In mid 2007 the iPhone hit the market and it changed everything. For just over a century telephone technology had seen just a few, gradual changes. We moved from private lines with operator-assisted calls, to party lines and on to direct dialing. Then, all of a sudden it was a whole new machine. It tells you the time, what’s new, where you are, and sometimes, it seems, tells you where to go.
As revolutionary as that change has been, it still might not match the level of impact that the introduction of those first old-fashioned phones had, especially in rural areas. From our vantage point in the 21st century we can only imagine how life was changed.
The first phones were private initiatives. Lyleton's first telephone system was between the White and Lyle neighbors about 1905. They had a system hooked up along the fence line. This system was originally installed for the benefit of White-Lyle threshing syndicate. It made running their business easier.
The second step was having a municipal system. Often one would be located in a store or other public place. Then, as lines were installed and people could afford it, home phones became popular, first in towns, and later on farms.
The Melita-Arthur telephone system was organized around 1904. This system was expanded to include Lyleton, Coulter and Westhope, North Dakota in 1906. Five phones were in use at Lyleton at this time.
Tilston’s first Post Office also served as the Telephone Office.
By 1915 most people could have access to a phone if they paid the price. In the rural areas, we entered the era of the “party line”. If we think our high-tech communications can be spied upon today, imagine a system where you can almost take for granted that someone will be listening in.
Service being the key word…
In those early days before automation reached every corner of our lives, the whole system was run by people and depended upon the skill, and perhaps, the personality of the operator. “Hello Girls”, they came to be called.
That allowed for some interesting “extras”
In Pierson the stores and post office stayed open until the 6:30 p.m. train passed through and the mail was sorted. If the train was late, Mr. Kenner would phone from his store to the telephone office and say, "How's the train tonight? The Pierson operator would call the Melita operator who would know if it had left there yet, and Mr. Kenner would have his answer.
A special alert, called the "General Ring", was put out on the rural lines to notify people if a railcar of coal or apples was in town, or in case of a fire or an accident. The telephone operators were a wealth of information for the whole community.
In December 1913, all telephone exchanges were to receive a daily report of the markets and a weather forecast, which any subscriber could obtain by calling central.
When the depression forced economies in farm households, one response was to cancel the phone and install Barbed Wire Phones along fence lines.
Today we have Google.
In 1908 Manitoba Government Telephones, was established after the government of Manitoba bought Bell Canada's Manitoba operations. The Crown Corporation became Manitoba Telephone System in 1921, and eventually absorbed all private telephone operations in the province.
In the 1950s, dial phones were introduced and in the sixties and seventies they replaced the party lines in rural homes. Operators were no longer needed, and most telephone offices closed.
Sources:
Edward History Book Committee. Harvests of Time. Altona. Friesen Printers, 2003
