Colonial Despatches

Carpentier was the president of the California State Telegraph Company, which gained exclusive rights of the telegraphic communication to the Vancouver Island and British Columbia colonies in 1864.1 When the exclusive rights were initially denied, an officer of Carpentier's company met with both Governors Kennedy and Seymour, and the legislative acts were subsequently amended to grant the exclusive privileges.

Carpentier hailed from Galway, New York, and graduated from Columbia University in 1848.2 He was elected the first mayor of the city of Oakland, in 1854, when it was initially incorporated as a city.3 He was expelled from office in 1855 after granting his company, the Oakland Waterfront Company, exclusive rights to Oakland's waterfront for 30 years.4 He was the president of the California Telegraph Company from 1857 to 1867, which was responsible for the first state-wide telegraph system.5

Carpentier never married and had no children. In his words, he lived a life of mixed good and ill.6

• 1. Kennedy to Cardwell, 29 November 1864, 10963, CO 305/23, 320.
• 2. Horace Carpentier, A History of Berkeley, From The Group Up.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Horace Carpentier, Oakland-Alameda Waterfront Action.
• 5. Horace Carpentier, A History of Berkeley, From The Group Up.
• 6. Ibid.