Western Union Company
1851-present
Western Union was founded in 1851 in Rochester, New York, as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. In 1856 the company merged with the New York & Western Union Telegraph Companies (owned by Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University in New York), and became the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1861 the company completed building the first transcontinental telegraph line across North America. American inventor and instrument maker George Phelps was a key employee and important part of Western Union's early history.
In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, which eventually ended Western Union’s dominance of long-distance communication. Western Union attempted to establish a competing telephone system but withdrew in 1879, acknowledging Bell's superior patents. The company continued to manufacture telephone equipment.
Western Union provided telegraph, telegram, teletype, satellite and other communication services well into the 20th century. In 1988, the Western Union Telegraph Company became the Western Union Corporation, providing money transfers and financial services as their primary business. They have offices all over the United States and around the world.