USA > Massachusetts > Tracing the telephone in western Massachusetts, 1877-1930 > Part 13
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Whately depot, for the use of the public, and one for the ac- commodation of Bartlett Bros., the building contractor.
At the time of the foregoing events, Greenfield was a peace- ful country town, having a population in 1880 of 3903. The town of Montague, which includes Turners Falls and Millers Falls, was the largest town in Franklin County, with 4875 in- habitants. Shelburne and Northfield were about 1600 each, Colrain and Conway about 1780, Bernardston 934 and Charl- mont 932.
Railroads received their share of attention in the Gazette and Courier. There were several short lines which, connected together, made the "Tunnel Road" from Boston to Troy. The Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company, the Fitchburg Rail- road Company, the Troy and Boston Railroad Company and the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railroad Company all had a "finger in the pie," so to speak. The completion of the Hoosac Tunnel in 1876 proved quite a stimulus to these roads.
The Connecticut River Railroad, now the Boston & Maine, served Greenfield from the south, and the Vermont and Mass. Railroad had trackage, 52 miles of which were double tracked.
By taking a short ride or walk to Cheapside one could board a train South on the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, which had built an extension from Northampton to Turners Falls and one to Bardwell's Ferry, where it connected with the "Tunnel" route.
There were a few manufacturing concerns in and about Greenfield, and the financial interests were quick to organize an electric company. The following is taken from the Gazette and Courier of March 1, 1880: "The Greenfield Power Co. will meet to perfect their organization Thursday evening. The capital will be $8,000, and the shares will be $100 each. Nearly if not quite all the stock is taken. The company have received a letter from a New York man enquiring as to the encourage- ment he can get to locate a button factory in Greenfield." Eight days later, the button company had begun a steam-power building 125 feet long and two stories high in the old agri- cultural lot.
Some of the manufacturing concerns were-Greenfield
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Tool Co .; Spurr Mf'g. Co .; Stratton Bros., levels; Millers Falls Co., in Millers Falls; Montague Paper Co., and in Turners Falls-The Keith Paper Co .; John Russell Cutlery Co .; The Clark Machine Co., pumps; and the Turners Falls Water Power Co.
The graduating exercises of the class of 1883, Greenfield High School, in Washington Hall, honored the ten members with diplomas. The class was wholly composed of young ladies, who had the pleasure of reading their own essays.
Arms Academy, in Shelburne Falls, was a well conducted school, with about 75 scholars and a full corps of able-bodied teachers. The Prospect Hill School for Girls was mentioned quite frequently, too.
The Bay State Telephone Co. terminated its 14 months and 3 weeks of fruitful service when it participated in the forma- tion of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Co., and further events relating to the telephone business in Greenfield will be found in Chapter 18.
CHAPTER 13
New England Telephone and Telegraph Company
THE stage was now set for the consolidation of several of the telephone companies which served most of New England. For some time there had been rumors of such a merger, and on Oct. 12, 1883, the Springfield Daily Republican announced that negotiations for another consolidation of New England telephone exchanges have been completed at Boston, and meetings of stockholders for ratification have been called.
Before proceeding further with a subject which involves the New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., an existent cor- poration, it may be advisable to state that while the data pre- sented herein is believed to be correct, it cannot be guaran- teed,-et cetera.
The stockholders of the Suburban, Bay State, and Boston & Northern Telephone Companies met at Lowell and voted unanimously in favor of consolidation. The National Bell - Telephone Co. of Maine and the Granite State Telephone Co. held its stockholders' meetings on October 18 and 19 at Portland and Manchester, respectively, and voted to cast in their lot with the other New England companies.
The nucleus of this consolidation was the Telephone Dis- patch Co. of Boston, which was owned by the American Bell Telephone Co.
