Jo-Ann Boepple: Telephonesm — once a sign of the future — a thing of the past?
Published 3:32 pm Friday, August 27, 2010
Will telephones as we know them become a thing of the past? It was a real startling revelation when the second grade students from Eagle Lake School came to the museum last spring and they wanted to dial the telephones. They didn’t know how and they were fascinated with them.
The museum is collecting telephones from the past and they have a wall crank phone, several dial phones and the little Princess phone along with an older cell phone. Two little books in the museum collection tells some of the story of telephones in early days of Edwardsburg and of the residents and businesses of the town.
The first little book is the Directory for the Pullman Telephone Co. dated Oct. 15, 1923 and the second book is a small Superior Desk Calendar for Frequent Phone Calls and it begins with Thursday Jan. 1, 1931.
“The Pullman Directory was ahead of its time with a mission statement in the inside. Imagination, hard work, finance — took an idea and from it created the telephone which encircled the human race as no other material thing has done and which has allowed man to travel thousands of miles in any direction in an instant. We want you to see what wonderful progress has been made and what problems we still have and what our plans are. Realization on your part will lead to cooperation, and your co-operation will help us to success in our ideal to ever give you greater service.” — Pullman Telephone Co. 1923.
The directory lists the telephone numbers for Edwardsburg, Adamsville and Union. It was printed by the Argus Print of Edwardsburg owned by George and Charles Andrus. Edwardsburg had 217 telephones, Adamsville had 122 and Union 93.
Edwardsburg telephones were classified by type: residence, farm, cottage, Eagle Lake, Bull Lake, Garver Lake, resorts and businesses. Business listings were L.H. Allen Drug Store, Bank of Edwardsburg, Peter Biron Grocery, Ray Brown Office, Carlisle and Sons Hardware, Undertaker and Funeral Director, Cassopolis Creamery, E.S. Claire and Son Barber Shop, Edwardsburg Elevator, Edwardsburg Co-ops, Edwardsburg Drug Store, Edwardsburg Lumber Co., H. J. French Hotel, Grand Trunk Depot, Dr. G. A. Hughes Office, Sylvester Jackson Hotel, Mrs. Inez Juvenal Hotel, Jay Lee Oil Station, C. K. Lowman Garage and Taxi, Roy Marshall Garage, M. C. Pickerl Dairy, Postoffice, John Remmington Eagle Lake Hotel, H. E. Schankweiler Market, Standard Oil Co., Mrs. Mary Tuesley Grocery, Walter and Brother Grocery and Carl White Dray Line.
Edwardsburg full-page ads in the book were for Edwardsburg Drug Store, Edwardsburg Elevator M. W. O’Toole, Manager, Edwardsburg Lumber Co. Ray Brown Treasurer, R. S. Carlisle and Son Hardware, General Store of W. M. Walter, C. K. Lowman Ford Auto, H. J. Carlisle Insurance, Edwardsburg Co-Operative Association, C. H. Cooper Live Stock and Poultry Buyer, John Wilkinson Stock and Poultry Buyer, Jackson Hotel and Restaurant and Sylvester Jackson Local and Long Distance Hauling.
There were listings for Eagle Camp for Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls Camp Businesses listed for Adamsville were Ed Turner Groceries and Meats, A. S. Sample General Merchandise, and Union Motor Service L.M. Rinehart. C. E. Fisher Meats with a Bristol Address and a Union telephone and also listings for the Tavern and the Oaks in Adamsville.
Other business ads in the book were from South Bend, Elkhart and Niles.
The second little book was the daily diary of the telephone operator. She made daily notations of the weather, events that happened, (Knute Rockne’s death on March 31), deaths and funerals of local residents, birthdays, a snow storm that closed school for a week in March, the changes made to the telephone board and the comings and goings of the telephone office owners, the Monks. They went to the movies each week and movie titles were noted.
The switchboard was in a small room in the Monk’s house and in the hot summer days there were many notations about the heat in the room. The temperature in August was in the 90s.
It was 1931.
This provides not only information about the telephone service but also the people of the community.
Many seemingly insignificant items can provide a picture of the past and are worth preserving. The museum has many of these items for safekeeping.