- Hiram Sibley
Hiram Sibley (
February 6 ,1807 –July 12 ,1888 ), was anindustrialist ,entrepreneur , andphilanthropist .Sibley was born in
North Adams, Massachusetts , and later resided in Rochester,New York . He became interested in the work ofSamuel Morse involving thetelegraph .In 1840, he joined with Morse andEzra Cornell to create a Washington to Baltimoretelegraph service. Sibley later served as first president ofWestern Union Telegraph Company . In 1861,Jeptha Wade , founder of Western Union, joined forces withBenjamin Franklin Ficklin and Hiram Sibley to form thePacific Telegraph Company . With it, the final link between the east and west coast of theUnited States of America was made by telegraph. In conjunction with onePerry Collins , he later hoped to build a telegraph line fromAlaska toRussia through theBering Strait , the so-calledRussian American Telegraph , but this dream collapsed with the establishment of a cross-Atlantic line toEurope .Sibley funded the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts, as well as the building which housed it, Sibley Hall, at
Cornell University inIthaca, New York . Today, the program is known as the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and is located in parts of Upson, Grumman, and Rhodes Halls. Sibley Hall is now a part of the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning. Additionally, Hiram Sibley funded a library for theUniversity of Rochester .Sibley died in 1888 and was interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester.
His grandson
Harper Sibley was also a successful businessman. Hiram Sibley is also an ancestor of attorneyMontgomery Blair Sibley (also a descendant ofMontgomery Blair ), who gained notoriety in 2007 for defendingDeborah Jeane Palfrey . [http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1174381419091&hub=TopStories]External links
* [http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-tl/Photos/pages/sibley_h.html Brief Sibley bio]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F0DE6DE1230E633A25750C1A9619C94699FD7CF&oref=slogin Hiram Sibley's death notice]
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