Sibley, Hiram

Hiram Sibley, (born Feb. 6, 1807, North Adams, Mass., U.S.—died July 12, 1888, Rochester, N.Y.), a founder and president of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

Sibley first ran a machine shop and a wool-carding business. In a visit to Washington, D.C., he met Samuel F.B. Morse, the telegraph inventor, and helped get congressional backing for the construction of the first telegraph line in 1844. In 1851 Sibley and other Rochester citizens formed the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, which bought 11 small lines north of the Ohio River. In 1856 the company was renamed the Western Union Telegraph Company, and Sibley became its president. Under his leadership the first transcontinental telegraph line was built in 1861. He left Western Union in 1865 and became a builder of railroads in the Middle West and South and owner of vast farm holdings. He also established the Sibley College of Mechanic Arts Engineering (later Mechanical Engineering) at Cornell University, of which he was an incorporator.