own account
was as a shoemaker at North Adams; then he did business successfully as a
machinist and wool carder in Livingston County, N.Y.; after which he
established himself at Mendon, fourteen miles south of Rochester, a
manufacturing village, now known as Sibleyville, where he had a foundry
and machine shop. When in the wool carding business at Sparta and Mount
Morris, in Livingston County, he worked in the same shop, located near
the line of the two towns, where Millard Filmore had been employed and
learned his trade; beginning just after a farewell ball was given to Mr.
Filmore by his fellow workmen.

Increase of reputation and influence brought Mr. Sibley opportunities for
office. He was elected by the Democrats Sheriff of Monroe County in 1843
when he removed to Rochester; but his political career was short, for a
more important matter was occupying his mind. From the moment of the
first success of Professor Morse with his experiments in telegraphy, Mr.
Sibley had been quick to discern the vast promise of the invention; and
in 1840 he went to Washington to assist Professor Morse and Ezra Cornell
in procuring an appropriation of $40,000 from Congress to build a line
from Washington to Baltimore, the first put up in America. Strong
prejudices had to be overcome. On Mr. Sibley's meeting the chairman of
the committee having the matter in charge, and expressing the hope that
the application would be granted, he received for answer: "We had made up
our minds to allow the appropriation, when the Professor came in and
upset everything. Why! he undertook to tell us that he could send ten
words from Washington to Baltimore in two minutes. Good heavens! Twenty
minutes is quick enough, but two minutes is nonsense. The Professor is
too radical and visionary, and I doubt if the committee recommend the sum
to be risked in such a manner." Mr. Sibley's sound arguments and
persuasiveness prevailed, though he took care not to say what he
believed, that the Professor was right as to the two minutes. Their joint
efforts secured the subsidy of $40,000.

This example stimulated other inventors, and in a few years several
patents were in use, and various lines had been constructed by different
companies. The business was so divided as to be always unprofitable. Mr.
Sibley conceived the plan of uniting all the patents and companies in one
organization. After three years of almost unceasing toil, he succeeded in
buying up the stock of th