TELEPHONE SERVICE

Early switch board. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

TELEPHONE SERVICE. The first telephone system in Dubuque was installed in 1879 and served twelve telephones. (1) Within a month, there were thirty telephones in service here and by the end of the year the telephone system had grown to two hundred-fifty telephones. (2) Edward T. KEIM brought telephone service to Dubuque as a result of his experience at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. (2) At the Exposition, Keim was given the opportunity of transmitting sounds over a telephone line and discussing the potential of the machine with its inventor, Alexander Graham Bell.

Keim returned to Dubuque but waited until 1878 to write to Theodore Vail, general manager of the National Bell Telephone Company of Boston, Massachusetts. Keim was told that to establish a telephone system in Dubuque, George Engle of Cedar Rapids would have to be contacted. Engle was National Bell's exclusive agent for a large part of Iowa.

Keim was joined in organizing the Dubuque telephone service by D. H. Ogden, a member of the Engle company. The firm of Keim and Ogden later was renamed the Dubuque Telephone Exchange Company. Cedar Rapids promoters had not been successful in obtaining subscribers, so the Dubuque exchange became the first one built in the United States west of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. (2)

On May 20, 1879, construction of the Dubuque telephone exchange began. The company's main office was located on Main Street between Fifth and Sixth STREETS at the rear of the insurance office of Smith and Piaster. (3) Plans for the switchboard, plugs, and transmitters were furnished by an electrical firm in Boston. The switchboard made of black walnut was manufactured by the DUBUQUE CABINET MAKERS' ASSOCIATION while the brass work was produced by John Hartig of Dubuque. (4)

The first operator for the local exchange was Sam C. Peaslee who later became the president of the East Dubuque Savings Bank. The first line foreman was Chester K. Mead.

The growth of the Dubuque exchange was dramatic with twelve telephones on line when the company started and thirty by the end of the following month. Within one year the number of customers exceeded two hundred fifty. (4) Keim was the first manager of the company. Samuel Peaslee was the first telephone operator.

The use of the telephone as a source of entertainment began as early as 1879. The first telephone on the hill was installed at the home of H. A. Harkett in 1879. A telephone connection, made between Dubuque and Burlington over the C.B.& Q railroad telegraph line, allowed Dubuque residents to hear the Burlington Band. Subscribers paying fifty-four dollars annually were able to hear music programs and the Julien Band from the GRAND OPERA HOUSE. (5) Each telephone was called a "station." (6) The clarity of sound impressed many residents.

Samuel Peaslee was interested in linking East Dubuque to Dubuque. On June 13, 1879 a line was stretched from the bluff above East Dubuque to the SHOT TOWER and a conversation was made the following day. (7) C. S. Burt of East Dubuque was linked by a telephone line nearly five miles long to Peter OLINGER of Dubuque on June 17, 1879. The ticking of a watch could be heard. On June 19, 1883, the cities of Dubuque and Cascade were linked by telephone lines. Dubuque and Monticello were connected the same year. The line to Davenport was completed on December 2, 1883 and by March 1884 one hundred communities were linked to Dubuque by telephone. (8)

Long distance calls happened more slowly. In was not until December 1, 1897 that the first call between Dubuque and Chicago occurred. Three months later the first calls to New York and Washington, D.C. were made. (9)

c. 1912. Photographer unknown, “[Telephone operators],” Loras College Digital Collections, accessed April 12, 2014, https://digitalcollections.loras.edu/items/show/74.

The rapid acceptance of telephone service quickly caused the Dubuque Telephone Exchange to meet stiff business competition. The Western Union Telegraph Company organized a second telephone supplier using Edison telephones. The ordinance of April, 1899, granted the Standard Telephone Company the right to erect and maintain its telephone system in Dubuque. (10) On April 20, 1889 the Dubuque Telephone Company was organized. Its officers were G. W. Kiesel, president; L.G. Hurd, vice-president; and Benjamin Franklin BLOCKLINGER, secretary and treasurer. By 1911 the company had 1,880 subscribers and over four hundred miles of wiring in service. The two companies eventually merged and underwent a series of name changes including the Western Telephone Company, Central Union Telephone Company, and the Iowa Telephone Company, predecessor of Northwestern Bell Telephone Company.

Continued acceptance of the telephone led by 1906 to the construction of a new building for the Iowa Telephone Company at 824 Locust Street. (11) In 1934 there were just over 9,000 telephones in Dubuque. It took seven years to add another 3,000 with the gain during WORLD WAR II being especially slow. (12) By 1945 all available space was occupied in this building. This building was vacated by the telephone company in 1951 and was used by LANDON'S, a Dubuque furrier, as a storage space until 1959. The telephone company's business office moved to 221 West 9th in the BANK AND INSURANCE BUILDING. (13)

In 1941 the DUBUQUE CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE building at 9th and Locust was purchased by Northwestern Bell and demolished. In 1948 a modern building was constructed (900 Locust Street). Additional lines and cables were laid and the switchboard went from 55 to 70 operators. Dial equipment was not yet available. (14) The facility was rated as the "most modern" in Iowa when it opened on November 21, 1949. In 1951 Northwestern Bell vacated its old location at 824 Locust. In 1959 Louis PFOHL purchased the building for $53,000 and developed the site into the Fischer Arcade Building.

Around 1988 US West took over Northwestern Bell. Qwest became the telephone company in June 2000. Increased Internet and cellphone use led to a division of the old 319 area code on March 25, 2001. Dubuque became part of the 563 designation. Century Link took over Qwest on April 1, 2011.

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Source:

1. "Growing with Dubuque," (Pamphlet) Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, October 28, 1948.

2. Ibid.

1. "Cornerstone to be Laid for Phone Building," Telegraph Herald, October 24, 1948, p. 17, Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LuFhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4nQNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6401,4118869&dq=peaslee+and+company+dubuque&hl=en

2. "First Phones Entertained," Telegraph Herald, May 2, 1946, p. 16. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1kdjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SXUNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3380,4153142&dq=peaslee+and+company+dubuque&hl=en

3. "Cornerstone...".

4. "First Phones Entertained..."

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. "Cornerstone..."

11. Ibid.

12. Meyer, Jeffrey. "Hello Operator, Dubuque Please," Telegraph Herald, June 12, 2012, p. 1c

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

"First Office Phone Here Installed by Dubuque Herald," Telegraph Herald, Mar. 2, 1924

Meyer, Jeffrey. "Hello Operator, Dubuque Please," Telegraph Herald, June 12, 2012, p. 1c