Thursday, July 16, 2009

Farmers' Union Telephone Company



Itawamba County News
October 14, 1909
Farmers' Union Telephone Co. Hold Important Meeting

Quite a number of the stockholders of the Farmers' Telephone Co. met at the court house here last Saturday and transacted some business of importance. This system was instituted west of the river not long ago, and it has been extended until their lines cover considerable territory in the county, and it keeps expanding, which has called for some constitutional changes.

$7.50 buys an interest in the line, and each individual buys a phone, and the $7.50 is spent in constructing and maintaining the line. No assessment has yet been necessary for this purpose.

The following is part of the business transacted at their last meeting.

We, the committee appointed to divide the Union Telephone System into voting precincts, beg to submit the following report:

(1) On the east side of the Tombigbee river we designate two, as follows: Fulton and Tilden.
(2) On the west side of said river we designate eight, as follows: Bethel, Fawn Grove, Shiloh, Friendship, Mantachie, Greenwood, Evergreen and Ballardsville.

N. T. Clayton, Chairman
M. M. Gray, Sec't'y

4 comments:

Arvel said...

Miss Mona,
This is a fine piece of writing about an important event in Itawamba County history. Wonder when our phone service changed from the Farmer's Union?
Arvel

Anonymous said...

Mona, in your "snooping" around to learn all this interesting information, do you know if this telephone line made it out to Bexar or not? I have the wall crank cabinet with the bell mouth piece stashed in my attic that belonged to my grandparents, the Morman Stone's. I do remember seeing it hanging in the hallway when I was a very young girl, but I do not recall ever hearing it ring nor anyone talking into the phone. And unfortunately, by the time I grew to care about such things, there weren't anyone around to answer my questions. Thanks for jogging our "brains"! bettye

Mona Robinson Mills said...

Bettye, I don't know if this particular phone line made it out to eastern Itawamba County. I did notice in the old newspapers that there appeared to be several telephone companies, including a Tremont Telephone Company owned at least in part by Carlton McKindrey Robinson. I bet they had lines to Bexar.

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful telephone,.,,.,,.,.,.,.


___________________
Christena
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