The Nova Scotia Government came to the rescue and erected a line of 125 miles in length from Halifax to Amherst to meet the American and New Brunswick lines. This line was completed on Nov. 9, 1849, and Halifax was for the first time connected telegraphically with New York.
On Oct. 4, 1847, a telegraph company was formed in New Brunswick with $40,000 capital. Lines connecting St. John and intervening points with Calais and Portland were completed Jan. 1, 1849, and connection with the Nova Scotian Government line at Amherst was made.
The lines in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were acquired by the American Telegraph Company and later by the Western Union Telegraph Company, by whom they are now operated.
In 1847 the British North American Telegraph Company was organized for the purpose of connecting Quebec and the lower provinces by wire, but the wire got no further than River du Loup, where it terminated for a time.
A second company, bearing a similar name, erected a line between Montreal and Quebec; both properties were afterwards transferred to the Montreal Telegraph Company.
In 1849 the Montreal & Troy Company built a line from Montreal to the Canadian frontier, and thence to Whitehall, and Troy, after working independently for a couple years, were purchased by the Montreal Company.
In 1850 a line from Bytown (now Ottawa) by a company organized by Joseph Aumond; it also after a few years became the property of the Montreal Company.
In the West about the same period the Hon. Malcolm Cameron interested himself in a telegraph line to connect Hamilton and London, but, after some 18 months of unprofitable labor, was abandoned.
Coming down to a later date the People’s Telegraph Company was organized and a line erected between Montreal and Quebec, which proved a financial failure to the promoters, and served as a warning to others to avoid going into isolated telegraph ventures.
In 1881 the Canada Mutual and the Union Mutual Telegraph Companies worked in conjunction for a short period in the States and Canada; both were eventually absorbed by the Western Union.