Person

Anson Stager (Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., telegraph superintendent)

b. 1825 d. 1885-03-26

Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., telegraph superintendent. Ontario County, New York, native. Married to Rebecca Sprague Stager on November 14, 1847. Father of Emma L. Stager, Anna Stager, Charles Stager, and Ellen S. Stager. Printer in Rochester, New York, in 1841 under telegraph pioneer Henry O'Reilly. Telegraph operator in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1846. Telegraph clerk in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1850. Telegraph superintendent for the New York and Mississippi Valley Company in Cincinnati in 1852. Telegraph Superintendent of Western Union Telegraph Company in Cleveland in 1860. Organized the U.S. military telegraph lines under General George B. McClellan. Commissioned a captain and assistant quartermaster from November 1861. Appointed chief of the United States Military Telegraph by the Secretary of War. Promoted to colonel and aide-de-camp during the war. Breveted brigadier general and mustered out in September 1865.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Ohio, Hamilton County, Cincinnati, 10th Ward, p. 121B.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Ohio, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, 2nd Ward, p. 301.

Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Illinois, Cook County, Chicago, 3rd Ward, p. 331.

"Gen. Anson Stager Dying: The Busy Career of the Prominent Western Electrician," The New York Times (New York, N.Y.), March 23, 1885, p. 1.

"Gen. Stager's Funeral," The New York Times (New York, N.Y.), March 29, 1885, p. 9.

A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, vol.2 (Chicago: The A. T. Andreas Company, 1885), 126.

Find A Grave, "Anson Stager (1825-1885)," Memorial #68017391, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68017391/anson-stager (accessed March 6, 2018).

Citation

Stager, Anson. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32209534 (January 13, 2026).

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