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- Telephone
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- The exact year the telephone
service started in Abernathy is not known for sure.
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- The first history we have
starts in 1911, when Howard Pearson owned all of the town service.
The switchboard was located in the back room of the Pearson Pharmacy,
which was located on the site of the Delmar Hotel. Pearson and
his wife, Annie, lived across the street in what was always known
as the "Old Yellow Hotel". It had just been moved in
from Bartonsite.
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- Grace Evans was the first
telephone operator to be hired as such. She went to work for
the Pearsons in 1912. We do not know how many telephones there
were in town, but there were two rural lines.
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- These lines were owned
by the people who were on them and Pearson was paid fifty cents
per month for each telephone for switchboard connections. The
long distance lines came through from Plainview and Lubbock and
were owned by Bell Telephone System. Pearson was paid a percentage
of each long distance toll charge.
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- In 1914, the telephone
office was moved to the Kimbro Building, a new, and then modern,
building on the highway (Ave. D) that housed the Pearson Pharmacy
and the telephone office in one part and a grocery store in the
other. It was really two buildings built right together at the
same time and faced south on the corner where First State Bank
is now.
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- "Miss Grace"
was still the operator but also had to help take care of the
new soda fountain which was installed. All of the water for the
store had to be carried from the city well which was located
about fifty feet south of the present day City Hall.
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- In about 1916, Pearson
built a new telephone office at the corner of what is now 10th
Street and Avenue D. About that same year Pearson sold his drug
store to Mr. and Mrs. John Jones.
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- In November, 1918, Pearson
sold the telephone business to T.E. Arnold who never did actively
operate the business but sold it in a month or so to his brother-in-law,
W.H. Crow. Mr. Crow operated it from 1918 to 1926, when he sold
it to the States Telephone Company.
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- The States Telephone Company
was an organization formed to buy up as many of the little independent
telephone services as possible and integrate them into one unified
telephone system. It grew into the General Telephone Company
of the Southwest system. General Telephone is now owned by Verizon.
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- The rural telephone lines
running west of town were owned by the Spade Ranch, Fitz Hudgins,
Leonard Harral, A.O. Vaughn, Will Murray, ].W. Murray, and others.
The lines running east were owned by the Lutricks, Jones, Fitzgeralds,
Wimbereys, Landers, Rossers, Morelands, Overtons, and others.
This line reached into the Strip community.
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- As was the custom then,
these lines, being independent and privately owned, were maintained
in a manner by the various owners. Each man would maintain the
part of the line that traversed his property. This did not provide
the ultimate in service, and frequently there would be interruptions
of varying lengths of time. Most of the telephone poles were
2 x 4's nailed to a cedar fence post. A single wire was strung
on these poles by means of a small porcelain insulator (or spool),
which was nailed on with one nail near the top of the pole.
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- This arrangement was a
little fragile when a large tumbleweed hung on the line during
a sandstorm. The cattle also caused numerous interruptions as
they thought these square cornered poles made good rubbing posts.
A pasture full of cattle could cause nearly all of the poles
to be pushed over for the full length of the pasture. Another
good place to look for a break was where the line went under
a cattle guard.
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- There were times when
some of the lakes were full of water and it was difficult for
the repairman to get (0 the break. In this case he would cut
the top wire of the fence and tie the telephone wire to the part
leading across the lake. Then he would go around the lake and
repeat the procedure, thus splicing the line across the lake.
It worked with some degree of success.
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- Between loose connections
and fence line splices, it was necessary for everyone on the
line to repeat a message to the operator. This meant that everyone
would listen to the conversation of the one nearest to the originator
of the message and repeat it to the next on the line leading
toward the operator and finally the operator would get the message
in person. It was practically impossible to have a private conversation.
Everybody was "in" on everybody's business and other
news.
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- There were twenty-eight
telephones in the city and two rural lines when W.H. Crow bought
the business in 1918. When he sold it in 1926, there were ninety
lines with about 250 telephones.
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- During the early years
of this time, Miss Grace and Mrs. Crow, as well as all other
operators, were the private secretary of nearly every businessman
in town, as well as some of the farmers and ranchers in the country.
If a businessman was going to be out of his place of business,
even for a few minutes, he would call the operator and tell her
where he was going and when he would return. Operators were also
asked to take messages and the businessman would return the call.
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- There was very little
about the public or private life of the community that the operator
did not know. Children would try to call their parents and if
they could not reach them at once, would tell the operator to
tell them they were going to spend the night with a certain friend.
The operator would call the parents later and give them the message.
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- The operator knew most
of the "subscribers" by voice and many times a voice
would say "John needs a doctor!" The operator would
know who was talking, which John needed the doctor, and where
the doctor should go to find John.
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- Maintenance was mentioned
earlier as being done by the rural owners. This was true to a
point, after which it was usually taken over by Mr. Crow or Ed
Crow or someone with a little more "technical" knowledge.
After a real good sandstorm, these lines would be tangled. It
was necessary to separate the lines before much service could
be done on them. A pole about ten or twelve feet long with a
two pronged fork arrangement on one end could be used to separate
the lines. The serviceman walked along under the lines and, with
one line in the fork, would push along parallel with the wire
until he got them separated. Sometimes in the country the owners
would make a splice by just looping the broken ends together.
This made a loose connection and the man from the office would
have to eventually come along and make a tight joint.
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- All power was furnished
by telephone batteries, two in each phone box and several at
the office. These would be left in the rural phones so long at
times they would corrode and swell and stick together before
being replaced. The phone company furnished the batteries and
would usually have to replace them, thus bring to life a dead
phone.
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- After the States Telephone
Company took over the operation of the office, Miss Hattie Thorp
became the town confidential secretary. Later the Johnston girls,
Anne, Eula, and Bill, became the phone company as far as the
town was concerned.
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- In 1947, Abernathy was
converted from magneto type service to common battery. This eliminated
the "cranking" to signal the operator. The old type
phones were replaced with cradle phones. In 1947 there were two
long distance circuits to Lubbock and another was added later
that year.
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- Abernathy rural area is
served in part by two exchanges operated by the South Plains
Telephone Cooperative. The exchanges, both of which are connected
with the Abernathy exchange of General Telephone Company, are
County Line and Hollandville. This service was installed in 1953.
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- Larger and more modern
switchboards were installed in Abernathy in 1955, requiring more
operators. In 1959 dial phones ended the manually operated switchboard
for Abernathy, and was the end of the era when "central"
was the private secretary, information center, and personal friend
for nearly fifty years. Direct dialing was made available in
1971.
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- The new equipment gets
your number but you can't "bawl it out" or have a nice
friendly chat. You can't even say "Is that you, Myrt?"
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