The First Telegraph Company in Texas

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The first telegraph company in Texas was chartered in 1854 in Marshall, Texas. In those early days, telegraph wires were strung from treetop to treetop, which meant that  telegraph operators frequently had to closed their offices and ride along the lines to repair them when the wind swaying the trees caused breaks in the wires. By 1870 there was an estimated 1,500 miles of telegraph wire in Texas. But, in the way of the world, telephones supplanted the telegraph and by 1943 the Western Union Telegraph Company, which had begun operating in Texas in 1866, was the only telegraph company still operating in the state. The last telegraph office to close was, ironically, in Marshall in 1972.  After 118 years of operating in Texas, a technology that had at one time seemed like a miracle ---- instant communication over hundreds of miles? impossible! ---- was gone. 

I don't have any photos of the old telegraph office in Marshall, but here's a shot of Logan and Whaley hardware from about 1910.  The store was in business for 133 years, closing in 2017.