Alexander Taylor (May 17, 1853 – February 12, 1916) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
,
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
. He is credited as being one of the founders of the city of
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
. Taylor was born in on May 17, 1853, in
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, and came to
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
in 1877.
Shortly after his arrival in Edmonton, Taylor established the first
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
,
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
, and
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
systems. Taylor asked the
Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Englan ...
to provide services in 1883. Alex Taylor, Dominion Telegraph Agent, brought the first two telephones made of Spanish
mahogany
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...
, and asked store owner
Henry William McKenney
Henry William McKenney (February 24, 1848 – March 11, 1921) was a politician from Alberta, Canada.
McKenney was born in Ontario, the son of a merchant and sailor. After attending schooling, he moved to Manitoba, where soon after he took part i ...
of St. Albert to keep the device in St. Albert. Taylor, who, at the time was working for the Dominion Telegraph and Signal Service proposed running a telephone line from his office to
St. Albert, Alberta. January 3, 1885, the two tested the line, the first successful call in Northern Alberta. He founded Edmonton's first telephone company and made Edmonton's first telephone call. In 1892, Taylor installed a switchboard and Jennie Lauder became Edmonton's first telephone operator overseeing a system of 14 telephones. In 1893, the
Edmonton District Telephone Company
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
was granted a charter and less than a decade later it was operational 24 hours a day and provided service to nearby rural areas.
In 1891, Taylor co-founded Edmonton's first electric company, the
Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Company
EPCOR Utilities Inc., formerly known as Edmonton Power Corporation, is a utility company based in Edmonton, Alberta. EPCOR manages water, wastewater, natural gas, and electricity distribution systems in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British ...
.
Taylor also co-founded Edmonton's first newspaper, the ''
Edmonton Bulletin
The ''Edmonton Bulletin'' was a newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta, published from 1880 until January 20, 1951. It was founded by Edmonton pioneer Frank Oliver, a future Liberal politician and cabinet minister in the Canadian Government.
Oliver co-f ...
'' with
Frank Oliver in 1880. Taylor also served on the Edmonton Public School Board from 1899 to 1909, and was the chairman of the board in 1907.
In 1904, ill health prompted Taylor to sell his telephone company to the City of Edmonton for $17,000, which later became known as
Edmonton Telephones
Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, vo ...
.
Taylor died on February 12, 1916. He is buried in the Edmonton Cemetery.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Alexander
1853 births
1916 deaths
Businesspeople from Edmonton
Businesspeople from Ottawa
Alberta school board trustees