First Dial Telephone

[W. Gray]

The October 2014 edition of Gen-Tree published by the Chautauqua County Historical and Genealogical Society says that in early 1955 the town of Peru became the first town in Chautauqua County to get dial telephone capability.

Southwest Bell Telephone made the Peru upgrade at a cost of $65,000 for new equipment and a new building to house that equipment.

As far as Elk County goes, it appears that dial telephone capability did not come until 1964 according to the Elk County history book.

Direct long distance dialing appears to have arrived in Howard in 1976.


Telegraph Service began in Elk County in 1880 using the new rail beds as a right of way to string the wires.

A Dr. Close built the first telephone system in Elk County in 1905 in Howard. By 1907, there were two hundred miles of telephone wires emanating from the Howard office with 300 farmers signed up.

The local Howard phone company changed hands a few times and was sold to the Emporia Telephone Company in 1926, then to Southwest Bell Telephone in 1936.

The Busby Telephone Company started up in 1907. It later sold out to the Longton Telephone Company.

[jpbill]

Just to put the record straight.  Dial telephones didn't come to Howard until 1964.  Moline had them years before that, 1957.  In fact, I believe Howard was the last town in Kansas served by Southwestern Bell to get dial phones.

[jpbill]

After further thought, I believe it was 1956 when Moline went dial.

[Diane Amberg]

Wow, talk about 'way back memories. It's a bit fuzzy now, but I know when I was little, Daddy would have to go through a long distance operator to call his parents. She would call us back when the connection  was available. We all then had a chance to talk. He would write them ahead of time to let them know when he planned to call so they would be sure to be there.

[W. Gray]

Abilene has a very interesting Museum of Independent Telephony. It has been thirty-seven years since I toured the place (it is still there) but I remember it as very interesting.

The only thing I specifically recall, though, is a Princess phone from 1959 display and a pay phone from the late 19th century which took silver dollars.

A Kansas City undertaker from El Dorado, Ks, invented what became known as the Strowger Switch, which was used in the first dial telephone in 1891. Dial phones became known as automatic telephones. Dialing was push button until 1896, when the rotary dial was introduced.

However, so many people had the push button phones by 1896 that in 1943 Philadelphia was the last metro area to go to exclusive rotary operation.

First direct dial long distance in the US took place in 1951.

The first pay phone was put in operation in Hartford, CT, in 1889.

911 went into effect in 1968 in Alabama.

Area codes came into effect in 1947.  Kansas initially had 316 and 913 and has since added 620 and 785.

Push button telephones reappeared in 1963.

For a number of years here in Colorado, if I want to call my next door neighbor via land line I have had to dial ten digits since I have a 303 area code and my neighbor has 720. If one lives in the Denver/Boulder metro area he or she gets assigned either 303 or 720 regardless of where they live in that area.

[larryJ]

I remember my mother and I were living in Southeast New Mexico when the dial system was put in.  The year was 1955.  The phone company dug a trench along the front of our property from the alley to the corner and pile up a huge mound of dirt there.  My friends and I played a lot of "King of the mountain" on that dirt pile.

In a story about phones prior to dial........One time my mother was extremely ill when we were living in New Mexico.  It was just the two of us at that time.  I think she felt that she wasn't going to survive the illness and told me to go to the phone and call our Kansas relatives for someone to come help her.  The phone was the standard black phone that was permanently attached to the wall.  In those days when you picked up the phone, an operator would come on and ask what number you wished to call.  If it was to be a long distance call, you had to ask for the long distance operator.  I asked for the long distance operator and when she answered I told her I wanted to talk to Howard, Kansas.  She asked what number did I want in Howard.  I didn't know numbers so I said I just wanted to talk to Howard, Kansas.  She tried several times to get a number out of me, but I just kept repeating that I wanted to talk to Howard.  Finally, she gave up and connected me to the phone company office in Howard and I was able to speak to the operator, my Aunt Bernadine.  Within two days, my grandmother and another aunt were in town to help take care of my mother until she got better.

I also remember being out on my Aunt Emaline Leonard's farm southwest of Howard and the phone would ring with either one ring, two rings or three rings.  It was a party line and people were assigned a number of rings so when the phone rang you knew whether it was for you or your neighbor.  Another feature of this system was that you could eavesdrop on your neighbor.  A drawback to this system was that when you wanted to use the phone, if your neighbor was on a lengthy conversation with someone, you would have to politely ask that they hang up so you could use the phone. 

Ah memories.

Larryj