1847
Samuel Morse buys Locust Grove, an estate overlooking the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, New York.
1848
On August 10, Samuel Morse marries Sarah Elizabeth Griswold, a second cousin twenty-six years his junior. The Associated Press is formed by six New York City daily newspapers in order to pool the expense of telegraphing foreign news.
1849
On July 25, Morse's fourth child, Samuel Arthur Breese Morse, is born. There are an estimated twelve thousand miles of telegraph lines run by twenty different companies in the United States.
1851
On April 8, a fifth child, Cornelia (Leila) Livingston Morse, is born.
1852
A submarine telegraph cable is successfully laid across the English Channel; direct London to Paris communications begin.
1853
On January 25, sixth child, William Goodrich Morse, is born.
1854
The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Morse's patent claims for the telegraph. All U.S. companies that use his system begin to pay Morse royalties.
Samuel Morse runs unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress in the Poughkeepsie district, New York.
Morse's telegraph patent is extended for seven years. The British and French build telegraph lines to use in the Crimean War. The governments are now able to communicate directly with commanders in the field, and newspaper correspondents are able to wire reports from the front.
1856
The New York and Mississippi Printing Telegraph Company unites with a number of other smaller telegraph companies to form the Western Union Telegraph Company.
1857
On March 29, Morse's seventh and last child, Edward Lind Morse, is born. Samuel Morse serves as an electrician for Cyrus W. Field's company during its attempts to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The first three tries end in failure.
1858
On August 16, the first transatlantic cable message is sent from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan. However, while this fourth attempt to establish an Atlantic cable is successful, it stops working less than a month after its completion. On September 1, the governments of ten European countries award Morse four hundred thousand French francs for his invention of the telegraph.
1859
The Magnetic Telegraph Company becomes a part of Field's American Telegraph Company.
1861
The Civil War begins. The telegraph is used by both the Union and Confederate forces during the war. Stringing up telegraph wires becomes an important part of military operations. On October 24, Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line to California.
1865
The International Telegraph Union is founded to set rules and standards for the telegraph industry. Another attempt at laying the transatlantic cable fails; the cable breaks after two-thirds of it is laid. Morse becomes a charter trustee of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
1866
Morse sails with his second wife and their four children to France, where they remain until 1868. The Atlantic Cable is finally successfully laid. The broken cable from the previous year's attempt is raised and repaired; soon two cables are operational. By 1880, an estimated one hundred thousand miles of undersea telegraph cable have been laid. Western Union merges with the American Telegraph Company and becomes the dominant telegraph company in the United States.
1867
Morse serves as a United States commissioner at the Paris Universal Exposition.
1871
On June 10, a statue of Morse is unveiled in Central Park in New York City. With much fanfare, Morse sends a "farewell" telegraph message around the world from New York.
1872
On April 2, Samuel Morse dies in New York City at eighty-one years of age. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
