Jeptha Homer Wade was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the founding members of Western Union Telegraph. Wade was born in Romulus, New York, the youngest of nine children of Jeptha and Sarah (Allen) Wade. He made the first Daguerreotypes west of New York, was a portrait painter, and moved to Adrian, Michigan, in 1840 before developing an interest in the telegraph.

William Orton was an American businessman who served as president of the Western Union Telegraph Company.