by Ross Bloomquist
The invention of the telephone in 1876 was the first step in the revolution of communications that in a hundred years has far exceeded the wildest imagination of the early pioneers. It was almost 20 years before this newfangled invention appeared in Carrington.
The usefulness of the gadget became apparent when the Soo Line Railway began passenger service in 1892 or 1893 to provide direct rail connections with the Twin Cities, Chicago and the East. Many of the traveling men, called drummers in those days, arrived and departed from the Soo depot at the north east edge of town. There was, however, no place around the station for the travelers to lodge or show their wares. The three‑quarter mile trip to the town's largest hostelry, the Kirkwood Hotel, was not difficult since Jim McCoy's Bus Line (horse drawn cab) met all the trains. The return trip to the station presented problems since the train arrivals were often delayed and the only way to inform the traveler that his train was going to be late was by some sort of courier.
The first telephone line in the city solved this problem. With the assistance of the Soo Line, probably both financial and physical, a line with telephones at either end was put up between the Kirkwood and the station. It began operation in July 1894. Now when a train was delayed the salesman could be notified and his pitch could be lengthened or other customers visited.
Apparently the system worked well and in 1896 another station was put on the line in McCoy's Livery Barn located on the present site of the Independent building. McCoy is quoted as saying, "He don't see how he can get along without one. It's as handy as a pocket in a shirt."
The limited system served its users well but it wasn't long before other people began to realize the usefulness of carrying on conversations father than a loud voice would carry. The entrepreneur who started the business was not a Foster County resident. He was Charles L. King of Harvey, an 1882 arrival in Dakota Territory from Michigan. In the summer of 1893 he was employed by the Soo Line as a civil engineer and later at Harvey station as clerk and cashier. It is not known how he obtained his telephone expertise but in 1896 he organized the North Dakota Telephone and Electric Company at Harvey with King as president, Otto H. Grethen as secretary and Anton Erne as treasurer.
It appears that their first line ran from Harvey to Manfred and then on to Fessenden. King saw that telephone communication was the wave of the future and later that year began promoting the extension of the lines to Sykeston, New Rockford and Carrington. Apparently he had obtained sufficient financial backing by a sale of stock in his company over the winter and in May 1899 began construction of the line from Harvey to Anamoose and an extension to Cathay, New Rockford and Carrington was in the works. He secured a franchise from the Foster County Commissioners giving him the right to construct lines through the county. The line reached Carrington on June 15, 1899 and setting poles in town and installing instruments began.
The line connected Harvey, Fessenden, Cathay, Sykeston, Barlow, Guptil, and Manfred but not New Rockford, "The business men there not taking enough interest to subscribe for stock." The indifference of the New Rockford people causes inconvenience to the present day. The system there is a part of the privately owned Continental Telephone Company and not a part of the Bell System. New Rockford directories are not readily available in Foster County and the Eddy County seat is always "long distance".
Telephone service began in Carrington on August 5, 1899. According to Hugh Putnam, Mrs. S.E. Nelson's millinery store had one of the first connected and she would call out to other business places in the block when they received a call. The list of original subscribers is not mentioned, neither is there a description of the telephone instrument. It was undoubtedly of the battery operated magneto type where a call to central or another party was initiated by turning the crank at the side of the box to cause the other telephone's bell to ring. The need for a directory was expressed by the editor of the Independent shortly thereafter: "The management of the telephone line here should get out a directory for the subscribers to the line so that people would know where they were when they wanted to call up someone." A second plea for a directory was made in October but there is no indication that one was issued until several years later.
Even in those days there was a little experimentation‑ a broadcast concert. "Last Thursday the central office of the telephone exchange connected up a number of subscribers on the main line and treated them to a concert over the wires. Central had a large gramophone in the office and placed it close to the switchboard and those who were on the wire could hear plainly all the music and songs. Anyway, the Independent heard the whole works." It should be noted that the gramophone at the turn of the century was as much a novelty as the telephone. The first mention of the mechanical reproduction of sound was only two years earlier, April, 1894, when some sort of a "talking machine" was exhibited by a Professor Wadams at the Courthouse.
