 In February 1847, only two years after Samuel Morse's first successful demonstration of the electric telegraph, the New York and Boston Magnetic Telegraph Company opened an office in Lowell, Bagley was hired as telegrapher.Early in 1847, Bagley was contracted to run the magnetic telegraph office in Springfield, Massachusetts.She was unhappy to discover she earned only three-quarters as much as the man she replaced, writing to a friend of her growing commitment to human equality and the rights of women.