Hiram Sibley family papers

Hiram Sibley (1807-1888) was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. He moved to western New York State during the 1820's and worked as a shoemaker, wool carder and machinist. In 1828 he began a machine shop in Mendon, later adding a wool carding business at Mt. Morris and Sparta. In 1838 he sold his business and moved to Rochester, entered banking and real estate and was elected sheriff in 1843. About this time he met Royal Earl House and became interested in telegraphy. Sibley encouraged Samuel F.B. Morse and in 1851 he organized the New York and Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company. He believed that many small companies could never be successful, and with his partner Don Alonzo Watson of Rochester, Ezra Cornell of Ithaca and others, formed Western Union Telegraph Company in 1856. Sibley held the position of president for the next thirteen years. He was also responsible for a transcontinental telegraph line, which was independent of Western Union until 1864. He also projected a trans-Siberian telegraph to link Europe and America. The project was well under way when the successful laying of the Atlantic Cable in 1868 made it unnecessary, and caused the company great losses.

Sibley retired from Western Union in 1869, and went into the seed and nursery business in Rochester and Chicago. He also invested in land, timber, coal and railroads in the South and in Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington and Oregon.

Hiram Sibley also gave generously to institutions and charitable organizations. He was one of the incorporators of Cornell University, where he endowed Sibley College of Mechanic Arts. He also presented the University of Rochester with its first library building in the 1870's.

Hiram Sibley married Elizabeth Maria Tinker (1815-1903) in 1833. They had four children, of whom Zilpha Louise, Hiram Watson and Emily survived. Zilpha Louise married Hobart Atkinson, and Emily married first Isaac Averell and second James Sibley Watson, son of Don Alonzo Watson. Hiram Sibley died in 1888 in Rochester.

Hiram Watson Sibley (1845-1932) studied in Europe and entered business with his father, Hiram Sibley, brother-in-law, Hobart Atkinson, and Skipworth Wilmer. Their ventures included land development in Rochester,. Sibley, Ill., Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, railroads, and the seed business. About 1880, Hiram W. Sibley also entered a partnership with Isaac Bearinger which lasted until 1896. Sibley and Bearinger had offices in Saginaw, Michigan, and dealt in timber, coal and land. After the death of Hiram Sibley in 1888, Hiram W. Sibley also managed the affairs of the Sibley Estate, the legal entity which administered the inheritance of the Sibley Family.

Hiram Watson Sibley married Margaret Durbin Harper (1850-1937), of the Harper publishing family. They had six children, of whom three survived to adulthood. Ruth married John Gade and Margaret Urling married O'Donnell Iselin. Fletcher Harper Sibley (1885-1959) succeeded his father in managing the family businesses. Harper Sibley, as he was always known, was a prominent citizen in Rochester and continued the Sibley tradition of community involvement and private financial success.