Which Blacksburg? Re: A Telegraph Story for Abe

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On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM Grant wrote:

> Buce!
>
> I'm venturing out on a shaky limb, but here goes. . .
>
> The article suggests the lovebirds were in regular contact, so maybe on
> the same route? And they "talked" when business was slack, suggesting
> significant traffic? There were at least five routes out of Danville. The
> busiest was likely the former (barely) Richmond and Danville main line?
>
> How many locales in Virginia of any size were called "Blacksburg"? Even if
> that number had been pared down by 1897, it only has to be a telegraph
> office on a route out of Danville.
>
> I just heard a faint cracking sound. . .
>
> So happens, there IS a Blacksburg on the old R&D main. The article was
> published in the *Ledger*, but the byline is NY. Between the two, what if
> the inaccuracy you refer to is simply the state where Blacksburg is located?
>

I did some digging in Ancestry.com and found a Cenah Josephine Barton, who
was born in Prices Fork in Montgomery County on September 3, 1881. Prices
Fork is an unincorporated village just west of Blacksburg. In the 1900
census, she was listed as being 18 years old and a "Laundry Hand." She did
marry Joseph J. Mondeau on May 6, 1903, in Gloversville, N.Y. It's not
clear how she was elevated to being a telegraph operator, especially since
Blacksburg didn't have a train station. In the 1910 census, the family was
living in Luzerne, Pa., where Joseph was a manager for an express company
and Cenah was at home with two children. In 1920, the family had grown to
seven children. She died on June 22, 1946, at the age of 64 in Upper Black
Eddy, Pa. In the 1900 census, Joseph was living in Essex, New Jersey, and
was listed as a telegraph operator. He lived to the age of 76, dying on
December 26, 1952.

The story did get some embellishment along the way.

Public Ledger, Volume 54, Number 70, 25 April 1903, pg. 6, carried the story

CUPID AT TELEGRAPH KEYS.
Engagement After Four Years of Courtship by Wire.

Plainfield, N. J., April 23—After a courtship that was conducted by
telegraph for nearly four years, Joseph J. Mondeau, of this city, and Miss
Cenah J. Barton, of Gloversville, N. Y.. have announced their engagement.
They are telegraphers, but they never met until about a year ago.

When they formed acquaintance, Mr. Mondeau was in Danville, Va.. and Miss
Barton had charge of the wires in Blacksburg, Va. While attending to the
telegraph company's business they found time to strengthen their
friendship, which ripened into love. Mr. Mondeau does not deny that the
proposal of marriage was transmitted by wire. The wedding is to be in the
Fall, and the couple will live in this city.

So the initial story had Cenah in charge of the wires in Blacksburg but not
necessisarily at a train station. That could be possible since the
telegraph came to Blacksburg in 1874.

In 1939, Mrs. S. A. Wingard wrote "A history of Blacksburg, VA" ranging
from the pioneer days to the first Western Union office in 1916.

In 1874, a group of V.A.M.C., '75 and George Major, strung the first
regular telegraph line in the state of Virginia. It went from the college
grounds, at Blacksburg, six miles overland to Christiansburg. The nearest
railroad center. The line worked perfectly when finished and remained in
operation for many years. The first Western Union office was installed by
the company, October, 1916, in the Field House (burned in 1923). The wire
connection with Christiansburg there was a direct connection between the
telephone line and the Western Union wire to Richmond. The office was
installed later in a building back of Commerce Hall, then the Mess Hall.
The present office building was erected in 1928.

So it was an interesting story but it sounds like there was a bit of poetic
license taken.


>
>

> VTRTA forever.
>

As always!

Bruce in Blacksburg
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