[Newspaper]
Publication: Daily Alta California
San Francisco, CA, United States
vol. 13, no. 4103, p. 2, col. 2
The Overland Telegraph—Its Speedy Construction.
The construction of the Overland Telegraph has been in the minds of our people for some considerable time, and several efforts have been made by companies to construct the line giving us instantaneous communication with the East. At this particular juncture, considering the agitated state of the public mind consequent upon the disturbed condition of our beloved land, the completion of the line from San Francisco to St. Louis would be a great desideratum. We are now some nine or ten days distant from the East, even with the aid of the Pony Express and telegraph, and by the time the news from the other side reaches us, circumstances may have changed the entire aspect of things. This state of affairs will very soon be regulated, as the Overland Telegraph Company have just completed a regular organization, which will push, at the utmost speed, the construction of the telegraph line from. Carson City to Salt Lake, at which point it will meet the Eastern division now building by the company organized to push the line out from Fort Kearny.
At a meeting of the corporation of the Overland line, the following officers and directors were elected: President, H. W. Carpentier; Vice President, J. Mora Moss; Treasurer, R. E. Brewster; General Superintendent, James Gamble; Secretary, — Miller: Directors, H. W. Carpentier, J. Mora Moss, D S. Roberts, James McDonald, R. E. Brewster, Frederick MacCrellish and I. M. Hubbard Executive Committee, H. W. Carpentier, J. Mora Moss and Frederick MacCrellish.
Mr. James Street, the engineer and builder of the Los Angeles line, has been appointed general agent for the company ; will locate the line, and have the general supervision and management of the construction, and Mr. I. M. Hubbard, who has had experience, also, in telegraph work, has been appointed as acting master of building. Mr. Street will proceed at once to Carson Valley, and thence to Salt Lake to make the necessary arrangements for getting out the poles, purchase of teams, and make all the requisite provisions for the speedy construction of this great enterprise. It is confidently expected, by the first of December next, to have a direct communication by telegraph with the States east of the Rocky Mountains.
The slack of the Overland Telegraph Company is being rapidly taken up by substantial citizens, promising as it does a more than ordinary return on the investment, owing in part to the advantageous arrangement with the Eastern Companies, and in the view of the entire consolidation of all the telegraph lines in this State. There can be no doubt but that a large business will be done over this trans-continental line. The avidity with which the news it at present received, being, at it is, at least nine days old when it reaches us, is an earnest of what will be the feeling when instantaneous communication is effected. Speed the work we say, that the readers of the Alta may enjoy the rich feast, every morning, of digesting the Eastern news, which we will lay before them but few hours old.
