Hawaii: Today in History 7/23
7-23-1877 1st telephone and telegraph line in Hawaii completed
True telegraphy, involving the electric transmission of coded messages
through wires, seems to have reached Honolulu some fifteen years later. On
October 19, 1872, the Advertiser reported: “THE TELEGRAPH.—The line
connecting Mr. Rawson’s store and Mr. Eckart’s jewelry manufactory, is now
in successful operation, and a crowd of the curious have been flattening their
noses against Kinney’s front window to see the machine work. For the sake
of satisfying everybody, messages will be sent over the wires for a few days
109
from 12:30 to 1 o’clock P.M., when anyone can witness their transmission.”105
S. K. Rawson (mentioned earlier in connection with the first brick sidewalk)
was listed by the 1869 Honolulu directory as a watchmaker and jeweler located
on the makai side of Merchant Street between Kaahumanu and Fort Streets.
C. Eckhart (the directory spelling) was referred to as a jeweler on the mauka
side of Beretania Street, between Nuuanu Avenue and Fort Street. The direct
distance between the two locations was about 1,500 feet.106
This private
telegraph line was reportedly put into operation on October 17 and “abandoned
only on the dissolution of the firm” several months later.107
The earliest commercial telegraph system in the Hawaiian Islands was
constructed in 1877 and 1878 on Maui. On September 1, 1877, the Advertiser
printed a letter from its correspondent at Makawao, which stated: “Mr. C. H.
Dickey has just completed a line of telegraph from his place at Haiku to his
stor? in Makawao—a distance of about five miles. The first telegram, ‘God save
the King!’ was sent over the wire on the 23d of July, 1877. Mr. Dickey has
succeeded in making arrangements to continue the line to Wailuku, and it is
sincerely hoped that there will be enough live men to be found there to run
the wire over the mountain to Lahaina.” This first line connected Dickey’s
store in Haiku (not his “dwelling-house,” as started in an adjoining editorial)
with his store in Makawao, the latter operated by his associate, Mr. C. H.
Wallace, who like Dickey was a former telegrapher.108
Soon thereafter Dickey
and Wallace formed the Hawaiian Telegraph Company, with plans to connect
Haiku, Makawao, Wailuku, and Lahaina, and eventually Honolulu.109
On
January 12, 1878, they requested a charter, which was granted on March 4.110
The Haiku-Wailuku link was put into operation on February 21, 1878; the
extension to Lahaina, some five months later.
Reference: https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/101/JL13113.pdf
