The invention of the telegraph opened up a whole new world of communication throughout the world, including Pennsylvania. A detailed story on the arrival of the telegraph in the Susquehanna Valley was presented on January 21^st, 1949, before the Union County Historical Society by George Schnure. “The Susquehanna and North Branch and West Branch Telegraph Company was created by an Act of Assembly by the State of Pennsylvania on April 9, 1840, five years after the first telegraphic message had been flashed over a crude wire line between Baltimore and Washington by Samuel Morse, containing the now historic words: "What hath God wrought!"

The newly chartered telegraph company was created "for the purpose of making, using, and maintaining telegraph lines from where the Susquehanna River intersected the boundary line between the State of Pennsylvania and Maryland, along the Susquehanna River and the Pennsylvania Canal to the intersection of the North Branch at the New York line; also from the intersection of the West Branch at Northumberland to the city of Erie.

 In each county where the telegraph crossed, certain individuals were known as incorporators. William Cameron, Abbott Green, George Schnabel, and Henry C. Eyer represented Union County. William Forsyth, James Pollock, J. C. Horton, Alexander Jordan, of Northumberland; William McKelvey, and William Brundage, of Columbia, were named.

Meanwhile, the magnetic telegraph was nearing the Forks of the Susquehanna as on March 30. 1850, the Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal says, "The Telegraph line is now extended from Mauch Chunk to Berwick and through Bloomsburg to Danville."

It appears that the people of Bloomsburg were required to subscribe $1600 to the stock of the new enterprise to secure an office. At Danville, there will be two offices, we understand, one of them exclusively for the Montour Iron Company.

It seems that on December 6, 1850, a telegraph meeting was held at Lewisburg when $1800 was subscribed for stock, Northumberland and Milton subscribing the balance of a total of $4600. The latter town states the telegraph reached there in 1850, the first office being at the corner of Broadway and Upper Front Street. After a few years, it was removed to the office of the Miltonian when the editor became the operator.

The first telegraph office in Northumberland was established in 1851 and the first regular operator was Miss Agnes Forsyth, later the wife of Rev. Isaac Cornelison. She was succeeded by her sister, Mary Alice Forsyth, and later by Miss Harriet Wenk. In 1871, J. J. Howell was in charge.

 An office was opened in McEwensville in 1851 but was discontinued in 1862 on account of lack of patronage. May 26, 1851, the telegraph wire was brought into Lewisburg and before night a message was dispatched to Philadelphia and an answer received," says (historian John Blair Linn). The issue of the Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal of June 7, 1851, says: "The magnetic telegraph has been extended to this place. The line went into operation on Wednesday (June 4). The office is at the Post Office on Market Square.

Under the date of August 9, 1851, the same paper states: "The Telegraph at this place is doing a fair business and pays now more than six percent on its construction, besides being of great convenience to the public. The rates, too, are very reasonable-not much more than letter postage was six years ago. The telegraph might be used even more frequently to good advantage. The operator at this place, our young friend, Samuel J. Packer, is one of the most skillful and experienced on the line."

Schnure told the gathering, “Selinsgrove received a pre-Christmas present on December 15, 1852, when the wire reached town and the office opened in the Shindel and Wagenseller Drug Store. The first operator was Sylvanus Wenck. J. G. L. Shindel, later Associate Judge, became the first regular operator and was followed by his son, R. H. Shindel. The office continued until it burned out in the Big Fire of February 21, 1872. After this fire, the office was removed to the railroad station on High Street. The wires were first strung along Market Street and, were part of the line running along the west shore of the Susquehanna River between Northumberland and Clarks Ferry, with offices intervening at Liverpool, McKees Half Falls, Port Trevorton, and Selins;5rove.

Editor Lumbard of the Snyder County Tribune has preserved some good anecdotes of the first wire into this county. "William Gaugler sent the first message to Sunbury. The office was crowded with our people to witness the important event. There were a great many amusing incidents that took place in connection with the line and office here. Judge Shindel related several of them to us. Upon one occasion, old Aunty Selin, who lived opposite him, was in the store, purchasing groceries, when a thunderstorm was raging. A telegraph pole below town was splintered by a bolt as a report like a pistol shot was heard in the office. Aunty Selin said, "Oh! My! Mr. Shindel, was that a message coming?" The judge informed her that it was a dispatch from a source he did not like, and she departed, satisfied that the telegraph was a wonderful invention.

Old Squire Riblet, one of the Justices, was greatly exercised over the fact that the wires ran around the insulators. He couldn't see how they could get the mailbags around the poles.”

The instruments used were the old kind, the keys making impressions upon paper, which was coiled around a receiving wheel, the latter operating when switched into the message wire.”

Followers of my website Susquehanna Footprints may remember my story of the Lewistown Pennsylvania woman, Elizabeth Cogley, who was one of the first female telegraphers for the Pennsylvania Railroad. When the Civil War broke out, she handled two important communications, one involving President Lincoln, and the second, from Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin. Susquehanna Footprints.

So where does the telegraph find itself in the 21^st Century? With the internet, emails, iPhones, and other advanced forms of communication, has it gone the way of the Pony Express?

Western Union sent its last telegram on January 27, 2006, but it still operates as a money transfer service nationally and internationally.

International Telegram Company took over Western Union and is still delivering telegrams daily. Its website reports that 17 million telegrams are still delivered every year. Telegraph offices are still found in many countries.

And Morse Code is very much alive. It’s used by amateur radio operators and is still used for air navigation beacons. Also, think of this, a person needs no form of electronics to communicate through Morse code. With a blink of an eye, and the tapping of fingers or feet, the message can still be sent and received.