LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA

Pg 14

THE TELEPHONE

Transcribed by Beverly Gerdts, submitted June 10, 2017

       The telephone company was organized in Columbus Junction about 1900. Mr. A. C. Kelly, F. M. Molesberry, N. T. Hendrix and Scott Thompson, were instrumental in organizing and putting into operation the first telephone in Columbus Junction and east through Fredonia. The first operators were Grace Parsons and Ella Duncan. Etla Kelley Curtis, was teaching school in Des Moines, but came home to assist her father in the office. And served as treasurer for a number of years, also as switchboard operator. It was while she was learning the switchboard, that the Golden State Limited was wrecked just west of Columbus Junction. She was alone at the switchboard when the calls started coming in about the wreck; they came in so fast she got them mixed up, and didn't know what to do. She pulled all the plugs and started over. Just then a railroad official came in and she turned all calls to him about the wreck.