Cyrus West Field

ABOUT CYRUS WEST FIELD

American businessman and entrepreneur who is known for creating the Atlantic Telegraph Company. He is also known for having laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858.

Beginning as an assistant to a paper manufacturing company created by his brother, he eventually went on to start a company Cyrus W. Field & Co. with his brother. In January of 1854, he began what was known as the Cable Cabinet of entrepreneurs which formed into the American Telegraph Company.

He earned a gold medal from the U.S. Congress and the grand prize at the International Exposition in Paris for his work on the transatlantic cable.

He was born and raised in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was he eighth of ten children. He married Mary Bryan Stone in December of 1840 and together they had seven children.

During the Panic of 1857, his neighbor in Gramercy Park Peter Cooper kept him from going under, continuing to support his business endeavors.