1881 15c American Rapid Telegraph Company, Red Brown, "Collect", Perf. 12

In the early 1880s Western Union dominated American telegraphy, and smaller companies had to fight to survive. American Rapid Telegraph was one of them. It ran lines from New York to Boston, Hartford, New Haven, Providence, and Buffalo, with routes through Pennsylvania’s oil region to Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and its offices were on Wall Street. It came under the control of the Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Company, which was incorporated in April 1881.

The competition between the two sides turned rough in July 1885. According to the account of John B. Yale’s career, Western Union’s General Thomas Eckert is said to have led about 40 men with axes, reportedly on the orders of Jay Gould, to cut American Rapid’s wires at its headquarters and carry them to the Western Union building. A judge ordered Western Union to return the wires, about 6,000 miles of them, and the lines were restored. Western Union then acquired American Rapid for about $500,000, which was less than the value of its poles and wires. A year before, Western Union’s president had said he would have offered $1 million.

Private telegraph companies used stamps like this one on their own messages, and American Rapid’s stamps were printed by the American Bank Note Company. The stamps are among the few physical reminders of a company that was absorbed by its larger rival within a few years of issuing them.