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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts 1877-1930
1
Mickey M. C. Johnston
L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 06726 3324
GC 974.4 W69T
TRACING THE TELEPHONE IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 1877- 1930
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/tracingtelephone00wils
WILLIAM J. DENVER
Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts 1877-1930
Compiled and Edited by CLARK M. WILSON
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
1958
COPYRIGHT, 1958, BY CLARK M. WILSON
DESIGNED AND PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY GEORGE MCKIBBIN & SON, BRATTLEBORO, VT.
Acknowledgments
The information regarding the early telephone business in Western Massachusetts was obtained principally from con- temporary newspapers. Fortunately, the libraries in the larger communities have maintained volumes of newspapers dating back to long before the birth of the telephone,-June 2, 1875.
The library people were found to be very obliging and helpful, and the many visits, especially to the Springfield and Northampton libraries, did not seem to wear out their pa- tience.
Miss Alice Moore, of the Connecticut Valley Historical Li- brary, Springfield, provided interesting material concerning the early Springfield telephone history.
The libraries which were visited in quest of early telephone history were as follows:
Connecticut Valley Historical Library, Springfield
Springfield City Library
Forbes Library, Northampton
Holyoke City Library
Westfield Athenaeum
Young Men's Library Association, Palmer
Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield
North Adams Public Library
Mason Library, Great Barrington
Greenfield Public Library
The Springfield Daily Republican was the chief dissemi- nator of news events occurring throughout Western and Cen- tral Massachusetts and Vermont, and even carried a column headed "Eastern Massachusetts."
Other city newspapers contributed valuable local and sub-
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Acknowledgments
urban news regarding the early telephone business in their areas, and provided other interesting information.
The newspapers which were chiefly consulted were: Springfield Daily Republican
Holyoke Transcript
Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier
Western Hampden Times and Westfield News-Letter 4
Palmer Journal Berkshire County Eagle, Pittsfield
The Sun, Pittsfield
Adams Transcript, North Adams
Berkshire Courier, Great Barrington
Greenfield Gazette and Courier
After the organization of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, October 19, 1883, the telephone be- came accepted as a permanent affair and news items regard- ing it became increasingly scant.
Fortunately, Telephone Topics was started in May, 1907, and a reliable record of the telephone's progress has been recorded.
As far as is known, there is only one complete set of Tele- phone Topics in Western Massachusetts. John H. Armstrong, who joined the New England Telephone Co.'s Plant Depart- ment in 1903, maintained a file of Telephone Topics and also kept extra copies. In 1924, recognizing the methodical nature of William R. Parkinson, who had joined the Springfield Plant Department in July, 1922, John supplied him with the copies he didn't have, and "Bill" has carefully filed each num- ber since then. The privilege of using this complete set of Topics has been of inestimable value.
Thomas A. Watson's autobiography, Exploring Life, pub- lished by D. Appleton and Company, and Beginnings of Te- lephony by Frederick Leland Rhodes, published by Harper & Brothers, have supplied timely information.
Thanks are extended to the many telephone men and women for their kindness in providing interesting informa- tion of the bygone days and also choice pictures.
Contents
Acknowledgments V
1. Introduction of the Electric Speaking Telephone and Private Lines 3
2. The Springfield Telephone Company and the Dis- 11 trict Telephone and Automatic Signal Company
3. Consolidation of the Springfield and the District Telephone Companies 26
4. Start of the Pittsfield and North Adams Exchanges 39
5. Western Massachusetts Telephone Company: Pitts- field-North Adams-Adams Exchanges 56
6. Western Massachusetts Telephone Company: Northampton-Westfield-Greenfield Exchanges 77
7. Start of the Palmer Exchange
95
8. Hampden Telephone Company: Springfield-
104
Holyoke Exchanges 109
9. Bay State Telephone Company
10. Bay State Telephone Company: Springfield-
Holyoke Exchanges 114
11. Bay State Telephone Company: Northampton- Palmer-Westfield Exchanges 118
12. Bay State Telephone Company: Pittsfield-North Adams-Adams-Great Barrington-Greenfield Exchanges 131
13. New England Telephone and Telegraph Company 152
14. Events Pertinent to Western Massachusetts 156
15. Pittsfield Exchange Area 168
16. North Adams Exchange Area 192
17. Great Barrington Exchange Area 205
18. Greenfield Exchange Area 219
19. Independent Telephone Companies 238
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Contents
254
20. Holyoke Exchange Area
21. Northampton Exchange Area 267
22. Interviews with Telephone Agents 298
23. Palmer Exchange Area 310
24. Westfield Exchange Area
319
25. William J. Denver Chapter, Telephone Pioneers of America 33.0
26. Springfield Exchange Area: October 19, 1883-1919
336
27. Springfield Exchange Area 1920-1926 367
28. Springfield Exchange Area 1927-1930
402
TRACING THE TELEPHONE IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 1877-1930
CHAPTER 1 Introduction of the Electric Speaking Telephone and Private Lines
AFTER the issue of Alexander Graham Bell's fundamental patent U.S. No. 174,465, March 7, 1876, a little over a year elapsed before the telephone was introduced to Western Mas- sachusetts. Of course it had been improved somewhat during this time; and, evidently, there was still considerable room for improvement.
