1844 - 1925
An Amazing World of Science and Electricity
Graybar got its start in an age of science, technology and the taming of electricity. Without electricity, its business would not exist.
The company was founded in Cleveland by entrepreneur Enos Barton, inventor Elisha Gray and venture capitalist Anson Stager. All three partners were involved with the telegraph, an electrical device that was the greatest communication invention of the first half of the nineteenth century.
Barton, the youngest of the three partners, was born in upstate New York in 1842 and became a telegraph operator, working in New York City during the Civil War relaying messages from the front lines. After the war he was appointed chief telegrapher for Western Union Company in Rochester, New York, but quit in 1868 when Western Union trimmed all telegraphers’ salaries by 10 percent.
Seeking his fortune, he moved to Cleveland and bought a one-half interest in a manufacturing shop owned by George Shawk. Barton had great ambition but little money, so he borrowed $1,500 — including $400 from his widowed mother, who mortgaged the family farm—to finance the purchase. Mrs. Barton’s $400 mortgage has been described as "one of the best investments in history."
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- 1869
- Graybar predecessor Gray & Barton is founded in Cleveland in May to manufacture telegraph equipment and other electrical products. Its founders are Elisha Gray, age 34, and Enos Barton, 26. Anson Stager, 44, buys a one-third interest in November. Gray & Barton moves to Chicago in December and becomes a major supplier to Western Union Telegraph Company
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- 1872
- Gray & Barton changes its name to Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Stager is president, Barton secretary/treasurer and general manager, and Gray “company electrician,” or chief inventor. Western Union acquires a controlling interest.
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- 1879
- Thomas Edison invents the incandescent light bulb.
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- 1881
- American Bell Telephone Company (a predecessor of AT&T) acquires majority ownership of Western Electric Manufacturing Company from Western Union. Western Electric shortens its name to Western Electric Company.
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- 1882
- Western Electric becomes the exclusive U.S. manufacturer of telephone equipment for Bell companies.
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- 1886
- Enos Barton becomes Western Electric president.
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- 1901
- In January, Elisha Gray dies. Later that year, the supply department opens a branch in Philadelphia, its first devoted primarily to selling non-telephone equipment.
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- 1901
- Elisha Gray dies.
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- 1916
- Enos Barton dies.
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- 1925
- Western Electric forms a separate subsidiary, Graybar Electric Company, to take over the activities of the supply department. Albert Salt is named president.
