DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — and this one's worth every mile to Marshall. Now, you want to talk about a wire that changed everything? Let's go back.
February 14, 1854. Valentine's Day, as it happens. The Red River and Texas Telegraph Company opened Texas's very first telegraph office right here in Marshall.
That's the beginning of the whole story — but to really feel the weight of it, you have to back up a little further. All the way to 1844, when Samuel Morse — born 1791, died 1872 — first demonstrated his telegraph with a line running between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. From that moment on, Morse had been out there offering revenue from his invention to anyone willing to take it.
Anyone. And here's a detail that'll stick with you: the Texas Embassy, sitting right there in Washington D.C. at the time, was flat broke — impoverished is the word the marker uses — and they passed. Passed on Samuel Morse's telegraph.
Let that one breathe for a second. It would be another ten years before anything changed for Texas. Ten years before the existing Shreveport Telegraph Line would push its way across the state line.
In the meantime, by 1852, financial backers out of New Orleans had gotten organized and founded the Red River and Texas Telegraph Company, with the specific aim of installing the first commercial telegraph lines into Texas. Marshall was the beachhead. The office here sat 49 miles from Shreveport — not so far, when you think about what that wire was carrying.
And they didn't stop there. Lines shot out fast: Henderson, Rusk, Crockett, Montgomery, Houston, Galveston. The state was being stitched together, message by message.
The office itself was housed in Travis George Twyman's store on the courthouse square. A dry goods counter sharing walls with the future. Railroads leaned on it.
Newspapers leaned on it. And when the Civil War came, both the Union and the Confederacy leaned on it hard. Union soldiers actually moved to reach Shreveport — the goal being to cut off telegraph communication to Texas entirely.
They were unsuccessful. That wire kept humming. The numbers that followed tell their own story.
From October 1, 1879 to July 1, 1880 — nine months — more than a quarter million messages moved through Western Union wires across Texas. By 1938, Western Union was serving 228 of the state's 254 counties, maintaining 12,400 miles of poles and 80,700 miles of wire strung across this big, stubborn land. And Marshall's office — the one that started it all on that February morning in 1854 — kept right on operating.
Kept going and going, until 1972, when Western Union finally closed it down. One hundred and eighteen years of messages. The space around that old office has since been turned into a city park.
You can stand there now, in the quiet, and think about a quarter million messages in nine months, about Union soldiers who never made it to Shreveport, about a broke Texas Embassy that said no thank you to Samuel Morse. Somebody in Marshall said yes. And the whole state got connected because of it.
What the marker says
The Red River and Texas Telegraph Company opened Texas" first telegraph office in Marshall on February 14, 1854. Since the first demonstration of the telegraph in 1844, with communication between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, inventor Samuel Morse (1791-1872) had been offering revenue from his invention to various outlets. At the time, the impoverished Texas Embassy in Washington D.C. was not interested in the project. It would be another ten years before the existing Shreveport Telegraph Line would extend into Texas. By 1852, New Orleans-based financial backers founded the Red River and Texas Telegraph Company to install the first commercial telegraph lines into the state. A telegraph office was opened in Marshall, a distance of 49 miles from Shreveport. Lines were quickly extended to Henderson, Rusk, Crockett, Montgomery, Houston and Galveston. The telegraph office was housed in Travis George Twyman's store on the courthouse square. The telegraph became the primary technology for industries like railroad and newspapers. During the Civil War, the telegraph became an important line of communication for both the Union and the Confederacy. Union soldiers attempted to reach Shreveport to cut off telegraph communication to Texas but were unsuccessful. From October 1, 1879 to July 1, 1880, more than a quarter million messages flowed through Western Union wires across the state. By 1938, Western Union provided service to 228 of the state's 254 counties, maintaining 12,400 miles of poles and 80,700 miles of wire. In 1972, Western Union closed the Marshall office which had been in operation since 1854. Later turned into a city park, the space around the old Marshall office recalls the advance of technology and communication in the state. (2022)