John James Speed

Lore & Background

Speed lost his mercantile fortune in the Panic of 1837 and turned to telegraphy to recover. In the 1840s he experimented with both visual and electric telegraphs. In Ithaca he was friends with Ezra Cornell, and together they became agents for Samuel Morse's partner Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith, who had become the agent for the Morse patent in several states. Smith contracted with Cornell and Speed in 1847 to build a line from Buffalo to Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee, and Speed moved to Detroit. He built the section from Detroit west, making a sub-contract with Jeptha Wade for construction from Detroit to Jackson, the first line completed west of Buffalo in the summer of 1847. When the line reached Chicago it was organized as the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company with Speed as President. Direct contact was established between Chicago and Buffalo in January 1849, though the line was not well constructed and revenues were initially small.

Reader's Guide

Speed's significance lies in his practical contributions to the expansion of the telegraph network in the United States during its formative years. As president of the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company, he oversaw the completion of a line that established direct contact between Chicago and Buffalo in January 1849, a key link in the growing national telegraph system. His later work with Taliferro Shaffner to connect the eastern and western hemispheres via a line from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands represents an ambitious early attempt at transatlantic telegraphy. During the American Civil War he constructed a telegraph line from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Maine, supporting military communications. Speed continued to invent and received patents for his improvements to the telegraph. His career illustrates the transition from mercantile failure to technological entrepreneurship, and his collaborations with figures such as Ezra Cornell and Jeptha Wade place him within the network of early telegraph builders who shaped the infrastructure of the United States.

Did You Know?

• Speed was a presidential elector in 1840 and cast his ballot for William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.
• He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1832 and later served as President of the village trustees of Ithaca in 1843.
• Speed built the first telegraph line completed west of Buffalo, from Detroit to Jackson, in the summer of 1847.
• He connected the eastern and western hemispheres with a telegraph line from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.