1960-03-17-sr-p15-davenport-conversion-to-direct-dial

March 17, 1960 Spokesman-Review Page 15:

Davenport's Dial Plan Comes In on Saturday

DAVENPORT, Wash., March 16.—Davenport will go to dial telephones at 11:01 p, m. Saturday, March 19, according to Louis Wetzel, district manager, who states that he expects a smooth conversion.

Dialing prefix in Davenport will be RAndolph 5. The new telephone books were received in the mail this week by all telephone company customers.

The Davenport exchange includes 848 telephones. There are 670 phones in town and 178 on rural lines.

Wetzel tells that officials of the company have invited a few Davenport leaders to a 6:30 p m. dinner, the guests will tour the central office and be present for a simple conversion ceremony. A public dedication program is to be arranged for a later date.

The first telephone installed in Davenport in 1890. The Bell Telephone company built the line in that year and the first phone was a pay station. About the same time the government built a line from old Fort Spokane, constructed with three-inch pipe used as poles.

Crude System

Between 1890 and 1894 a crude arrangement was installed consisting of a combination of board diaphrams, rawhide strings, attached to each end of a wire that was strung from a drugstore to the railroad station, and it was called the first telephone system.

The late John A. Hanson was the pioneer in building a telephone industry in Davenport. He started in 1901 with a central exchange here and connected several farmers to his central. His practice was to sell a telephone to a farmer, connect the phone to a barbed wire fence and then to the office, thus cutting out practically all line expense.

In 1905 the Bell company sold its Davenport and Reardan holdings to Hanson. There were then 134 telephones in Davenport and 14 in Reardan.

1917 Purchase

Hanson's firm was bought out in 1917 by a Davenport Independent Telephone company. In 1925, the Davenport property was taken over by the firm that was to become Interstate Telephone company.

The Hunters exchange is to be converted to dial the same day with the prefix PAlace 2.

General Telephone company of the Northwest purchased the Interstate company in 1953 and has since preceded to convert to dial system throughout the system.