The telegraph in Ogle County

Kurt Wolter
Posted 5/13/25

Communication technology is the phenomenon that occurs when humans control their lives using tools, machines, knowledge, & resources by sending and receiving messages to other humans or machines.

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The telegraph in Ogle County

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Communication technology is the phenomenon that occurs when humans control their lives using tools, machines, knowledge, & resources by sending and receiving messages to other humans or machines. It is worthwhile to learn about communication technology systems because they have great influence over us and the rest of the world. Communication technology shapes and controls our lives, and by understanding more about these systems we can adapt to them and make choices about how they affect us. This understanding can start with having a general knowledge of their history and how they work.

All communication technology involves messages. These messages are composed of data, which is a general term used to describe the smallest pieces of the message content. If we think of a message as if it was a puzzle, the data are the puzzle pieces. By themselves, the puzzle pieces represent only the color or object they are a part of, while the entire puzzle is the entire message. It’s only when combined in an organized way with all its pieces in their proper place that the whole message makes sense and provides its information.

As I discussed in a previous article, the telegraph emerged during the mid-1800s as a new, nearly instantaneous process to move a message over a long distance. Before that, nearly all messages needing to be transmitted over long distances were encoded on paper as letters and numbers and then moved physically by horseback or stagecoach or sailing ship. The telegraph machine enabled a skilled telegraph operator to encode data into electrical pulses of dots and dashes (the data bits) which were sent over wire circuits strung up on telegraph poles to transmit the bits to their destination. There, they were decoded by another telegraph operator in real time as they “arrived”. Interestingly, telegraph operators could recognize other operators based upon the style of their dots and dashes!

Telegraph communication technology arrived in Chicago in 1848. At this time the city was a young metropolis, and lots of its residents needed to communicate with people on the East Coast. Chicago developed rapidly along with the railroads, and its location near the Great Lakes and gateway proximity to the growing West made it a center of communication need. By 1858, the Chicago Board of Trade received real time market news and pricing from New York City. By the 1880s it was a central hub in the nation-wide telegraph network, and it was second only to New York in the number of messages transmitted. Farmers looking to maximize their profit for grain and commodity could use this pricing information to their benefit and the telegraph was a way to deliver that data.

Railroad companies quickly recognized the immense value of the telegraph for managing their complex operations over increasing distances, utilizing it for tasks such as coordinating train schedules, ensuring the safe passage of trains, and relaying crucial information about traffic and broken tracks. Because it was very efficient to place telegraph wire lines and poles along railroad tracks as the new tracks were laid, and because railroad terminals were also hubs of commerce and transportation, most railroad stations throughout Illinois were also telegraph offices. Many towns that developed around the railroad depots have the word, “center” added to their names because they were indeed centers of transportation as well as communication.

Here in Ogle County, the Ogle & Carroll County railroad chartered in 1857, eventually connecting Rochelle to Oregon in the spring of 1871. Although specific evidence of a telegraph was not found, the Biographical Record of Ogle County, Illinois (1899) includes a mention of a telegraph operator working in Harper, Ogle County, as early as 1857. In 1854 the Air Line railroad arrived in Rochelle (then Lane) which later became part of the Chicago and North Western Railway. And the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad connected Rochelle to Galena, a major city at the time, by 1855. In Lee County, the Dixon Evening Telegraph, a prominent newspaper, was founded in 1851 and included the name of the technology which it used to bring news, sports, and world events to those hungry for information from outside of our area.

As railroad stations typically housed telegraph offices, the first telegraph office in Rochelle was likely situated within the Air Line Railroad (later Chicago North Western) depot. Other depots for other railway companies, such as the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, suggest a continued growth and expansion of telegraph services in Rochelle, mirroring the development of its rail infrastructure.

The Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company played a crucial role in the early development of telegraph networks in our region. Formed in the early 1850s, this regional company established communication routes across Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. With its connections to Ottawa, Illinois, the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company was a likely early provider of telegraph service to Ogle County, before Western Union's complete consolidation of the market. By the 1850s, the telegraph industry saw the formation of six major regional monopolies, including the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company, indicating its significant footprint in the Midwest. Over time, however, Western Union continued its expansion, eventually absorbing many of its competitors, including the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company, to become the leading telegraph provider in the nation.

But just as all good things usually come to an end, the telegraphs days as the hot new communication technology were numbers. Another new thing, the telephone, was going to become the next “must have” technology. Hang on the line for more information about that in the future!

Kurt Wolter has studied and taught technology, including production, transportation, energy, and communication, for over 30 years. He enjoys trying to understand technology and its past, present, and future while also attempting journalism. He can be reached at technohistory100@gmail.com.