The excitement caused by the announcement in the papers that Professor Bell was to visit Springfield with his telephone May 12, 1877, can best be gleaned from a perusal of the follow- ing items appearing in the Springfield Daily Republican from May 8 to 12:
"We are to have Professor Bell and his telephone Saturday evening and the details of the telephonic exhibition have been arranged. Professor Bell is to be stationed in the Springfield City Hall, which is to be connected with the Pittsfield Academy of Music, with Westfield as the way station.
"There will be a brief explanatory lecture by Professor Bell and then for an hour a concert of vocal solos and duets, cornet solos, and organ playing to be sent through the telephone from Westfield.
"Afterward some of our prominent citizens are to talk with Judge Colt and others at Pittsfield over fifty miles of wire. Wires will be stretched from the City Hall to the Western Union office, by courtesy of William J. Denver, Manager.
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
There are to be four telephones at the City Hall so that the concert at Westfield may be heard to the best advantage. Tickets go on sale at Gorham and Wood's Friday, 25 cents, 35 cents for reserved seats.
"A considerable Northampton party is coming down to the novel performance and a train will be run after the concert from this city to Easthampton and Northampton and a delega- tion from Williston Seminary will thus be able to attend the concert."
The above news items, supplemented by a small advertise- ment, afforded the concert plenty of publicity. Professor Bell, whose chief means of livelihood, at that time, was teaching his father's system of "Visible Speech" at Boston University, ar- rived in Springfield safe and sound. Fred Gower, a young newspaper man of Providence, who was business manager of Bell's lectures, went on to Pittsfield. Professor Bell, no doubt, was conveyed to the City Hall in a little wooden horse car, and settled back to inspect the sights of Main St., as the horses jogged along. Springfield was then a city of about 33,000.
The outcome of this exciting demonstration can be best learned from parts of an editorial and a news article appearing next day in the same paper:
"The telephone concert was entirely a success in showing the nature and workings of the invention, although the instru- ment is not yet advanced enough to transmit speech or music for any public purpose. There was one telephone on the plat- form and two others at other points of the City Hall, where an exceptionally fine audience was gathered. Professor A. Graham Bell, the inventor, made a brief address and his assistant, Mr. Gower, a similar one at Pittsfield, explaining the nature of the instrument, which is a wooden box, somewhat smaller than an ordinary photographer's camera. The playing of the cabinet organ at Westfield resulted in the reproduction of the tunes at Springfield and Pittsfield, rather more faintly than the original but still clearly distinguishable except when the inevitable late-comers disturbed the audience. The reproductions were rather more audible in Springfield than at Pittsfield, the tele-
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
graph line at this end being made with soldered joints, but with merely twisted joints from Westfield to Pittsfield. Profes- sor Bell carried on conversation with the operator at Westfield and with Mr. Gower at Pittsfield, their words being audible but indistinguishable to the audience. Bell remarked that the possibilities of the telephone were only partly known, but Saturday night's experiments gave a satisfactory idea of what it is hoped to accomplish by it.
"That the conversational capacities of the telephone are, even in its present imperfect condition, equal to genuine use- fulness seems obvious. Among the purposes to which it will be applied first are for conveying intelligence in mines, which is already under consideration, and for communicating from one office with a large number of factories for which a prominent New England manufacturer intends to utilize it, and for the benefit of divers beneath the ocean.
