Beginning with Emily Sibley Watson's father, Western Union founder Hiram Sibley, and continuing through her son, Dr. James Sibley Watson, Jr. and grand-son, Michael Lasell Watson, the timeline focuses on the family history of these four generations.
Hiram Sibley moved to western NY around 1829 or 1830, first settling in Livingston County.
In 1830 or 1831, while Charles G. Finney was evangelizing in Rochester, temperance came to Sibleyville.
Don Alonzo Watson moved to Honeoye Falls in 1832 where he met and became partners with Hiram Sibley.
The marriage took place on January 24, 1833 in North Adams, Massachusetts, birthplace of both the bride and the groom.
Zilpha Louise Sibley, first child of Hiram Sibley and Elizabeth Maria Tinker Sibley, was born December 7, 1833.
A business card dated January 1835 lists Hiram Sibley & Don Alonzo Watson as Machinists in West-Mendon, NY.
The Sibleys' first son was born on April 8, 1841.
In a hotly contested election, Hiram Sibley was elected Monroe County Sheriff.
Hiram Sibley may have begun investing in the Flower City's nurseries as early as 1844.
On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first message over telegraph wires.
A second son, Hiram Watson Sibley, was born March 2, 1845.
Hiram Sibley continued his political activities. In 1848 he was chosen President of the Rochester Free Soil Party.
On February 22, 1849 the Rochester-based Electric Telegraph Battery Association elected Hiram Sibley President.
In 1849 and 1850 Rochester Judge Samuel Lee Selden, a House patent holder, organized the New York State Printing Telegraph Corporation.
In her diary, Elizabeth Tinker Sibley describes seeing artworks that were on exhibit in Rochester as they traveled the country.
In 1851, Hiram Sibley was one of the directors of the Eagle Bank.
In April 1851 a group of Rochester investors created the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company.
Beginning in 1854, Hiram Sibley and the New York & Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company began an ambitious period of consolidation.
Emily Sibley's sister Louise married Hobart F. Atkinson on October 12, 1854.
Emily Sibley was born to Hiram Sibley and Elizabeth Maria Tinker Sibley on May 10, 1855.
At the age of 48, Don Alonzo Watson married Caroline Matilda Manning.
Emily Sibley's earliest years were spent between Rochester and North Adams, Massachusetts.
Western Union was formed in March & April 1856 from the consolidation of the Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company and the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company.
Hiram Sibley was elected President of Western Union in July 1856.
The first of several attempts to lay an undersea Atlantic telegraph cable failed in August 1857.
A period of intense competition between rival telegraph lines began with the formation of the North American Telegraph Association.
Don Alonzo Watson's first child was born May 8, 1858.
Newspapers reported an accident on the Michigan Southern Railroad near South Bend, Indiana in which 20-30 people were killed.
By 1860, the two largest companies of the North American Telegraph Association were the American Telegraph Company and Western Union.
Don Alonzo Watson's son was born on March 11, 1860.
Hiram Sibley went to Washington D.C. to lobby for the right to construct the Pacific Telegraph line which would unite the continent.
During the Civil War years, telegraphy continued to expand, and Western Union with it.
In 1861, Perry McDonough Collins tried to drum up support in Congress for a telegraph line from the United States to Russia, via the Bering Strait.
On February 24, 1863, Elizabeth Sibley in Rochester wrote to her husband in New York that "Annie Palmer is staying a day or two with Emily."
On March 16, 1864, Western Union resolved to build a telegraph from the west coast of Alaska across the Bering Strait to Russia.
Don Alonzo Watson's last child, Elizabeth Chapman Watson, was born on April 16, 1864.
In July 1864,Henry A. Ward announced the gift of a megatherium cuvieri fossil to the University of Rochester, paid for by Hiram Sibley.
On September 14th, 1864 Rochester newspapers reported that Hiram Sibley, and his wife and daughter planned to travel to Europe.
At the age of 19, Hiram Watson Sibley, Emily Sibley Watson's older brother, was also travelling in Europe.
A newspaper report linked Hiram Sibley's business with increased European confidence in the strength of the industrial American North.
On March 14th, 1865 a physician wrote Hiram Sibley a prescription for a treatment of the sulphor baths at Aix-les-Bains.
On April 1st, 1865 he wrote:
While Hiram Sibley and Mr. Collins were in St. Petersburg, delays plagued the completion of the Collins Overland Line in British Columbia, Alaska and in Russia.
In February 1866, under the Presidency of Jeptha Wade, Western Union bought out one of its main rivals, the United States Telegraph Company.
An article in the Rochester Daily Union & Advertiser listed Hiram Sibley as having paid the largest amount in income taxes in the city.
While cable was being laid in British Columbia and Russia for the Russian-American Telegraph, on July 28, 1866 the Atlantic underseas cable was finally successful.
A Troy, NY, newspaper reported that Hiram Sibley planned to build a church in his home town.
Emily Sibley Watson's sister Louise Atkinson passed away from consumption on June 16, 1868.
By around 1868, the family moved into Hiram Sibley's residence near the intersection of East Avenue and Alexander Street.
At the end of October 1868, Hiram Sibley resigned his Vice-Presidency in Western Union, and he and Elizabeth went to Europe for his health.
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