HUMESTON TELEPHONE EXCHANGE
The first telephone exchange in Humeston was in 1899, located above the Humeston State Bank.
Among the early "centrals" were Emma McFarland, Myra Kahler and Grace Downs Taylor.
When the Telephone Co. came to Humeston in 1921 the town sewer had just been completed, all roads were dirt, the water had been in since 1916, but was not fit to drink. Everyone had wells and the filtering plant was not installed until 1939.
The creamery employed about 40 people and had an electric plant of its' own.
The telephone plant was in poor condition. Only a small amount of small size aeria cable and single rusty streaks of wire. The telephones were mostly the large wall crank type with two batteries in each.
The cross talk was so bad and loud between lines that the operators completed order calls to the five grocery stores one at a time so the clerks would not get the orders mixed up.
In 1921 the street light transformer and switches were in the telephone office. They were operated by the telephone operators to come on at dark and off at midnight.
Harry W. Marks who managed the Telephone Co. beginning around 1921, wrote the following story;
"AT TIMES THEY HAD A HABIT OF GOING OFF FOR A SHORT TIME. I SOON LOCATED THE TROUBLE ....A CERTAIN BUSINESSMAN HAD ONE OF THE OPERATORS TRAINED TO TURN OFF THE LIGHTS FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES WHEN HE CALLED IN. THIS GAVE HIM TIME TO RUN OVER TO A GIRL FRIENDS' HOUSE. HE WOULD CALL IN AGAIN WHEN HE WAS READY TO LEAVE."
The first underground cable was placed in 1923 in order to move our switchboard from the upstairs over the Bank, to our residence at the east end of the house that had been remodeled into an office.. Each year more underground cable was added in town.
In 1931 a new storage battery operated switchboard was installed, the first in Wayne Co for many years. This made telephones without cranks or batteries available.
By 1953 all lines were made to wire metallic. A new building was built to house the dial equipment. By late 1959 the new equipment was in place and all over town and most of the rural lines were changed to dial operation.
In 1967 the Humeston Town Council and Iowa Telephone Co. sponsored a meeting to familiarize residents with direct distance dialing.
