haul supplies to United States Army posts along the Santa Fe Trail. Majors helped establish the Kansas City, Missouri stockyards. This became a center of marketing and shipping beef from Texas and the Southwest by railroad to

72-491: A terrain that was not always inviting. California Chief Justice Stephen Field sent one of the first messages from San Francisco to Abraham Lincoln , using the occasion to assure the president of California's allegiance to the Union . The construction coincided with Civil War combat to the southeast. The entire cost of the system was half a million dollars (equivalent to $ 17 million in 2023). Difficulties did not stop with

96-575: The Confederacy during the Civil War . The exact location of the due north-south California– Nevada border, between Lake Tahoe and the intersection with the southern boundary of Oregon at the 42nd parallel , was contentious and was surveyed and re-surveyed well into the 20th century. Congress transferred some of the lands west of the Colorado River including Pah-Ute County, Arizona Territory to

120-571: The Mississippi River . A second significant step was the passing of the Telegraph Act by Congress in 1860, which authorized the government to open bids for the construction of a telegraph line between Missouri and California and regulated the service to be provided. Eventually, the only bidder would be Sibley, because all competitors—Theodore Adams, Benjamin Ficklin and John Harmon—withdrew at

144-572: The Pony Express obsolete, which officially ceased operations two days later. The overland telegraph line was operated until 1869, when it was replaced by a multi-line telegraph that had been constructed alongside the route of the first transcontinental railroad . Nevada Territory The Territory of Nevada (N.T.) was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it

168-530: The 1860s. For comparison, in 1841, the news of the death of President William Henry Harrison had taken 110 days to reach Los Angeles . After the development of efficient telegraph systems in the 1830s, their use saw almost explosive growth in the 1840s . Samuel Morse 's first experimental line between Washington, D.C. , and Baltimore —the Baltimore-Washington telegraph line —was demonstrated on May 24, 1844. By 1850 there were lines covering most of

192-572: The California system. James Gamble , an experienced telegraph builder in California, was put in charge of the western crew, and Edward Creighton was responsible for the eastern crew. From Salt Lake City , a crew in charge of James Street advanced westward, and W.H. Stebbins's crew eastward toward Fort Kearny. Creighton's crew erected its first pole on 4 July 1861. When the project was completed in October 1861, they had planted 27,500 poles holding 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of single-strand iron wire over

216-482: The East Coast and Midwest. In 1854, he teamed up with William B. Waddell and William Hepburn Russell . Majors was responsible for the freighting part of the business, Waddell was to manage the office, and Russell was to use his Washington DC contacts to acquire new contracts. Waddell chose be a silent partner, so the firm was initially called "Majors and Russell". In the 1850s, their firm Russell, Majors and Waddell and

240-652: The Missouri River. In Westport, Majors operated a meat-packing plant. It supplied the trains with cured pork, soap and candles. For 15 years Majors and his far-flung interests were highly successful. In about 1860, their freight firm, later to become "Russell, Majors and Waddell," formed the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company to try to get the federal contract to deliver mail between Missouri and California. The contract had previously been held by Butterfield Overland Mail , which delivered

264-453: The State of Nevada on May 5, 1866. Part of this southern tip of Nevada was established as Clark County in 1909 and contains the city of Las Vegas . The territorial capital was moved from the provisional capital of Genoa to Carson City . James Warren Nye succeeded Isaac Roop , the first provisional territorial governor, and became the only territorial governor. The secretary of the territory

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288-418: The completion of the project. Keeping it in operation faced multiple problems: (a) inclement weather in the form of lightning bolts, strong winds, and heavy snow damaged both poles and the wire; (b) rubbing on the poles by bison from time to time sent down sections of the telegraph, eventually contributing to their demise; (c) the system had to be rerouted through Chicago to avoid Confederate attempts to cut

312-518: The discovery of more gold deposits. These eastward shifts took land away from Utah Territory . The southern border of Nevada Territory had been defined as the 37th parallel , but in 1866 Nevada asked Congress to move the border south to the Colorado River. Congress granted the request in 1867, giving Nevada all of the western end of Arizona Territory . Arizona strongly protested, but found little sympathy in Congress due in part to Arizona having aligned with

