Ellston's Telephone Factory

BENNETT, CORNWALL

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 5/13/2010 at 00:25:18

Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
Monday, June 21, 1976
Page 1B

Ellston Museum

The Register's Iowa News Service

ELLSTON, IA. - This tiny town (population 46) in south-central Iowa's Ringgold County has the distinction of having an old telephone factory in which a telephone was never made.

The structure, which has been used as a garage since it was erected in 1914, today houses a portion of the Ringgold County Pioneer Center, which tells the story of life in a small rural community.

According to Charles BENNETT, president of the Ringgold County Historical Society, Inc., which maintains the center as a museum, many years ago two strangers received a $30,000 loan from a local bank to establish the factor they boasted would make the town the largest telephone manufacturing city west of the Mississippi River.

Unfortunately, soon after the pair received the money, they vanished, causing the bank to fail and many residents to lose their savings.

But Iowans now are beginning to benefit from the telephone factory building. A musuem that has been established in the building now includes a vast collection of farm machinery and other items.

Maintained nearby is the restored home of Elihue and Emiline (sic) LUCAS CORNWALL. The home was constructed during the Civil War era and is kept as a memorial to area pioneers.

Ellston may be reached from Interstate Highway 35 from either the Grand River-Garden Grove or the Decatur City exits. Motorists should proceed west on either County Road J20 and then north on County Road P68, or take Iowa Highway 2 from the interstate and go north on P68 at Kellerton.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2010

Ringgold Documents maintained by Tony Mercer.
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