<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM Grant wrote:</span></div></div><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
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<div>Buce!<br>
<br>
I'm venturing out on a shaky limb, but here goes. . . <br>
<br>
The article suggests the lovebirds were in regular contact, so
maybe on the same route? And they "talked" when business was
slack, suggesting significant traffic? There were at least five
routes out of Danville. The busiest was likely the former (barely)
Richmond and Danville main line? <br>
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How many locales in Virginia of any size were called "Blacksburg"?
Even if that number had been pared down by 1897, it only has to be
a telegraph office on a route out of Danville.<br>
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I just heard a faint cracking sound. . .<br>
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So happens, there IS a Blacksburg on the old R&D main. The
article was published in the <i>Ledger</i>, but the byline is NY.
Between the two, what if the inaccuracy you refer to is simply the
state where Blacksburg is located?</div></div></blockquote><div> </div>I did some digging in Ancestry.com and found a Cenah Josephine Barton, who was born in Prices Fork in Montgomery County on September 3, 1881. Prices Fork is an unincorporated village just west of Blacksburg. In the 1900 census, she was listed as being 18 years old and a "Laundry Hand." She did mar<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">r</span>y Joseph J. Mondeau on May 6, 1903, in Gloversville, N.Y. It's not clear how she was elevated to being a telegraph operator, especially since Blacksburg didn't have a train station. In the 1910 census, the family was living in Luzerne, Pa., where Joseph was a manager for an express company and Cenah was at home with two children. In 1920, the family had grown to seven children. She died on June 22, 1946, at the age of 64 in Upper Black Eddy, Pa. In the 1900 census, Joseph was living in Essex, New Jersey, and was listed as a telegraph operator. He lived to the age of 76, dying on December 26, 1952. <br><br>The story did get some embellishment along the way. <br><br>Public Ledger, Volume 54, Number 70, 25 April 1903, pg. 6, carried the story<br><br><font face="georgia, serif">CUPID AT TELEGRAPH KEYS.<br>Engagement After Four Years of Courtship by Wire.<br><br>Plainfield, N. J., April 23—After a courtship that was conducted by telegraph for nearly four years, Joseph J. Mondeau, of this city, and Miss Cenah J. Barton, of Gloversville, N. Y.. have announced their engagement. They are telegraphers, but they never met until about a year ago.<br><br>When they formed acquaintance, Mr. Mondeau was in Danville, Va.. and Miss Barton had charge of the wires in Blacksburg, Va. While attending to the telegraph company's business they found time to strengthen their friendship, which ripened into love. Mr. Mondeau does not deny that the proposal of marriage was transmitted by wire. The wedding is to be in the Fall, and the couple will live in this city.<br></font><br>So the initial story had Cenah in charge of the wires in Blacksburg but not necessisarily at a train station. That could be possible since the telegraph came to Blacksburg in 1874.<br><br>In 1939, Mrs. S. A. Wingard wrote "A history of Blacksburg, VA" ranging from the pioneer days to the first Western Union office in 1916.<br><br><font face="georgia, serif">In 1874, a group of V.A.M.C., '75 and George Major, strung the first regular telegraph line in the state of Virginia. It went from the college grounds, at Blacksburg, six miles overland to Christiansburg. The nearest railroad center. The line worked perfectly when finished and remained in operation for many years. The first Western Union office was installed by the company, October, 1916, in the Field House (burned in 1923). The wire connection with Christiansburg there was a direct connection between the telephone line and the Western Union wire to Richmond. The office was installed later in a building back of Commerce Hall, then the Mess Hall. The present office building was erected in 1928.<br></font><br>So it was an interesting story but it sounds like there was a bit of poetic license taken.<br><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><div> <br></div></div></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><div>
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VTRTA forever.<br>
</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">As always!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">Bruce in Blacksburg</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div></div></div>