The telephone and telegraph industries owe much to Robert Carson Gilliland and his sons, James F. and Ezra T., who are among the most prolific inventors ever to have lived in Lenawee County. 

Between 1868 and 1908, the U. S. Patent & Trademark Office issued over 100 patents for their innovative creations. 

Robert Gilliland was born in New York in 1822 and brought his family to Hudson in the fall of 1863. Little is known of his life before coming to Michigan. However, once he was here, he wasted no time in establishing himself as a practical man. 

Gilliland established a small manufacturing business — the Gilliland Electric Company — in Hudson in 1871. For the next nine years he manufactured telegraph insulators, pins and brackets, selling 100% of his products to Western Union Telegraph Company. 

A telegraph pin is a type of insulator used to isolate the telegraph wire from the telegraph pole.

Even before establishing his manufacturing company, he received three patents for innovations unrelated to the telegraph industry. He patented an improved hand operated water pump, an adjustable ice shaver and a lock nut. 

The business expanded and he relocated to Mishawaka, Ind., in 1880 and, in 1882, moved the operation to a site on Dean Street near East Maumee in Adrian. Here, he designed and built the manufacturing machinery for the plant. By 1887, the plant was producing two million pins per year and he added machinery to produce electric lighting supplies. 

The company reorganized in 1887 and his sons were added as partners. James and Ezra patented about 100 items over the next two decades. Most were related to their core business of providing products to the telegraph industry and, when telephones came on the scene, the telephone industry. 

Both James and Ezra patented versions of the telephone switchboard, each time improving on the earlier version, as well as numerous improvements to the telephone and to the telegraph. James’ patents included everything from the wood box that hung on the wall and housed the phone, to the hinges and latches that kept the box closed. He invented a cutting tool that made the dovetail joints that held the box together. He also invented a machine that assembled telephone boxes and another that printed labels on them. In all, James held around 30 patents issued in the 1880s and 1890s. 

He eventually opened the Gilliland Telephone Company providing telephone service to communities across the upper mid-west. 

Ezra remained associated with the Gilliland Electric Company while also expanding his horizons, and his fortune, in a number of other ventures. 

As a young man in his 20s, Ezra Gilliland worked as a telegrapher and became acquainted with another young telegrapher in Adrian by the name of Thomas Alva “Al” Edison. The two young men became close friends and called themselves “Damon and Pythias.” (In Greek mythology, Damon and Pythias were a pair of friends who came to signify the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of a friend.) 

In the years that followed, Ezra and Edison collaborated on at least seven patents that bear the names of both men. Three of the joint patents were for inventions that enabled telegraph signals to be sent from moving trains! They also collaborated on, and patented, a number of innovations to the telephone. 

The team of Gilliland and Edison did not stop with their work in communications. They worked together on the development and fine-tuning of the phonograph. Sometime around 1889,

Gilliland was charged with moving the phonograph from concept to market. This particular task led to the “beginning of the end” to an amazing friendship. Reports on the specific details are unclear. 

Gilliland negotiated a number of deals to have the phonograph manufactured and marketed. Unfortunately, the deals, which were described by one historian as “Byzantine,” included royalties, kickbacks, stock options and other financial benefits for Mr. Gilliland. When Edison discovered what had happened, he went ballistic. A 20-year lawsuit followed, and a friendship came to an abrupt end. Adding insult to injury, Edison lost the lawsuit. 

Gilliland went on to patent another 13 inventions, ultimately holding over 70 patents. His work was not limited to phones and telegraphs. In spite of his shattered relationship with Edison, Ezra developed several innovations to improve the phonograph. He also patented a vending machine and a “receptacle for money.” 

In his later years, he patented a “mouthpiece cigarette,” which “prevented the filler from entering the mouth and the mouth end of the cigarette from tearing and maceration.” In 1899, Ezra invented a machine for manufacturing cigarettes (interestingly this patent was over 30 pages long whereas his previous patents were generally three to 10 pages.) 

Ezra Torrance Gilliland died in 1903 and his patent for a receptacle for money, filed in 1901, was issued posthumously in 1908. No monuments have ever been erected to the Gillilands but Ezra, Robert and James are all buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian. 

Bob Wessel is vice president of the Lenawee County Historical Society and can be contacted at LenHist51@gmail.com.