Excerpts from a news account, which described in more de- tail the terms of settlement, are taken from the Springfield Daily Republican:
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The Telephone Consolidation
"The terms of the consolidation of the American Bell Tele- phone Co.'s Boston interests with those of the New England companies controlled by the Lowell syndicate, are published. The new company is to have a capital of $12,000,000, to be dis- tributed as follows: National Bell of Maine, $1,350,000; Bos- ton and Northern, $980,000; Bay State, $840,000; Suburban, $603,700; Granite State, $121,500; Boston Dispatch, (for prop- erty, etc.) $1,947,600; American Bell, $4,058,400 (41%); total of $9,901,200. Of the balance of $2,098,800 remaining in the treasury, $1,238,300 is to be sold for working capital, and $860,500 (41%) given to the American Bell Telephone Co. for franchises."
An article in the Springfield Daily Union shed further light upon this subject:
The Telephone Arrangement
"The new telephone consolidation plan includes the sur- render by the existing companies of their present licenses and rights. The name of the consolidated company is to be "The New England Telephone & Telegraph Co.", and it is to be organized under the New York law as the Mass. law prohibits the organization of companies with greater capital than $1,000,000, except by special act of the Legislature. The head- quarters will be at Boston and the Lowell syndicate, who will have the active management, will remove their offices to Bos- ton about November 1. The officers of the new company will probably be as follows: Theodore N. Vail, President; William A. Ingham, Vice-president; William R. Driver, Treasurer; Charles J. Glidden, Secretary; Loren N. Downs, General Man- ager; Theodore N. Vail, Charles P. Bowditch, J. E. Hudson, Charles J. Glidden, Frederick Ayer, William H. Forbes, Al- exander Cochran, William A. Ingham, Stephen Salisbury, Jr., Directors. Theodore N. Vail, William A. Ingham and one other, Executive Committee. It is believed that the securing of the Boston Exchange, which, it is thought, will soon have 5,000 subscribers, will enable the consolidated company to
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pay 6 per cent dividends on its capital, and that the perpetual contracts which it secures will more than offset the increased holdings in its stock given to the American Bell Co.
"The Pioneer Telephone Co. of Lowell, which owned two telephone lines between Lowell and Boston, sold its franchise and property to the New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. at the rate of one share of Pioneer stock for four of New England. The Pioneer Company had been paying dividends of over 30 per cent."
The partition of the new company into divisions was de- scribed by the Greenfield Gazette and Courier of Dec. 24, 1883: "At a recent meeting of the Directors of the New Eng- land Telephone and Telegraph Co., it was decided to divide the territory into six divisions, as follows: Boston Division, in- cluding that city and suburban towns, in charge of Col. Plymp- ton of Boston; Essex County Division, comprising Salem, Haverhill and Lawrence, in charge of S. F. Smith of Salem; Worcester Division, taking Lowell, Nashua, Worcester and Fitchburg, in charge of W. H. Black of Worcester; Portland Division, including Portland, Bangor and Southern Maine, in charge of W. A. Farnum of Portland; Western Division, in- cluding Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton, Palmer, West- field, Pittsfield, North Adams, Great Barrington and Green- field, in charge of F. G. Daboll of Springfield; Northern Divi- sion, including Northern Worcester and Franklin Counties in Mass., and the states of Vermont and New Hampshire (excepting Nashua and Concord, which go into the Worcester Division) in charge of J. B. Hunt of Greenfield. The Northern Division office will for the present remain in Greenfield."
The organization of the New England Telephone & Tele- graph Co. did not bring immediate prosperity to the stock- holders, but hope for a brighter future was held out in this Republican item of March 27, 1884: "The Directors of the New England Telephone Co. at a meeting at Boston today voted unanimously to pass the dividend for the present quarter and use the money for construction purposes. The Company's business is increasing and it is having good net earnings and its managers say that it will, in a short time, be able to meet its
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construction expenses and pay dividends out of its earnings."
On Feb. 1, 1884, the New England Telephone Co.'s stock sold for 4412. March 27th, when the dividend was passed, it sold down to 291/2 and by June 30th it had declined to 19. A business depression had started in early 1883, which, no doubt, added to the decline of the stock. During the latter part of 1884 more confidence in the business outlook developed, and the price of the stock rose to 36, and continued to improve with the growth of the Company.
The presidents of the New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., and the years in which they were elected were: Theodore N. Vail in 1883, Thomas Sherwin in 1885, Jasper N. Keller in 1910, Philip L. Spalding in 1912, Matt B. Jones in 1919, John J. Robinson in 1934, Joe E. Harrell in 1944 and Erskine N. White in 1956.
