Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Emory Cobb
COBB, EMORY (1831–1910), inducted by 1915
Although Emory Cobb was honored by the Saddle & Sirloin for his work as a Shorthorn breeder and his leadership of the American Shorthorn Breeders’ Association and the University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station board, he is perhaps best known as a communications pioneer. Born in Dryden, New York, Cobb learned telegraphy in Ithaca at age sixteen, finding employment as a telegraph operator. While still in his early twenties, he was appointed manager of a Chicago telegraph office, and there, he helped supervise the merging of three companies as Western Union. He remained an officer of the fast-growing company for years and is often credited with inventing the money transfer service in 1871. Soon thereafter, wiring money became Western Union’s primary business. Emory Cobb was a key investor and philanthropist in his community of Kankakee, Illinois, where he established the First National Bank, the opera house, and the electric railway company. Cobb was also a trustee of the University of Illinois (1867–1893) and president of the Bozeman (Montana) National Bank.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 66