John B. Yale

He was an early founder and secretary-treasurer of the Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Company, competing against financier Jay Gould, the robber baron of the Western Union.

They operated over 400 offices, and controlled about 100,000 miles of wiring across the country, including lines of the Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Stock Exchange.

[3] His uncle was Congressman and General Halbert S. Greenleaf, and his cousin, architect Merton Yale Cady, was the son-in-law of John Deere.

[13] In 1874, he cofounded and was made board director of the Timber Brook Railroad Company, along with his brother Julian L. Yale, and Gen. Edward A.

[16] The Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Co. was incorporated in April 1881, with a capital stock of $1,000,000, and started operating 12 wires from Boston to Washington, D.C. through New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore, with additional charters for New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

[18] The Rapid Co. had about 3 million dollars in capital stock, and the scheme allowed them to not pay in double the rents to the cities and towns where they operated.

By having exclusivity, the Gold & Stock Co. was the only company who had the rights to have clerks on the NYSE trading floor to record and communicate the latest quotes to their private customers.

[44][45][19][16] The company then issued, with the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, about 10 million dollars in bonds to finance their Western expansion, building thousand of miles of telegraph lines, which would later cause legal problems with its bondholders, including General John G. Farnsworth, Adjutant general of New York State by Gov.

[18] The reorganization caught the attention of the Western Union Telegraph Co. of robber baron Jay Gould, who would see the Bankers and Merchants Trust as potential rivals, scheming for the company's downfall, which was also part of the lawsuit with Col. Ingersoll and Senator Roscoe Conkling.

[47][18][16] Yale's company was defended by lawyer Edward Lauterbach, the notable defence attorney of the Wolf of Wall Street, David Lamar.

[48][49][18][16] During the night of the 10th of July, 1885, General Eckert of the Western Union organized a raid with 40 men with axes under the orders of Jay Gould, and entered Yale's company headquarters at Broadway and cut all the wires belonging to the American Rapid Company on the building's cupola, and carried them out to the Western Union Telegraph Building, disrupting Yale's business and bringing hundreds of telegraph operators out of employment, having lost many of their customers.

[16] This unlawful act broke the communication lines of their everyday customers between Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

[16] One of the Bankers and Merchants's largest bondholder during the trial with Ingersoll was industrialist Edward Stiles Stokes, past convicted murderer of his robber baron business rival, financier James Fisk.

[16] According to Stokes, the Western Union acted to get rid of all remaining competition, and to frighten the people from putting any money into the telegraph business.

[58] Mackay would die in 1902 with a fortune of about 50 to 100 million dollars, and his son would build the Harbor Hill estate on Long Island.

[16] The chairman of the company was Congressman Dwight Townsend, while Western Union's president was Norvin Green, serving under controlling shareholder Jay Gould, the robber baron of Lyndhurst Castle.

[63] Yale organized a private demonstration of the war weapon, where the dynamite flew 2 miles, with about 100 attendees, including Col. Rupert Ryan of the Royal Artillery, representing the English War Office, Maj. Gen. Wallace F. Randolph, Chief of Artillery, Commander Seaton Schroeder, family member of Benjamin Franklin, Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, and others.

[64][65][63] They had 1.1 million dollars in capital stock and obtained contracts from the US government to equip the USS Vesuvius, based on Capt.

[70][3] The wedding guests included U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, Gen. Tecumseh Sherman, Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Navy Secretary William E. Chandler, Attorney General Robert G. Ingersoll, Gen. Philip Sheridan, Russian Minister Karl von Struve, and other senators, generals and ministers.

[71] Yale's wife inherited the Holly Hills Farm from her father, with its 350 acres of land and $100,000 in improvements, near Hyattsville, Maryland.

[76] Yale's brother-in-law, banker Charles McCulloch, became president of the Hamilton National bank, and lived at the McColloch mansion in Fort Wayne.

An 1875 illustration of Broadway in Manhattan , where Yale's Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Co.'s office is visible on the left next to the Western Union Telegraph Building
The Empire Building in Manhattan , the seat of the Illinois Steel Company , where Yale was their New York representative
Broad Street , where the Bankers and Merchants Co. had their first office, including one inside the New York Stock Exchange
Certificate of 100 shares of Yale's Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Co., to financier Henry Clews , with 2 million dollars in capital stock under the American Bank Note Co.
The telegraph lines on Broadway , connecting the buildings in 1890
American Rapid Telegraph Co. building at 41-43 Wall Street , previous U.S. National Bank, between the two tall buildings toward the right
Stamp of the American Rapid Telegraph Co., used for the payment on delivery
Chicago Board of Trade around 1885, the Bankers and Merchants Co. controlled some of their telegraph lines for stock quotations
Broadway, Manhattan , Bankers and Merchants Co. was on the left, white stone building with 189 sign, before the Western Union Telegraph Building
Capt. Edmund Zalinski 's dynamite gun , used and sold by Yale's company, the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Co.
The last moments of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865, with Yale's father-in-law, Hugh McCulloch , at the bed's end on the left, with Mary T. Lincoln , Capt. Robert T. Lincoln , Salmon P. Chase and surgeon Charles Leale