For your consideration is this early, land-line telegraph key from Tombstone, manufactured by J.H. Bunnell & Company in 1881. Jesse Bunnell founded the company that made telegraph apparatus and other electrical supplies. Jesse Bunnell was born in Massillon, Ohio, in 1843. Jesse began delivering telegraph messages at the age of 11, and by the age of 13, he was a full-fledged telegraph operator, working in offices in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia from 1859 to 1861. At the age of 17, he achieved a telegraph speed record of 32 words per minute on average while sending President Buchanan's final message to Congress for two hours straight. After the bombardment on Fort Sumter in April 1861, Jesse, who was not yet 18, joined the Union Military Telegraph Service (UMTS), which had recently been founded by Andrew Carnegie, who had been an operator from the age of 15. Jesse's return to non-army labor from 1864 to 1872 led him to Philadelphia and a partnership with James Partrick, who succeeded Chester, Partrick, and Co. Later, from 1875 and 1878, he worked for L. G. Tillotson & Company. In 1878, Jesse founded J.H. Bunnell and Co. In 1879, he involved Charles McLaughlin as a partner in charge of sales and administration, while Jesse focused on manufacture and invention. In 1899 Jesse Bunnell caught a severe cold, which worsened. He died of heart failure on the 9th of February 1899 at age 56. He was buried in Brooklyn's garden Greenwood Cemetery. This telegraph sits on a wood base and features two mechanisms, an output and a relay. The output was used by the operator to input Morse code and send it to other operators, while the relay would receive transmissions from other operators. It is marked in numerous spots with the company name and patent dates reading, "J.H. Bunnell & Co. New York U.S.A. / Patented Feb 15, 1881 / K610 / L707". It shows good condition overall with wear present from its age and use over the years, but no major signs of damage is noted. It measures 5 3/8" L x 10 1/8" W x 4" H and weighs 1 pound and 14 ounces. Provenance: From the Tombstone Western Heritage Museum in Tombstone, Arizona.