The Marlinton and Elk Mutual Telephone Co.

 

Since 1899 Pocahontas County has had telephone service.  The first line came from Beverly in Randolph County, entering Pocahontas County at Mace.  A Dr. Bosworth built the line from Beverly to Marlinton, which was finished in August 1899.  Later that year the line was extended up and down the county.  About 1910 the Marlinton and Elk Mutual Telephone Co. was established.  Each stockholder bought a wall phone and paid about $5.00 a year or the equivalent in labor.  Some non-stockholder paid rent to use their phones.  Chestnut poles were set and a single wire was strong between the poles.  Charles McGuire, Sam Gibson, Otis Gibson, and Jake Hoover were some of the repairmen or linemen.  A magnetic generator was cranked to cause all the bells in all the phones on the line to ring.  When the receiver was lifted off the phone hook two dry well batteries began providing the power to carry the audio over the wire.  There was a line from Marlinton which terminated at L. D. Sharp’s store with 20 phones in between on the line.  If you wanted to talk so some one in Marlinton, or a long distance call, you would crank the phone a “short” and a “long” and central” would answer and connect you with your party.  Many times “central” (the operator) would have to repeat every word both ways for a long distance conversation.  A “short” was about one turn of the crank.  A “long” was about 3 turns of the crank.  Central ignored all other rings where were directs calls to neighbors on the immediate line.  Each phone had a different arrangement (code) of “longs” and ‘shorts”.  If some one wanted to call, for instance L. D. Sharp, he would crank two ‘shorts” and two “longs”.  Others on the line were supposed to not pick up their receivers when the phone rang for some one else.  But usually there was one or more listening to the conversation.  That is how they heard the “news”.  There were many 4-way, or more, conversations.  Mr. Sharp said a man came in the store in 1899 and heard him talking on the phone to George P. Moore at Edray and asked if the wire was hollow to carry the voice!  Apparently the phone was an exciting thing and it was used for amusement sometimes.  Mr. Sharp said he and a preacher at Edray sang a song together 12 miles apart, Mr. Sharp singing tenor and the preacher soprano.  There are many interesting pranks and stories about this 20-party line that is not printed. 

 

Submitted by Dave Sharp of Cincinnati and Raymond Mace, Slatyfork.

Notes on Elk Telephone System by Raymond Mace

Concurred by Dave Sharp

 

According to Price’s History of Pocahontas County, the first telephone line was completed between Beverly and Marlinton in August, 1899.  This was know as the Bosworth line and was the first telephone line in the county.  I do no know the name of the promoter and builder, except that he was a member of the prominent Bosworth family living in the Huttonsville-Beverly area.

 

Apparently, the Bosworth line lasted only fifteen or twenty years, and perhaps not that ling.  Probably during World War I or shortly afterwards another telephone line was constructed.  This was I believe, known as the Marlinton and Elk Mutual Telephone Company.  It consisted of a single wire string between chestnut poles.  Part of the telephone owners using this line were renters and part stockholders.  During the 1920s Susie Gibson, Frank’s aunt, left Elk and moved to Marlinton.  We bought her share in the telephone company.  My grandfather Sam Rider owned a telephone but he was a renter.  It is my impression that the telephone line extended no farther than L. D. Sharp’s place.  Charles Beale had a telephone, but anyone who desire to talk to him from Elk had to have his call routed by way of Cass and then to Linwood.  Veo Hannah would probably know this.

 

The old telephone line gradually fell apart, and service was impossible.  In the late 1920s, sometime after Rt 219 was completed, a move was made to re-organize the company and build a new line.  There were to be no renters.  Anyone wishing to have a telephone had to be part of the company.  A family could have a telephone by contributing labor or money.  My father contributed labor.  The line was a single wire strung between chestnut poles.  A lineman on troubleshoot was appointed at the stockholders meeting.  I remember that Jake Hoover was lineman for a time, and I believe Charles McGuire was also a troubleshooter or repairman at one time.

 

Jim Baer owned “central” or the exchange at Marlinton.  Any call through another system had to be switched by the Marlinton exchange.  At one time, there were two Elk telephones lines.  On the Marlinton side of Elk Mountain there was a line known as the Short Elk Line.  A telephone owner on our side of Elk Mountain had to use “central’ to talk to people on the other side.  I believe the short line was used by people in the Edray part of the county.  I am not sure whether the Short Elk Line existed after the new line was built in the late 1930s.

 

In the late 1930s the federal government became more interested in the Elk area and a sub-camp of the C.C.C. was established across the river form us, on the spot where Floyd Galford once lived.  Then it was decided to rebuild the Marlinton and Elk Mutual telephone system, with the government furnishing the material and labor.  Consequently, a new line was built.  New poles were erected a double line was strung between them.  Some years later, perhaps in the 1950s, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telegraph Company took over telephone communication on Elk.

 

 

The Marlinton and Elk Telephone Company

 

Listed below are the “rings” (or codes) of the subscribers that were called “longs” and “shorts”.  L. D. Sharp’s ring was two short and two longs.  It was first used at the old home place and later transferred to the store building when it was built.  Ivan Sharp who lived at the b ig house used two longs and two shorts. 

