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 t ...

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, ...

. 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 an ...

. 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

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 ...

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 describe ...

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 Engl ...

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: U ...

, and asked store owner Henry William McKenney 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 St. Albert is a city in Alberta on the Sturgeon River northwest of the City of Edmonton. It was originally settled as a Métis community, and is now the second-largest city in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. St. Albert first received its town ...

. 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 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 Frank Oliver may refer to: * Frank Oliver (American football) (born 1952), American football player * Frank Oliver (footballer) (1882–?), English footballer *Frank Oliver (politician) (1853–1933), Canadian politician *Frank Oliver (rugby union) ...

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. 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