J. Frank Morrison

James Frank Morrison (April 18, 1841 - July 3, 1916) was an American electric company pioneer and conservative political boss during Baltimore's post-Civil War era. He managed the company that first electrified Baltimore city streets, and he formed or managed a number of companies that would eventually merge into Baltimore Gas & Electric. In 1879, he supervised the construction of the world's first commercial long distance telephone service. Morrison reached a national level when he was elected as the first president of the National Electric Light Association (NELA). He was also involved in politics, during a period in the 1870s and 80s, he was one of the three most powerful political bosses for the "Democratic Conservatives" in Baltimore.

Biography Early life and career James Frank Morrison was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, on April 18, 1841, but his family moved between Canada and the United States several times before he settled permanently in the U.S. at the age of fifteen. After a brief time in a Boston business house, he came to Baltimore in 1862 to work in the telegraph department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. For several years, he led the traveling life of a telegrapher, working for both the B&O and the Western Union Company in various cities. This career gave him invaluable technical and business experience within two of the nation's largest and most modern enterprises, providing him with an understanding of networked technologies that he would later apply to the electrical industry. In the spring of 1872, Morrison transferred to the Western Union office in Baltimore as the night chief operator and began to establish roots in the city. He married Irene C. Sifford of Frederick, Maryland that fall and became active in the Democratic Conservative party. stationed at intervals along the route, and was considered a pioneering achievement, the world's first long-distance telephone service.