Central – Telephone Operator _ _____

L. D. Sharp _ _____                                                    Lake Reed _____ _____ _

Ivan Sharp (Hugh Sharp) _____ _ _ _____                  Charlie McGuire _____ _ _

Gene Hannah Coal Scales _____ _____ _____ _         Willie Gibson _____ _____ _ _

Wanless _____ _ _ _ _ _                                             Roy Shearer _____ _____

Lou Gibson _ _                                                            Amos Gay _____ _ _ _

Lee Hannah _ _ _____ _ _                                           Nelia Mace _____ _____ _ _

Sam M. Gibson _ _____ _____                                   Jake Hoover _ _ _____

Sam D. Hannah ____ ____ _____                               Helen Hannah _____ _ _____

Vee Hannah _ _ _ _ _                                                  Clark Hannah _ _ _____ _____

Fred Mullenax _____ _

 

Raymond Mace offered the following “rings”:

Marlinton Central _ _____                                            Robert Gibson _____ _____ _ _

David Mace _____                                                      Sam Rider _____ _

Harry Varner _____ _ _                                               Hugh Hannah _ _ _ _

Malinda Hannah _____ _ _ _                                       Willie Hannah _____ _____

J. A. Gibson _____ _____ _                                        William Varner _____ _____ _____

James Gibson _ _ _                                                      Dock Gibson _ _____ _ _

Lettie Gibson _ _

Luther Sharp _ _ _____ _____                                    John Baughman _ _____ _____

Slatyfork _____ _____ _____ “He must have been on the Elk “short” line a he lived at                  Marlinton.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telephone rates on the Marlinton and Elk Mutual Telephone service was cheap.  If I remember correctly, the yearly telephone dues were four or five dollars.  I am fairly sure they never reached ten dollars.  Even then, there were some people who had to be sued or threatened before they would page their telephone bill.  Also, it must be added, free calls were discouraged.  If a stranger stopped at a man’s house to call for help in getting his automobile started, he was supped to pay for the call.  I believe it was a dime.  I doubt that most people never collected.  It just would not be neighborly.

 

Here is a list of calls or “rings” from a paper I found among my mother’s things.

Dave Mace _____                               Robert Gibson _____ _____ _ _

Harry Varner _____ _ _                       Sam Rider _____ _

Malinda Hannah _____ _ _ _               William Hannah _____ _____

J. A. Gibson _ _____ _____                William Varner _____ _____ _____

John Baughman _ _____ _____           Dock Gibson _ _ _____ _

James Gibson _ _ _                              Willie Gibson _ _____ _ _

Luther Sharp _ _ _____ _____            Slatyfork _____ _____ _____ _____

 

 

I am not sure which period of time is represented by the “rings”.  I have typed here.  It must have been early in the 1920s.  Hugh Hannah has been gone from Elk along time.  Perhaps he was part of the Short Elk system.  Also, William Hannah has been dead since the 1920s.  His name could have been kept on the list of subscribers, however.  I am puzzled a bit.  Something else puzzles me.  Sam Hannah and Sam Gibson were not included in the list.  Both families had telephones.  Sam Gibson’s ring was

 _____ _ _____.  Sam Hannah’s number was _ _____ _.  In the very early 1920s Page Hannah had a telephone, but I don’t remember his number.

 

Sometimes a telephone owner would let his batteries run down.  This would prevent him from getting a message to whomever he called.  Then some good soul would relay his message.  Someone was always listening.  At times there were four-way conversations or more taking place.  On occasion a tree would fall on the line or the line would get on the ground.  This always caused problems.  A bad telephone would poison the whole system.  In incident during the 193-s is wroth mentioning.  People’s telephones all up and down Elk were ringing at intervals, but nobody could be heard talking.  For a few hours or a day or so people ran themselves ragged answering their phones only to find no one there.  Lee Hannah told me that he informed Jennie that Gibson was drunk again and was using the telephone.  He did get that way once in a dozen years or so, but this time he was innocent.  After a thorough search for the trouble, it was located on Lake Reed’s place.  It was summer time and a power line which was just barely above the telephone line got warm and expanded, dropping just enough to touch the telephone line when the wind blew or when the line got a bit warmer.

Here is more information which I coped from the Pocahontas Times January 1, 1916.

“The directors of the Marlinton and Elk Mutual Telephone Company met Saturday.  The officers are L. D. Sharp, president; S. McDilley, vice-president and general manager; J. D. Gibson, secretary and treasurer.  The most important business transacted was the cutting out of free phones after January 1; the extending of the short line wire down Elk whenever the extension of the company’s business justifies it; the cooperation of the different mutual companies entering the Marlinton switchboard will be asked in order to install two phones, one in the C. & O. station and the other in the freight office.”

 

This would seem to indicate that the old Bosworth line had been replaced by the Marlinton and Elk Mutual Telephone line sometime before.   

 

-End-