CHAPTER 14
Events Pertinent to Western Massachusetts
THE first New England Telephone Topics modestly made its appearance in May, 1907. The cover bore the picture of Theo- dore N. Vail, President of the American Telephone & Tele- graph Co.
The first paragraph of the first editorial entitled "Whys and Wherefores" is quoted: "Telephone Topics does not claim to fill any 'long felt want.' It represents, at the moment, only the concentrated enthusiasm of a few employees of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. Their enthu- siasm crystalized into a theory that a publication of this kind would be a valuable educational medium for the exchange of ideas and information, and for developing the esprit de corps. They advanced this theory so persistently that the Company, after some deliberation, assented to it. Briefly this is, to date, the life history of the publication.
May, 1907, Topics-The Telephone Employees' Associa- tion of New England. .
The Telephone Employees' Association was started in No- vember, 1900, with 21 members. It was the successor of one that had been in successful operation for ten years, but which practically was limited to employees of the Boston Division. To extend the benefits of such an organization, the new society was formed.
John A. McCoy, Division Engineer, Boston Division, was one of the founders of the present organization, and is one of the Board of Directors and Secretary. The twenty-one men
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who responded to a letter he wrote, formed the nucleus of the present Society.
There were two classes of membership: Class A, which hadn't been developed to any extent thus far, was intended to be the social and educational feature of the Association; the Class B section, the principal purport of the Association, had to do with the financial benefits.
Sept., 1907, Topics-The Telephone Society of New Eng- land.
This Society was organized in Boston in 1902. Every male employee of the A.T.&T.Co., the N.E.T.&T.Co., or any other licensee company of the A.T.&T.Co., is eligible for member- ship, the annual dues being $2.00, meetings being held on the second Tuesday of each month from October to June, inclu- sive, and that papers on subjects interesting to telephone men were presented at each meeting.
Operating Reorganization
Topics of August, 1908, reported the Operating Reorgani- zation, effective Aug. 1, 1908, involving the establishment of three departments-Commercial, Plant and Traffic. In place of the Division Superintendents, there were Division Com- mercial, Plant and Traffic Superintendents. The Divisions, now comprising Boston and Southern, Mass., Central, Western and Eastern, were divided into districts, which were headed by district Commercial Managers, Plant Chiefs and Traffic Chiefs. The Western Division had four districts,-Springfield, Pittsfield, Worcester and Greenfield.
Merger of Telephone Societies
Topics of May, 1911: A joint committee appointed by the Telephone Employees' Association of New England and the Telephone Society of New England to consider the practica- bility of merging the two societies makes these recommenda- tions:
(1) That a new society shall be formed to take the place of the Class A section of the Telephone Association and of the Telephone Society.
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(2) That this Society shall be called the Telephone and Telegraph Society of New England.
(3) That any male employee of the New England Tele- phone Co. and the associated companies, and of the American Telephone Co. and the Western Union Telegraph Co. may be eligible for membership.
(4) That the purpose of the society shall be to cultivate in its members an intelligent appreciation of the im- portance and value of telephone service, and to en'- courage and aid them to fit themselves for their present and future responsibilities and to co-operate with the company in the development of an efficient and enthu- siastic force.
Death of Thomas Sanders
Aug., 1911, Topics-The foster father of the telephone died at Derry, N. H., August 7, nearly 72 years of age. He financed Bell, endowed him with hope as well as with funds, and by his rare optimism encouraged Bell to renewed effort at moments when he was on the verge of despairing.
Professor Bell went to live with the Sanders family, in Salem, as teacher of their deaf-mute child, George. He carried his dream of the sound-carrying invention with him to Salem.
Here Bell was given permission to use the cellar of the house as his work shop. For the next three years this cellar was his favorite retreat, no outsiders being allowed to enter it. Often in the middle of the night he would call Mr. Sanders to see if he thought there was any improvement in his machine.
Worcester Fire
A disastrous fire occurred in the Worcester Telephone building at 2:45 on Saturday morning on March 28, 1914, which put out of commission every local line in the two ex- changes, Park and Cedar.