"The public is indebted to Mr. George H. Cary of the First Pittsfield Grammar School for its evening with the telephone, and we regret to learn that he is likely to lose money by his venture. The audience at the Pittsfield end was a losing one, and our big hall full did not make its expected returns."
Eleven days after this demonstration, Mr. Gower was back in Springfield, stopping at the Haynes House, where he was ready to consult with parties wishing to introduce telephones for purposes of business or experiment. Several proprietors of large business concerns and manufactories in Springfield and Holyoke were interested.
The Holyoke Transcript of June 2, 1877, had this article: "Two of Professor Bell's agents were in Holyoke Thursday ad- justing telephonic boxes to the telegraph wire connecting the two mills of the Whiting Paper Co. The distance between the mills is about one-fouth of a mile. The employees whose busi- ness it is to send communication are quickly learning to use it. The box is about a foot long and about six inches square. In- side is a horse-shoe magnet and the iron membrane. The tele- phone company rent two boxes to business concerns for forty dollars per year, and ten dollars per box for each additional box. The rate between an office and a dwelling house or be-
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
tween two dwelling houses is twenty dollars. Experiments are constantly being made and any new discoveries will be added to the leased boxes."
On July 19, 1877, the Republican described an improved telephone as follows: "The telephone is now made in a smaller and more convenient form, consisting now of a circular mouth- piece about two inches across with a handle some three inches long, at the other end of which the wires are attached. The bar magnet is contained in the handle and the small, vibrating disk is within the mouth-piece. Two of these are generally placed at each end of a route that a person may hear more plainly by holding them to both ears. An arrangement has been made for an electro-magnet call bell, to be used when one wishes to begin conversation, which costs $15 additional. The Whiting Mills of Holyoke are now supplied with the new style of double-barreled telephones."
August 20, 1877, the Republican announced that "Manager Denver of the Western Union Telegraph Co. has the agency for the introduction of the telephone with Professor Bell's lat- est improvements. The Gas Company have a line in working order from their office in the old Savings bank building to the Gas works."
Giles Blague, historian of Springfield's 100th anniversary of city government, relates that in 1877 four neighbors and friends decided to have a four party private line for social and business purposes. They were Lewis J. Powers, Charles A. Nichols, Henry S. Hyde, and Elisha Morgan.
Competition for the attention of the public, however, was heightened by the introduction of Edison's phonograph. It was placed on exhibition in Springfield in May of 1878; and visited other communities, talking, singing, and laughing for the en- tertainment of the people.
An interesting story concerning this new form of entertain- ment appeared in the Republican, June 7: "While the Hamp- den hall phonograph was reproducing the words of Professor Pike, an elderly lady, who sat patiently on one of the front benches, suddenly exclaimed, 'Now Mr. Phonograph man, you can't fool me any longer if you can the rest of the people. I'm going to look inside of them doors,' referring to doors in
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
the counter on which the phonograph rested, 'an I'll bet I can find a man or boy helpin' you fool this crowd.' The professor stood aside and the old lady looked and found no one, upon which she said, 'Well, you beat the circus. You are the best ventriloquist I ever heard. But don't you think you can make me believe that thing can talk.' "
As the length of communication was increased, it occurred to several progressive business men, who had enterprises both in Springfield and Holyoke, to have them connected by tele- phone. On Oct. 9, 1878, the Holyoke Transcript mentioned that Metcalf and Luther and E. S. Fay were making efforts to organize a stock company to establish a telephonic line be- tween Springfield and Holyoke. December 23rd, this Tran- script news item appeared:
"The new private concern, in which W. H. Wilkinson is a leading spirit, had a force of 15 men at work last week setting the poles. They had got beyond Chicopee Saturday night. This side of Brightwood, the wire will be strung for the present, at least, on the fire alarm telegraph poles, and south of Franklin Street, on the houses. No great objection is made by anybody to the new poles, though once in a while a man would like to have them run through the back lots. The city engineer is to see that the poles are put where they ought to go."
