The Telegraph Arrives in Aberdeen
A Western Union crew arrives to modernize the city's connection to the outside world.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last Saturday F. B. Hubbard, in charge of a force of twenty men, arrived in the city, and this week they began the work of running into the city the telegraph lines on the Western Union's poles. Heretofore the company has been using the poles of the old telephone company. The line will cross the Wishkah River by a cable under the river, at the Heron Street bridge. A similar cable will be built across the Chehalis by the bridge, and the line built on down to Ocosta. The force is provided with a regular W. U. outfit car. The telegraph office here will be moved into the Patterson building, on Heron street, next to the city drug store, on the first of the month.
“The line will cross the Wishkah river by a cable under the river, at the Heron street bridge.”
In 1891, the arrival of a telegraph line meant the difference between isolation and connectivity. Today, as Aberdeen works to bridge the digital divide with high-speed internet, this struggle for modern infrastructure remains a central theme of regional development.
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