Sibley, Hiram
financier, was born Feb. 6, 1807, in North Adams, Mass. He was instrumental in obtaining from congress an appropriation in aid of Morse's. experiments and interested himself in telegraphy from the beginning. His telegraphs eventually extended over thirteen states; were consolidated under the name of the Western Union Telegraph company, of which he was president for seventeen years. He became the largest owner of improved lands in the United States, owning the Burr Oaks farm of nearly forty thousand acres in Illinois; and the Howland Island farm of Cayuga, N. Y. He gave a one hundred thousand dollar building to hold a public library and the collections of the Rochester university; and various other sums were donated by him.
He died July 12, 1888, in Rochester, N. Y.