The names of Sir Hugh Allan, O. S. Wood and James Dakers will always be inseparably associated with the history of the Montreal Telegraph Company.
The first company to compete against the Montreal Telegraph Company was the Grand Trunk Telegraph Company in 1852–3, lines were erected from Buffalo to Quebec, following the lines of the older Company.
After some years of an unprofitable business they sold out lock, stock and barrel to the Montreal Telegraph Company for $11,000.
The next venture was by the Provincial Telegraph Company, the Canadian ally of the United States Telegraph Company, which was then spreading its lines over the United States; but was in 1866 absorbed by the Western Union; this ended the career of the Provincial, and its plant was purchased and transferred to the Montreal Company for a nominal sum.
Some two years later the Dominion Telegraph Company took form with a capital of $700,000. This Company proved the most serious opponent of the Montreal Telegraph Company, but was never a financial success. In 1878 it was leased by the American Union Telegraph Company, an opponent of the Western Union. Both Companies were acquired by the latter Company, which was busily occupied in securing a monopoly of the telegraph business, and succeeded, in a great measure, in accomplishing its object.
The Dominion Telegraph Company was transferred to the Great North Western Telegraph Company of Canada, a subsidiary concern of the American Company in 1881.
In the lower provinces a move for telegraphic facilities were made almost concurrent with those of Western Canada.
During 1847–48 the Press Association ran a steamer between Digby, N.S., and Portland, Me., to carry news received by the steamships touching at Halifax, and from thence sent overland by express riders to Digby, 149 miles, and was sometimes accomplished in less than eight hours and a half, or at the rate of 17½ miles an hour, to be despatched from thence by steamer to Portland and telegraphed to New York from there in advance of the Cunard steamers at Boston.
This service was managed with great vigor. The express rider was the great event of the day as he flew past Annapolis, his horse white with foam and the whole population lining the road. A gun was fired to announce his arrival to the captain of the steamer immediately anchors were weighed. Steam raised, the pilot took his place at the wheel and the small boat manned by athletic seamen was sent ashore to receive the bag of the express rider, as at full speed he arrived at the dock.
This process, though full of éclat and splendidly performed, was expensive, and the Associated Express agents, offered to guarantee the payment of a liberal subsidy to any company who would construct a line of telegraph between Calais, Me., and Halifax, which could be available for press matter.