telegraph

noun, 1. a system of or device for transmitting messages or signals to a distant place esp. by making and breaking an electrical connection, 2. [attrib] used in this system: telegraph wire (COD)

“Did your grandfather ever mention telegraph lines or…”
“No. I remember when they put in the new telegraph. We were going to school here when they put the new line in through Brophy’s. That’d be late twenties, early thirties.”

“In the 1860’s they had the telegraph cables on the Island. It come up to the Village and across, towards Cape Vincent. And then there was another branch went up to Mill Point, across to Garden Island. ‘Cause there was a telegraph office on Garden Island, but none on Wolfe Island, ’cause that was the going concern, Garden Island — Calvin’s, yeah, big business over there, then. Shipbuilding and building those rafts.”