The Mormon Telegraph Line
Communication Across the Utah Territory
The Latter Day Saints (Mormons) took an active role in building the cross-country telegraph line. Timber was scarce in the mountains of Utah; more than a decade of Mormon settlement had denuded the easily accessible woods. Nor was labor available without Mormon assistance. Mormon historian Leonard Arrington argued that cooperation from Utah officials, which meant the church, was essential if the project was to succeed. Western Union quickly struck a deal with Brigham Young, the LDS Prophet. In exchange for $11,000 in gold, Brigham Young agreed to provide labor and materials for the section of telegraph line running across Utah.
Brigham Young and Technology
The experience of building a telegraph line quickly proved valuable. Brigham Young immediately began making plans to build what was surely the first church-owned public utility. Brigham Young’s personality directly influenced the course of Utah history. In this case, the important part of his personality was his love for technology. A look at his 1869 letter book at Utah State University reveals his interest in a number of items, some useful, some not. He corresponded with the makers of underwater pumps, cracker-making machines, gargling oil and something called a “lambs knitting machine.” In an Oct. 27, 1868 letter to the inventors of a “Steam Water Lifter,” Young wrote, “I am deeply interested in every improvement made in labor saving machinery.” Many religious leaders shun new technology through innate conservatism, but Brigham Young was as much a pragmatic pioneer leader as he was a Prophet, and was ready to embrace the new.
Young recognized that the time for a telegraph in Utah had arrived. In a circular published by the Deseret News in 1864, Young reminded his bishops and presiding elders throughout the Utah Territory of the importance of a telegraph system. In the missive, Young announced that “the proper time has arrived for us to take the necessary steps to build the telegraph line to run north and south through the territory….” In 1866, the Saints began running telegraph wire after Brigham Young purchased the necessary equipment.
Funding and Building the Mormon Telegraph
In the decentralized tradition of early Mormonism, each settlement was responsible for the financing of its own lines. As was the custom in Utah, calling for tithes became the means to accomplish the task. Utah remained in an essentially barter economy, so when the call went out to the Saints to help build the telegraph, contributions came in all forms. In St. George, church clerk James G. Bleak recorded that tithing for the telegraph totaled $1,573.33, of which $890 was in pledges of labor. Bleak called the remaining $683.33 “cash,” but indicated that most of that were actually promises of supplies, particularly poles.
Armed with commitments of labor and supplies, the Saints began work, cutting logs for the telegraph poles during the winter and hauling them into place in the spring. Arrington records that by December 1867, 500 miles of lines fused Utah's far-flung hamlets. From the main office at Salt Lake City, which was connected to the larger national Western Union system, lines ran north to Logan and Ogden and south, to St. George.
As was every other large operation in early Utah, the construction of the line was financed by the church. The Deseret Telegraph Company, which was the corporation that supported the telegraph, was only incorporated on January 18, 1867, well after construction began. All of the initial shareholders were powerful figures in the church. Brigham Young was the largest shareholder. The telegraph was an arm of the LDS Church.
The line operated for thirty-three years and never declared dividends. When the company operated in the red, as it usually did, debt was paid from tithe money. In exchange, the Deseret Telegraph carried church business free of charge. The company also gave preferred rates to residents of Utah. Compared to its national peer, Western Union, Deseret Telegraph was considerably friendlier to the community of which it was part.
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