Montreal Telegraph Company: Connecting With All the Principal Cities and Towns in Canada and the United States [Price List]

Montreal: Montreal Telegraph Company, nd. (c.1860s). Advertisement printed on recto side of a single sheet of green paper, measuring 260 x 200mm, with black print and border. Two faint horizontal fold lines, otherwise near fine condition. The Montreal Telegraph Company was the first Canadian telegraph company of significance. n 1847, early telegraph pioneer Orrin S. Wood was recruited to be president of the company, which rapidly established telegraph lines to Toronto and Quebec City from Montreal, and then New York by August 1847. The company's operations grew to 1,900 miles of line during the 1850s, and to 12,400 miles of line by 1870. Wood had technical expertise, but was not an established businessman in Canada, so Hugh Allan became president in 1852, and Wood continued as superintendent. This price list has a message in the upper portion from Wood, with the title of superintendent, which makes it likely to be from the 1860s or 70s, as the company eventually lost its dominant position, and was integrated into Western Union in the early 1880s. 1860