Born: 1894
Died: 1965
Married:Tillie May Layhee
Children: Thomas P. Leahy, Jr. (1925 - 1927)
Thomas P. Leahy served as manager of the Saranac Lake Western Union office from 1918 through at least 1954.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 28, 1954
[photo caption]
THOMAS LEAHY, manager of the Saranac Lake Western Union office on Main st., was today awarded a 45-year service pin. Area superintendent, E.J. McQuillan, left, of New York City, came here especially to make the presentation. Shown in the top picture in a familiar pose at his typewriter, Mr. Leahy, who was born in Kingston, started as a messenger boy at Norwich, N.Y., in the Fall of 1909. He learned telegraphy and left there a year and a half later for an assignment in Watervliet where he served as manager until Aug., 1913. He was manager of other State offices and came to Saranac Lake in 1918 where he has since manned this office, Mr. Leahy and his wife, who have been married 30 years, live at 50 Main st.
(Photo by Mark Greene.)
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 25, 1959
Tom Leahy Honored, 50 Years With W. U.
Tom Leahy, Western Union manager in Saranac Lake, was honored last night for having completed 50 years of service with Western Union. A dinner was held for him at the Hotel Saranac and he was presented with a gold watch by J. F . Frazier, district manager of this area for Western Union.
Mr. Leahy recalled that he was first employed on September 20, 1909, as a messenger boy at Norwich, New York, at $6 a month, but it was an opportunity to learn trade. The ten boys on the job ahead of Tom all learned telegraphy and soon had good jobs, most of them on the railroads.
After 18 months young Leahy became a pretty fair Morse operator and was sent to Waterville, New York as office manager and operator. He stayed there two years. He then worked in Alexandria Bay, Cortland, Batavia, Hornell and Gloversville. In addition he worked for a year in the Syracuse traffic department as a Morse operator and for a while as clerk the superintendent's office in Buffalo.
Among Leahy's recollections last night was an incident that took place when he was a messenger in Norwich. Buffalo Bill's circus came to town in 1910. He said that a circus was really a circus then, "elephants the size of a house, with ears as large as washtubs flopping around."
The first telegrams he delivered that morning were three messages from Buffalo Bill on his special train on the outskirts, of town. Young Leahy pedaled on his bicycle as far as he could, then walked the tracks until he reached Colonel Cody's private car. He delivered the three messages and had Buffalo Bill sign for each one. "It was quite a thrill," he remembered. Three messages, three signatures and three dimes, because the boys could charge a dime for the delivery of any message that required going more than half a mile. Tom said the three dimes equalled a good pound of steak and two loaves of bread in 1909.
Mr. Leahy was assigned to Saranac Lake as manager in April 1918 and has been here since that time.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, February 27, 1970
SL TELEGRAPH OFFICE MAY BE DROPPED
Hotel Would Take Money Orders Western Union has announced tentative plans to close its Class I office in Saranac Lake and name the Hotel Saranac as agent.
Raymond A. Flanigan of Albany, district manager for Western Union, was in Saranac Lake this morning getting the information for an application to the Federal Communications Commission to make the change. He also used the occasion to notify the press, Chamber of Commerce, and village officials.
The Saranac Lake office has been a deficit operation for some time, he said.
If the application is approved, telephone messages will be relayed by a toll free number to Albany or Syracuse. The hotel Saranac would be used mainly, the company believes, for sending money orders, the only type of telegram not taken by phone.
Miss Florence Skeels, who has been employed by Western Union for 42 years and is the only employee of the office here at this time, will be given several options including retirement and taking severance pay