336-483: The eastern states, and a separate network of lines was soon constructed in the booming economy of California. California was admitted to the United States in 1850, the first state on the Pacific coast. Major efforts ensued to integrate California with the other states, including sea, overland mail pioneered by George Chorpenning , the Pony Express , and passenger services such as Butterfield Overland Mail . Proposals for

360-642: The last minute. Later they joined Sibley in his effort. Similar to the first transcontinental railroad , elimination of the gap in the telegraph service between Fort Kearny in Nebraska and Fort Churchill in Nevada was planned to be divided between teams that would be advancing the construction in opposite directions. The Pacific Telegraph Company would build west from Nebraska and the Overland Telegraph Company would build east from Nevada's connection to

384-621: The line in Missouri to disrupt communications among Union forces; (d) Native Americans soon started to do the same farther west as part of their hostilities with the Army. Financially, the first transcontinental telegraph was a big success from the beginning. The charge during the first week of operation was US$ 1 (equivalent to about $ 34 in 2023) per word, whereas the Telegraph Act of 1860 had specified 30 cents. The telegraph line immediately made

408-535: The mail in 25 days or more over a route that went through the South. With sectional tensions on the rise, Majors and his colleagues proposed to deliver the mail over a central route through Salt Lake City, Utah and proposed doing it in 10 days, via a horse relay they called the Pony Express . By 1865, Majors sold out what little remained of his business and moved to Colorado. Thirty years later, his former young wagonmaster and Pony Express rider, Buffalo Bill , found him. He

432-677: The railroad. Alexander Majors was born October 4, 1814, in Franklin, Kentucky . In 1820, his family moved to the Missouri Territory , settling in the Sni-A-Bar Creek . On November 6, 1836, he married Catherine Stalcup. In 1848, Alexander Majors started hauling overland freight on the Santa Fe Trail . On his first trip, he set a new time record of 92 days for the 1564-mile (2500 km) round trip. Eventually he employed 4,000 men, including

456-515: The rest of the Utah Territory . The eastern boundary of Nevada Territory had been defined as the 39th meridian west from Washington , but when gold discoveries were made to the east the Nevada territorial delegation to Congress requested the boundary be moved east to the 38th meridian , which Congress granted in 1862. The border was shifted further east, to the 37th meridian , in 1866, in part due to

480-479: The short-lived Pony Express were major businesses, contributing to the growth of Kansas City. Majors' Overland Stage Company was part of a wide network that reached into the frontier West. Fifteen years later, changes in transportation had put the company out of business. On the Missouri side of State Line at 81st Street, Majors built a two-story frame farmhouse in 1855. (later a museum.) From there, wagon trains headed west loaded with goods from his warehouse located on

504-586: The subsidy of a telegraph line to California were made in Congress throughout the 1850s, and in 1860 the U.S. Post Office was authorized to spend $ 40,000 per year to build and maintain an overland line. The year before, the California State Legislature had authorized a similar subsidy of $ 6,000 per year. Construction of the first transcontinental telegraph was the work of Western Union , which Hiram Sibley , Jeptha Wade , and Ezra Cornell had established in 1856 by merging companies operating east of

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528-528: Was a line that connected the existing telegraph network in the eastern United States to a small network in California , by means of a link between Omaha , Nebraska and Carson City , Nevada , via Salt Lake City . It was a milestone in electrical engineering and in the formation of the United States . It served as the only method of near-instantaneous communication between the east and west coasts during

552-578: Was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada . Prior to the creation of the Nevada Territory, the area was part of western Utah Territory and was known as Washoe , after the native Washoe people. The separation of the territory from Utah was important to the federal government because of its political leanings, while the population itself was keen to be separated because of animosity (and sometimes violence) between non-Mormons in Nevada and Mormons from

576-636: Was old, ill and penniless. Cody helped him, taking Majors on as part of the Cody Wild West show. Majors lived at Cody's Scouts' Rest Ranch in North Platte, Nebraska for a time. Majors died in Chicago , Illinois, on January 13, 1900, aged 85. He is buried in Union Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri . First transcontinental telegraph The first transcontinental telegraph (completed October 24, 1861)

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