Cyrus West Field

Birth Name:

Cyrus West Field

Birth Date:

November 30, 1819

Birth Place:

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Death Date:

July 12, 1892

Place of Death:

Ardsley Estate, Irvington on Hudson, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Natural causes

Cemetery Name:

Stockbridge Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Business and Finance

Cyrus Field (1819-1892) spearheaded the mission to lay the first telegraphic cable across the Atlantic Ocean. As the head of a paper company, he amassed wealth that he used to finance his idea of the transatlantic cable. Leading the Atlantic Telegraph Company, he arranged for the British and American naval ships Agamemnon and Niagara to lay the cable. On August 16, 1858, the first transatlantic message was sent from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan. The cable stopped working three weeks later. In 1866, the Great Eastern successfully laid a functioning and more durable cable across the Atlantic. In later years, he supported other trans-ocean cables from Hawaii to Asia and Australia.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Stockbridge Cemetery

9 Main Street

Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 01263

USA

North America

Grave Location:

Field Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you drive into the cemetery through the very hard to find entrance on Main Street, drive to the center of the cemetery and look for a small stone chapel-like structure. Now look nearby at the intersection of 5 gravel roads and the Field Family Plot is the only section with a split-rail metal fence.