Within an hour after the fire, the work of restoration com- menced. The Company executives gathered and determined on the essential things to do. Before noon 200 of the most skillful switchboard and plant men were on the job being summoned from Boston, Providence, Springfield, Pittsfield
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and many other places. The long, hard, steady pull continued until, at last, nine days from the start, the end came.
Fortunately, the permanent Cedar switchboard had not been quite completed, the subscribers being served on a tem- porary switchboard. At the time of the fire there was not a wire on the Cedar intermediate frame. In 24 hours it was in complete working order and service was being given in that exchange to 3,000 subscribers.
The Park switchboard had to be restored to its former con- dition. It is estimated that on the Park intermediate frame alone over 12,000,000 feet of wire were removed and replaced by dry wire, and the total number of soldered connections ag- gregated hundreds of thousands.
Transcontinental Line Opened
The ceremonies connected with the celebration of the open- ing of the telephone line from Boston to San Francisco were held at 125 Milk Street, Boston, at 8 P.M., Jan. 25, 1915. There were about 150 guests there. Philip L. Spalding, Presi- dent of the New England Telephone Co., presided at the meet- ing, acting for the American Telephone Co.
The historic achievement prior to this was the opening of the Boston-Chicago line on Feb. 7, 1893, by Governor Russell of Mass. And it was only in 1871 that Alexander Graham Bell came to Boston as a teacher of visible speech.
Wireless Telephony
The Nov., 1915, Topics reported another wonderful event. Within less than a year after the first talk across the continent by wire, another stupendous achievement of the engineering corps of the American Telephone Co. followed. On Wednes- day afternoon, Sept. 27, 1915, the human voice traveled be- tween New York and San Francisco without the aid of wire, by means of wireless telephone apparatus and methods devel- oped by the Engineers of the Bell System.
New Credit Union
April, 1917, Topics-Several men in the Commercial De- partment of the Company have organized the Workers' Credit Union for the benefit of those who want to borrow money at a
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fair rate of interest. Any member who desires a temporary loan will not be obliged to mortgage his furniture or make an assignment of wages. This new organization by employees and for employees permits shareholders to borrow without security of any kind, and receives deposits and pays interest on monthly balances.
War Activities
Telephone Topics of May, 1917,-American flags are now displayed in nearly every operating room in our territory and from many central office buildings the stars and stripes wave in the breeze.
Many members of the Company have been chosen for serv- ice on the various public safety committees of four of the states in New England.
One man now governs the telephones, Theodore N. Vail, President of the American Telephone Co. For the first time in telephone history regular and independents are working together side by side for the good of the country.
On October 24, Topics reported that President Spalding had received a call for war service. That night he departed, commissioned a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Signal Corps. Vice- President Jones assumed the responsibility of directing the affairs of the Company in President Spalding's absence.
Farewell parties to departing men and women abounded throughout the Company. The Telephone Operators Unit for service in France was one of the big features of the Liberty Loan Parade, as 80,000 people, men and women, marched through Boston's streets on April 6, 1918, the telephone sec- tion being headed by Vice-President Jones and General Man- ager Driver, Chief of Aides.
The third Liberty Loan was subscribed to by 10,200 em- ployees (more than 75% of the total number). Knitting clubs did valiant duty, providing soldiers and sailors with warm stockings and sweaters. Thrift Stamp campaigns and numerous parades also were well supported by the employees.
On Nov. 13, 1918, it was Colonel Spalding of the United States Army; on November 14 it was again President Spalding of the New England Telephone Co. Many articles now ap-
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peared in Topics telling of the return of our boys and girls and relating their experiences.
Jan., 1919, Topics-Multiplex Telephony.
Another triumph of science has been accomplished by the technical staff of the Bell System. Working together for years they have devised and developed an invention for multiplex telephony and telegraphy that is sensational in attainments. By their engineering skill they have made it possible to hold five telephone conversations simultaneously, or send forty simultaneous telegraph messages over a single pair of wires. A pair of wires can also be used partly for telephone and partly for telegraph purposes.
