Lucas County telephones & a little romance

Were it not for the spread of telephones from farm to farm in rural Lucas County at the turn of the 20th century, my maternal first-cousins and I might very well not be here.

My grandmother, Jessie Francis Brown, was "central" for the Columbia Telephone Co. and the switchboard was located in her living room in the Marion County village of that name. The English Telephone Co. switchboard was located in the living room of my grandfather, William Ambrose Miller, his mother and siblings just east of what now is Williamson Pond.

It was one of the responsibilities of switchboard operators to keep track of how many times patrons of other companies were switched to use the lines of the company they were responsible for. That led to conversations between my grandparents, then personal visits and extensive correspondence and finally, during 1905, to marriage.

So I was interested in this article published on the front page of The Chariton Herald of January 14, 1904, and headlined, "Rural Phone Combine." The bonus was a report on the annual meeting of the English Telephone Co. The G.T. Miller who was elected a director was my "Uncle Rial," Gerial Trescott Miller.

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A meeting was held at the Lucas county courthouse last Saturday by representatives of many of the rural telephone companies of the county for the purpose of taking steps toward organizing all the lines into one, or at least getting them on a basis for mutual help. Seventeen lines were represented, or more than half of all the lines in the county there being thirty-three in all. About twenty-four lines in all run into Chariton.

The companies expect to organize and incorporate, and then get equal and equitable rates for service through the Chariton Central, or possibly put in a switch board for themselves in Chariton. O.F. Brownlee was chairman of the meeting and John V. Bonnett was secretary. It was decided to have a delegate meeting at the court house again, next Saturday, each company to send one delegate, at which meeting the matter will be more completely discussed and attended to.

The rural telephone lines of Lucas county have increased in numbers until they will make a formidable organization. The thirty-three lines have an average of probably fifteen patrons each, which would make at least five hundred families in the county receiving service from the rural lines. The wonderful development of rural telephones within the last few years, combined with the mail facilities which rural communities now enjoy, gives the farmers advantages in that line which cannot be surpassed even in town.

Consolidation and combination is the watchword in nearly all lines of business today, and the Lucas county farmers are but following the trend of affairs in larger lines when they combine their telephone lines for their mutual help.

The English Telephone Company held their annual meeting in the court house last Saturday and elected the following officers for the coming year: J.F. McDowell, president; W.N. Carson, secretary; C.J. Cain, treasurer; J.J. Riggs, delegate to general meeting; J.F. McDowell, G.T. Miller, J.H. Poush, A.C. Curtis and J.J. Riggs, directors.