Dr. Mahlon Loomis, born in 1826 and died in 1886, was a dentist, inventor, and pioneer in wireless communications who lived with his wife, Acshah Ashley, in a nearby cottage at 232 Park St. in 1850. There he began experiments in electricity that led him to prove that signals could be sent without wires. In 1866, he successfully transmitted wireless signals between two Virginia mountains 14 miles apart. In 1872, he received a U.S. patent as the inventor of wireless telegraphy, and in 1873 Congress chartered The Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company. A financial recession, however, eliminated his funding resources and allowed others to develop and receive credit for the discovery later known as radio.