This new system has solved the problem upon which Dr. Alexander Graham Bell was working over forty years ago when he invented the telephone. It will be of great value in increasing the message-carrying capacity of long telephone and telegraph wires, but will not be practical on short lines.
It was while working on the problem of multiplex teleg- raphy that Dr. Bell had his first conception of the structure of the original telephone.
June, 1919, Topics-May 23 the 401st Telegraph Battalion, with more than 180 men, commanded by Major L. W. Abbot, landed in Brooklyn and were welcomed by President Jones and other officials. On May 28, a wonderful reception met them on their arrival in Boston-a parade, dinner and dance.
The New Telephone Society
The Telephone and Telegraph Society of New England held many interesting meetings and its membership grew apace. As time went on, however, the Chapter activities dimin- ished, and fewer members attended to discuss phases of the telephone art or to listen to other topics.
The Traffic Chapter, however, conducted a successful pro- gram each year and many of the meetings were attended by other Company Employees.
In November, 1919, the Traffic Chapter voted to assume the name of the Telephone Society and to take in the same number of members from other departments and the Amer- ican Company as there were Traffic members. Its only mission
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was to promote good-fellowship and to create and maintain an interest in telephone subjects and other subjects of gen- eral interest.
August, 1919, Topics-The telephone companies came back under private control and operation July 31, after just a year of control and operation by the Government.
Beginning Dec. 1, 1919, telephone operators in the Metro- politan Division stopped using the expression "I'll ring again," according to Topics. This is made possible by the in- troduction of an ingenious device that makes a distinct ring- ing signal when you make a local call.
Springfield Credit Union
March, 1921, Topics-The Springfield branch of the Tele- phone Workers' Credit Union was organized in February, 1918, starting with about 25 members. It steadily grew until now there are about 350 members.
The Bell Loud Speaker
April, 1921, Topics-March 4, 1921, the day on which Warren G. Harding became the 28th President of the United States, will go down in history with other momentous dates in the annals of science and human progress. For on that day the human voice, with all its nuances, and without distortion, was clearly heard and understood by an enormous crowd of 125,000 people that completely filled the plaza in front of the Capitol and overflowed into the park beyond.
This was made possible by the Bell Loud Speaker, in what has been called the most important telephone demonstration up to the present time. This new device is used in amplifying the human voice in public speeches.
May, 1921, Topics-"Greetings to you, President Menocal." With a smile of genuine interest President Harding spoke these words in Washington, Monday, April 11th, and formally opened the new telephone cable lines connecting the United States with the Island of Cuba.
Providence Telephone Company
On July 1, 1921, President Jones made the following an- nouncement. It was addressed to employees.
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"The New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. has this date acquired and will hereafter operate in its own name the property of the Providence Telephone Co. In connection with this union of the properties of the two companies, certain changes have been made in the officers of the New England Company."
In September, 1921, there were approximately 18,500 New England Co. Employees in the five states in which this Com- pany operates.
Jan., 1922, Topics-Some Storm!
The old timers cannot recall anything that was as disastrous as the ice storm that swept across the middle of Mass., the southern corner of N.H., and a large section of R.I. on No- vember 27th, 28th and 29th. The storm damage will cost our Company more than $1,500,000. and it will be weeks before the work of restoring broken poles and lines will be completed, despite record-breaking work by the Plant forces.
Trees uprooted, poles down, lines broken and twisted-it was indeed a weird sight. This storm was not a snow storm; it was not a sleet storm and it was not a wind storm-it was an ice storm, and ice from 21/2 to 4 inches thick formed on the wires, causing them to sag and, in many cases, eventually break, laying more than 100,000,000 feet or 20,000 miles of wire, nearly enough to girdle the earth, dead and useless on the ground, together with more than 8,000 broken telephone poles in all sections affected by the storm. Highways and by- ways were blocked with fallen trees and branches of trees. Toll and local lines were down in every direction. Every available man who could be spared was rushed from Maine, N.H., Vt., and Southern N.E., the N.Y. and the Penn. Companies. Worcester was, perhaps, affected worse than any other section. From Tuesday, Nov. 29th up to and through Monday, Dec. 5th, the gangs worked from daylight until dark with unusual enthusiasm.
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