Three days later another item disclosed that in order to make their poles in Chicopee and elsewhere as free as possible from objection, the owners intend painting their poles in vil- lages. Not content with that, Mr. Reynolds, who was building the line, explained that due to the approaching cold weather the work was done rapidly, and there was but little time to get expressions from property-holders, but he would be glad to meet interested parties with a view to learning their wishes for any changes.
About three weeks later, when the line was nearly com- pleted, the stockholders were much perturbed by a hitch in the undertaking, which is best explained by the Republican's reporter: "It seems that the selectmen of the town of Chicopee at first told the company that they could run the line through
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
the place for $25 or $50, and the work was pushed through with that understanding. But the alleged defacement of the streets raised such a howl of indignation that the selectmen backed down, and now say that $300 is the least possible sum that will soothe the wounded feelings of Chicopee. The com- pany have had full permission to set their poles in the limits of Springfield, running part of the way on the fire-alarm tele- graph poles, and there is no incumbrance in Holyoke, as they run along the banks of the canal."
It is consoling to read that a citizen of Chicopee took a dif- ferent view and expressed it in these imposing words: "Since the telephone is but one of the treasures, by the aid of science, born of nature, to stifle the breath of these new comers is simply an expression of barbarism that we are not prepared to believe still lurks in the nature of the people in this vicinity."
It is not known whether it was this touching sentiment or the Company's willingness to make good any damage done- with an implied threat to move their poles to the other side of the Connecticut River, thus depriving the town of future bene- fits-but, anyway, after a short "cooling off" period, the Re- publican announced that the selectmen have come down from $300 to $50 in their demand on the telephone company.
Evidently, this concession was acceptable to the irate stock- holders, for no further mention of this financial transaction is recorded. Telephonic connections were finished in Holyoke Jan. 18, 1879. The stock owners applied for incorporation un- der the name of the Springfield Holyoke Telephone Co. Its importance to the progress of the telephone business is shown by this Republican article:
"The telephone line which J. F. Reynolds, representing the New England Telephone Co., (not the present New England Telephone & Telegraph Co.) has put up between this city and Holyoke is the first private line between two towns, so far as known, and is the longest private line in New England and probably in the United States. Including the connections, it has taken twelve miles of wire and has nine or more stations. The voices of different individuals can be distinguished, and conversation carried on as easily as through a line of 100 feet.
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
Mr. Reynolds, W. H. Wilkinson, E. D. Metcalf and E. S. Brad- ford own equal shares of the line. The telephones themselves, with the call-bell attachments, are rented of the Bell Tele- phone Co., who never sell the instruments. Mr. Reynolds has also put up private lines in Springfield for A. L. Moffit, J. M. Cowan, W. O. Collins, John Bangs, George Fisk, and the Armory, some ten miles of wire in all. There are seven stations at the Armory, one of them being at the Water-Shops. Besides these, he has put up about 55 miles in the surrounding towns."
On Feb. 26, 1879, there appeared the first newspaper men- tion of establishing a telephone exchange in Springfield like one in New Haven. Quoting the Republican:
"A circuit line for the city is talked of, connecting merchants with their customers, etc. There is said to be such a line (sys- tem) in New Haven, Conn. which has some 300 stations. There is a central switching station, where the connections are made, and when a woman, for instance, wants to order her dinner she speaks to the switching station, and asks to be put in com- munication with her butcher or grocer, and it is all done in a moment. But one person can use the line at a time."
A Springfield item first mentions Frank Daboll:
"F. G. Daboll, the agent, put in a Draper's acoustics speak- ing telephone yesterday for Dr. William G. Breck, connecting his house on Round Hill with his barn a distance of about a 1000 feet. Wilson Eddy has also had one strung between his house on Cyprus Street and the Boston and Albany shops."
Before embarking on the next phase of the telephone busi- ness, it might be well to scan the following items from the Republican and Holyoke Transcript to see how our forbears disported themselves in those elysian days:
All the high school boys are writing to President Hayes, and quite a number were made happy in receiving a card bearing his name-written in a bold strong hand. (The girls, as of to- day, were too modest.)