The telephone service was accepted enthusiastically by the subscribers but all did not work well for Charles L. King. He was declared bankrupt in the summer of 1900! Attorneys T.F. McCue and C.E. Leslie of Carrington representing the telephone company's creditors petitioned Judge Glaspel to have the North Dakota Telephone and Electric Company insolvent and a receiver appointed. The judge agreed and appointed J.A. Murphy of Jamestown receiver. He managed the company for a year and arranged for a private sale of the property which consisted of 74 miles of line with exchanges at Carrington, Fessenden and Harvey. The property was purchased by the former treasurer Anton Erne who immediately transferred it to C.E. Leslie for $3,510. The creditors got 80 cents on the dollar in the final settlement. King protested by saying that part of the system was his private property but Leslie prevailed and took possession of the entire system in October 1901.
At the time of the sale of the bankrupt telephone company it appears that the Bell Telephone Company was already stringing long distance wires across the county, and engaged in litigation with several of the landowners over right‑of‑way. There was an exchange in Eisenhuth's Drug Store in Carrington and in the hotel in Barlow. The company, however, was not interested in purchasing the bankrupt King system.
Charles E. Leslie, with the help of his young sons, Myron and Charles, managed the telephone company until 1908. A building to house the exchange was constructed on the south end of the lot on 9th Street just north of the alley and across the street from the First National Bank Building. This building subsequently became the Olson Brothers Plumbing shop and the Shoe Hospital. It was gutted by fire on December 30, 1971 and razed.
When the building was completed, a line to Valley City was added to the system to tie in with the long distance lines. The rate for a one minute call to Minneapolis was 80 cents. All night service was started in 1903. In 1905 the North Dakota Central Telephone Company was incorporated with $50,000 capital stock. The incorporators were C.E. Leslie, M.J. and C.C. Leslie, S.S. Comee and North Dakota Robinson of Madison, Wisconsin. Of these besides C.E. Leslie the only one who can be identified is S.S. Comee who was C.E. Leslie's father‑in‑law.
Managing the telephone company was not a full time job for attorney Leslie. His professional card, "Attorney at Law" appeared regularly in the local newspapers and in 1904 was the Democratic candidate for States Attorney for Foster County. He was the only Democrat to win in the general election. He served only the one term and in the Spring of 1906 sold the company to George B. Young of Valley City. The Leslie family moved to Minneapolis in 1907 after the expiration of his term as States Attorney.
The smaller towns and farmers began to take an interest in telephone communication as soon as they were able to observe the usefulness of the Carrington system. One of the first was a four party line connecting the Schmid Brothers, Leonhard Schmid, and the August and William Wiltschko farms in Birtsell Township. During the years between 1902 and the start of World War I many more lines sprung up here and there in the country. Often these were started by a group of neighboring farmers; they were usually tied in with the Carrington exchange. Among them were lines from Melville to Bordulac, in Haven, Pleasant Valley, Wyard and a line between Grace City and McHenry and one to Miller's Spur. The telephone company also extended its lines west to the towns along the Turtle Lake Branch of the railroad.
Probably the most extensive system in the county had its central office in Barlow. At that time Barlow was the trading center of a large area extending almost to Cathay on the west and into Larrabee Township and Grace City on the east. The Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company was formed by the Barlow, Birtsell, Estabrook and Nordmore residents who were stockholders and managed by an elected board of directors. They applied for and received a franchise in May 1906. The system provided individual lines for the residents and business establishments of Barlow and rural service by six rural lines, three east and three west. A frame building was built on Lot . , Block 7 in 1907 to house the exchange and provide living quarters for the manager. This building continued in use as the central office until the Dakota Central Rural Telephone Cooperative took over the system in 1951. The building was razed in 1979.
The six rural party lines were designated by colors: black, white and red to the west of town and green, brown, and blue to the east. There were 20 or 30 subscribers on a, line each with its own combination of long and short rings for identification. The instruments were powered with two dry cells which had to be replaced periodically. These were furnished by the telephone company whose annual rate for service was $18 per year. The local system was tied in with the Bell long distance lines but making such a call even to Carrington or New Rockford was often a time consuming procedure. First you rang to reach Central and as soon as she answered you gave the name and location of the party desired. Then you hung up and waited. Eventually, often in ten minutes, sometimes in half an hour, the operator would call back to tell you that your party was on the line. Connections were often poor and so bad sometimes that the central operator had to be an intermediary in the transmission of the message. Conversations were usually very brief since there was always a toll charge for long distance calling.
