The Last Telegraph

As you may have heard in recent news stories, Western Union has just sent their last telegram message. From the Western Union website: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative."
No word on the content of the very last telegram.

But, did you know?? The world's first telegram was sent on May 24, 1844 by inventor Samuel Morse. The message, "What hath God wrought," was transmitted from Washington to Baltimore. In a crude way, the telegraph was a precursor to the Internet in that it allowed rapid communication, for the first time, across great distances. In the following year (1845), the first commercial telegraph line in the USA completed at Lockport. On May 1, 1844 the inventor of the telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse sent the first message over the first telegraph line strung from Baltimore to Washington (announcing the nomination of Henry Clay for President). This was an experimental demonstration line. The first commercial line in the USA was built from Lockport to Buffalo the next year and was activated on November 6, 1845. George H. Boughton was the early telegrapher who, from his Express office in downtown Lockport (just west of today's Municipal Building on Canal Street) sent a message to Buffalo giving the results of the Lockport election. The wire went south out of Lockport along Transit Road to Williamsville and then into Buffalo. By 1849 the line was extended east out of Lockport to Rochester and another line from Lockport hugged the south shore of Lake Ontario and extended east eventually reaching Montreal, Canada. Lockport was an early communications hub!

Western Union Telegrams
http://www.westernunion.com/info/osTelegram.asp

Era End: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060201/sc_space/eraendswesternunionstopssendingtelegrams

Lockport's Points of Pride
http://www.lockport-ny.com/Tourism/pride.htm