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
A 200 pound sturgeon was caught near Willimansett. Pick- erel fishing is now the chief sport, and frequent parties are made up for Hampton and Southwick ponds, while occasion- ally some specially enthusiastic fishermen go to far-away Otis, and pretend to like the trip into the polar regions. The river is full of good sized black bass. About 10,000 young salmon have been placed in Ashley Pond. Measures have been taken in Connecticut to let Salmon run up to and over the Holyoke dam.
The bicycle rink was opened in Sovereign's Hall on Bridge Street last evening with a lively patronage. The bicycle is a ticklish affair to manage at the outset but is soon controlled; and those, who have had velocipede experience, have little trouble with it.
Joseph Pepin, Holyoke, has built a pair of stairs from his skating rink house to the ice edge of the upper canal, where he has his amusement field fenced in. He has had his rink planed down and polished off.
The walking mania has again struck Holyoke. The Benson- Gardner walk at Parsons Hall started yesterday at 11 A.M., and at 8 P.M. Benson had walked 38 miles and Gardner 40. Ben- son's last mile was the quickest, in 10 minutes and 24 seconds.
A party of sixteen of the first business men of Springfield and their wives visited the Holyoke House on a sleigh ride last evening and had a private supper. The party was chaperoned by N. A. Winans.
The steamer Dexter will take parties from Holyoke, who wish to go to the ball game in Springfield on next Saturday, between the Holyokes and Springfields, for 50 cents including admission to the park and return.
The Binghamton Republican tells of a lady who can't see why baseball players change pitchers so often. She thinks they ought to get one that would hold enough in the first place.
CHAPTER 2 The Springfield Telephone Company and the District Telephone and Automatic Signal Company
NEW HAVEN, Conn., was the first city to have a commercial telephone central office. A crude switchboard, with 21 stations, was set up by George W. Coy Jan. 28, 1878. Lowell's telephone exchange took the honors in Mass .- April 19, 1878.
Springfield had progressed in the telephone art to a point, where it too, was a likely prospect for such an enterprise. It is no wonder then that there appeared in the Springfield Daily Republican Feb. 28, 1879, the following momentous news:
"The admirable system of local telephone communication is to be introduced in Springfield by the District Telephone & Automatic Signal Co. of New Haven. This is a company in- corporated under the laws of Conn. for the purpose of owning and operating the district telephone in six cities: New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Meriden, Middletown and New Britain. In three of these places the system is in successful working order, New Haven furnishing 550 stations, Hartford, where the company began business only six weeks ago, 250 and Meri- den 75. Its capital stock when fully organized will be $40,000 which is being rapidly taken up in the cities named. In other cities the existing private lines have mostly been consolidated with this general service, and such will, no doubt, be the case here, even the Holyoke line being perhaps merged into the
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Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts
new company. The convenience of this plan of quick local communication can hardly be overestimated. It answers all the purposes of the district telegraph, and does a great deal more, connecting business men with their homes, merchants with their customers and lessening the friction of domestic life. The Bell telephone is the one used by this company."
H. P. Frost, President and Treasurer, and G. W. Coy, Secre- tary and Supt., of the "Nutmeg" Company, must have been somewhat taken back, when they became acquainted with the ominous news published in the same paper about a week later:
"Springfield promises to be uncommonly well provided with telephone communication. Local Telegraph Manager William J. Denver evidently does not mean to have his lately established messenger system superseded by an outside con- cern. He has accordingly secured the approval and cooperation of the Western Union management, and has already issued circulars soliciting subscribers for telephones. The charge for the ordinary service on a circuit wire will be $22 a year, the same rate established by the New Haven Co. For separate wires, which remove the annoyance of any but the indi- vidual signal, a higher but still very reasonable price will be asked. Mr. Denver is well equipped by his experience and posi- tion, as well as by his local acquaintance and reputation, for the successful management of this enterprise, and is likely to give the New Haven company a pretty hard push for the field. The territory covered will be from Brightwood to Mill river and from Lake Como to the Conn. river." Lake Como, alias Goose Pond, lay close to State Street between what is now Catherine and Andrew Streets.
The rival companies lost no time in securing sites for their offices. The District Telephone & Automatic Signal Co., also referred to in the papers as the New Haven Co., the Bell Co., and the District Telephone Co., was the first to announce that it had taken a five years' lease of rooms on the second floor of the Second National Bank block, 407 Main Street. This was where the Valley Bank & Trust Co. is located.
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