Inventor Cyrus West Field
The Man Who Successfully Laid the Atlantic Cable
A brief look at the life of Cyrus West Field, member of a distinguished New England family, who conceived the project of international telegraphic communication.
InventorCyrus West Field was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a son of the Rev. David Dudley and Submit Dickinson Field, on November 30,1819. He received all his education in the common schools and the Academy of Stockbridge, after which he decided at the age of fifteen to leave for New York City to be a clerk in the dry goods store of A.T.Stewart. Married at the age of twenty-one, he was already established at that time in the wholesale paper business.
Retirement
Intending to retire at the age of thirty-four in 1853, he was persuaded to remain with the company by the junior partners. However, he insisted on taking a few months to visit South America, accompanied by the famous landscape painter Frederick Church. He returned in October, 1853, in time to help celebrate the Golden Wedding anniversary of his parents at the homestead in Stockbridge.
Atlantic Cable
In February, 1854, Cyrus first conceived the project of telegraphic communication across the Atlantic Ocean.This idea had first come to him through his brother Matthew, who was asking for aid in revamping the Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company, which had tried, unsuccessfully, to run a line through the Canadian Maritime provinces. What Field was now asked to do was pick up the charter, pay off any debts and take the project to a successful completion.
He proposed the more widespread endeavor to Peter Cooper, a wealthy New Yorker known for his benevolence; his own brother David, a distinguished New York attorney; Moses Taylor, a well-heeled capatalist and Marshall O.Roberts, a wealthy steamship owner. These men, then, comprised the organization which would oversee the laying of the Atlantic Cable. Other later members were Samuel F.B.Morse, inventor of the magnetic telegraph, and John W.Brett from London, England, who was connected with submarine telegraphs in Europe.
Time after time the efforts went unrewarded and they had to start again.But on August 5, 1858, the two ends landed safely on the shores of Valencia Bay, Ireland, and in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Cable had been successfully laid. Queen Victoria sent her message to the President Buchanan. New York City was ablaze with illumination.Cyrus Field and his associates were givena public reception and received medals, scrolls and proclamations.
Family Life
Cyrus Field married Mary Bryan Stone, of Guilford, Connecticut, on December 2,1840, and they had seven children. They lived in Gramercy Park, New York City, and had a later home on the Hudson River in Ardsley, New York. After suffering severe financial reverses, Cyrus died almost penniess in 1892.
Source: The Family of Rev. David Dudley Field, D.D. by Henry Martyn Field. Privately Printed for the Family. 1860.
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