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Previous Page 64 Next is very large, as the stock carried would do credit to a town many times this size. The little paper, with no news in it, that is published by the member of the Democratic State Central Committee from this district may be a credit to the place; but its name, The Bee, is a decided misnomer, judging from what it contains. We would suggest that a much more appropriate title would be 'The Tumble Bug' . The public school opened last week with about the usual attendance. Mr. Clark who was Principal last year, is again employed, and is one of the best, if not the best, ever in charge of the school." THE TELEPHONE COMPANIES The earliest reference to telephone communications we can find was a three line item in an 1882 edition of the Decorah Republican: "Williams and Company of Ossian talk of connecting their Ossian and Postville creameries by telephone. What enterprise will they undertake next?" By July 1886, we find the Iowa & Minnesota Telephone Company has established communications between Decorah and neighboring towns. The poles have been erected for an extension to Ossian. Rates are set at 20b for five minutes within the county and 25b for longer distance. Ossian will soon be connected with every city over a network of 3000 miles of line. An item of 1889 notes that the I. & M. Telephone Company is moving their office from the old Blanchaine store to his present quarters. (Mr. Blanchaine, after lengthening the brick building adjacent to Baker Brothers store, moved his stock into these new quarters.) The centennial edition of the Bee refers to this installation as: "A py station owned by Bell Telephone for long distance calls." THE STANDARD TELEPHONE CO. We find that the Standard Telephone Company had 15 installations in Ossian by the summer of I898. Their central's office was located in Frank Figge's store. The company offered a reward of $50 for information leading to the conviction of anyone tampering with their lines. The following citizens are listed as patrons:
By the fall of 1900 the Standard Telephone Company was installing a new switch-board in Figge's new store. Telephone poles were being erected on the north side of Main street. The company now boasts 28 subscribers with assigned numbers for completing calls through central:
The Centennial edition of the Bee suggests that this company was owned and managed by a Mr. Stevens. He later sold to the Bell Telephone Company. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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