In 1820, Maine businessman named Samuel B. Dana proposed a new publication called the Lincoln Telegragh. The weekly publication promised to report on political, literary, moral, and religious matters as well as shipping news for Bath and Wiscasset, Maine. The name of the paper is an interesting combination of words that would take on new meaning 40 years later as President Abraham Lincoln began to use the electric telegraph with great regularity. The paper took it's name from the county of Wiscasset, Lincoln County, Maine, which was founded in 1760 and was named for the English city of Lincoln. Although the electric telegraph was not invented until the mid 1830s, optical telegraphs were is wide use across Europe.