In the early years the Board of Directors of the Barlow Telephone company engaged men with some telephone know‑how to manage the exchange, install instruments and extend and maintain the lines. Two whose names are remembered were Trefather and Charlie Wesner in the days before World War I. Both of them were husband and wife teams. In later years the system more or less ran itself although Frank and Leonhard Schmid did the maintenance work that needed to be done‑ replacing poles, splicing broken wires and tending to the company's books. Almost every young woman in the Barlow area served some time as switchboard operator, there are too many to recount.
Besides providing for two party conversations the farmers' lines also served for the general dissemination of information to the often news starved residents. On the Barlow lines a series of short rings alerted the subscribers that there was important news as, for example, a fire, 'the war is over', a lost or strayed animal or the announcement of some social or political event at a schoolhouse or in town. A more frequent use of the system was "rubbering", the surreptitious listening to the conversation of other parties on the line. It was a way to keep up with the activities of the neighbors. The calling and called parties had to be circumspect in the conversations because there was no assurance that the remarks made could be kept confidential. Generally, however, it was harmless entertainment‑ the soap operas of the day. The passing of the party line in spite of the poor connections and the unreliable service was a loss. Nevertheless, the impersonal black or white or colored box with a dial that lets one reach the party desired almost anywhere on the earth without human intervention is certainly one of the most indispensable gadgets of our modern world.
In the meantime the Dakota Independent Telephone Company, no longer a local concern, prospered while extending their lines and improving service. The first manager was Allen Fairbanks who put in a new switchboard and added subscribers. The quarters in the 9th street building were outgrown by 1908 and larger ones were secured in the rear of Jim McCoy's new building on Central Avenue which had just been constructed on the site of the McCoy Livery Barn. Craven and Lum, Attorney and Abstractor, occupied the front rooms in the building and the Foster County Independent had the entire basement floor for its plant. Now, 1980, the Independent occupies the entire building. The telephone exchange remained in that location until their new quarters across the street on Central Avenue were built in 1929.
Expansion of the Independent Telephone's system began immediately under the new management and managers. In the first few years most of them stayed only for a year or two. Among them were F.W. Barron and a Mr. Weberg in 1908 followed by a Mr. Herschel and then a Mr. Chapel. Louis S. Craswell came in 1912 and remained in Carrington until 1918 when he went to Bismarck as District Manager. In the same year, he married a local girl, Irene Phoebe Farrell, the daughter of William and Maria (McVey) Farrell, pioneers of Barlow and Birtsell Township.
The Carrington Telephone Exchange was purchased from Jones, Weiser & Cox by the North Dakota Independent Telephone Company on August 1, 1906, and was acquired by the Northwestern Company in a merger in March, 1924.
A one‑story brick building was constructed in Carrington in 1929 which, according to Company records, had modern conveniences including a hot water heating system. Central Office equipment included two local and two toll positions. The terminal room equipment had been manufactured by the Western Electric Company.
The Company converted to a dial system in 1957. Work also began that year on an addition to provide space for a Business Office and new Central Office equipment. A news release written in 1957 says, "Converting Carrington's telephone system to dial is going to be largely a matter of 'pulling strings' when it's time for the final step. On the old Central office equipment frame, a series of carefully threaded strings will be pulled at a given signal which will flick tiny heat coils out of their sockets breaking the circuits they now connect. An instant later, a pair of larger cords will be pulled in the new dial equipment room and with this movement, the strings will pull dozens of fiber separators from between contact points which will then close and connect every telephone in the Carrington Exchange to the new dial equipment."
The conversion to a dial telephone system on November 3, 1957, marked the completion of a $100,000 telephone improvement project in Carrington.
Direct distance dialing was made available in 1965, and in 1970, Touch‑Tone service was being offered. In 1970, there were 1,665 telephones serving Carrington customers.
In 1976, a $150,000 project to replace mufti‑party lines with one‑party lines was undertaken. With the project completion, all customers had zone telephone service and buried cable. Automatic Number Identification also went into effect in 1976.
Today, there are 2,795 telephones in Carrington.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 443