This story sounds pretty believable after reading Tom Standage's The Victorian Internet, especially Chapter 8, "Love over the Wires".

That's one of my favorite books (and finally available in a Kindle edition!). Don't take my word for it, read a few of the reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Victorian-Internet/dp/B002STNBKM/

More stories of high tech in the 1800's in Neal Stephenson's Mother Earth Mother Board:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html