Connecting Oregon: The Slow Road to Rapid Communications, 1843–2009

Abstract

 OHQ vol. 111, no. 2 Frank Dillow Connecting Oregon© 2010 Oregon Historical Society The Slow Road to Rapid Communications, 1843–2009 Times were tough on the Missouri frontier in the spring of 1846. Land speculation fueled an economic collapse, which led to bank failures. Farmers, unable to sell their crops, faced foreclosure. Oregon’s land, free for the taking, beckoned James Brown, who, along with his wife Lucinda and two-year-old son Matt,left behind his Missouri home onApril 11,joining the estimated 1,200 emigrants streaming west that summer.1 Many adorned their wagons with banners proclaiming “all of Oregon,” reflecting their support of President James K. Polk’s threats to England to end the two nations’joint occupation of the Oregon Country.2 On October 15, six months after leaving Missouri, Brown settled his family on their square-mile donation land claim along the banks of Silver Creek,land that would become the northern end of Silverton.3 Today, it is hard to imagine just how isolated life was for newcomers to Oregon like the Brown family. In June, shortly after they left Missouri, Polk signed a treaty with England, separating American Oregon from British Canada. Oregonians would not learn about the change until November,nearlyamonthaftertheBrowns’arrival.WithnoAmericanpostal service in Oregon until 1847, after the end of joint United States–British occupation of the area, travelers to or from Oregon carried communications , including mail, newspapers, money, legal documents, and supplies, to be delivered when they arrived.4 As the Lewis and Clark Expedition had discovered, there was no“direct and practicable”route to shorten the miles separating Oregon from the rest of the nation.5 But distance was not the only obstacle. Because information traveled no faster than the person who carried it, even a few words took months to hand deliver across the two thousand miles between Missouri and Oregon.  Dillow, Oregon Communications, 1843–2009 New communication technologies, however, would eventually reduce and then eliminate time and distance from the equation of information delivery.With limited resources in Oregon,it took local commitment to add each innovation, although changes were frequently financed by the federal government or national corporations. In Oregon’s rural areas, small town entrepreneurs and do-it-yourself farmers, including the Browns, cobbled together their local systems. Their contributions can be measured in generations . Matt Brown became one of Silverton’s first postmasters. His son Percy founded the town’s telephone company. Percy’s son and grandsons expanded the business until it was acquired by a national holding company, eventually becoming part of Verizon, one of the largest telecommunication giants in the world. Even before the Browns left Missouri, the seeds for Oregon’s future communications were being planted in Washington, D.C. As Congress John M. Shively became Oregon’s first “Special Postal Agent” in 1847, with his Astoria home becoming the first post office west of the Rocky Mountains. The U.S. Post Office Department contracted with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to deliver mail from the East Coast. OHS digital no. bb004585  OHQ vol. 111, no. 2 rushed toward adjournment in February 1843, heatedly debating whether to establish military occupation in Oregon to expel the British, Samuel F.B. Morse requested $30,000 to develop his new device, the telegraph. Amid jovial bloviation comparing the “lightening powered” telegraph to hypnotism or speaking to the dead,Congress,in the last hour of the session,approved his request. Fifteen months later, Morse tapped out a sequence of dots and dashes,propelled by electricity through copper cables he had built from his office in the capitol to Baltimore, forty-four miles away. Arriving almost instantly, the signals were translated into the now-famous message,“What Hath God Wrought?” using his own Morse Code.6 The following year, the Post Office Department declined Morse’s offer to sell them his telegraph for $100,000.Similarly, Congress rejected his request for $100,000 to extend the line to NewYork,instead offering $8,000 for continuing operations to Baltimore.Disappointed,Morse organized the Magnetic Telegraph Company and built the first lines connecting Baltimore to New York in 1846. By the time the Browns settled into their...