TELEPHONE SERVICE

This entry is being edited.

Early switch board. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

TELEPHONE SERVICE. Edward T. KEIM brought telephone service to Dubuque as a result of his experience at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. (1) 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. (2)

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 was later renamed the Dubuque Telephone Exchange Company. (3) 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. (4)

On May 20, 1879, construction of the Dubuque telephone exchange began. (5) 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. (6) 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. (7)

The Dubuque Telephone Exchange originally served twelve telephones. (8) 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. (9) The first operator for the local exchange was Sam C. Peaslee. Interested in communication between Dubuque and East Dubuque, Peaslee on June 13, 1879 had a line run from the top of the SHOT TOWER to the bluff on the east side of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. (10) The first conversation was carried the following day. The same year another first was accomplished when the first office telephone was installed in the offices of the Dubuque Herald. (11) The second office phone was installed in CARR, RYDER AND WHEELER. The first phone on the hill when into the residence of H. A. Harkett. (12) The quickly spreading business in the telephone was shown that 1879 also saw telephones installed in the DUBUQUE LUMBER COMPANY and the office of the DIAMOND JO PACKET COMPANY office and its boatyard at EAGLE POINT. (13) Phones were then warranted to work one mile and be unaffected by the weather. (14)

Telephone communication remained limited to East Dubuque until June 19, 1883, when 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. (15) 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. (16)

The popularity of the telephone led to competition. Shortly after the opening of the exchange, Keim and Ogden were faced with competition from the Western Union Telegraph Company which organized another telephone company. These two companies consolidated under the name of the Western Telephone Company. This became the Central Union Telephone Company and finally the Iowa Telephone Company, the predecessor of NORTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY. (17) On June 11, 1884, E. T. Keim of the Northwestern Overland Telephone Company petitioned the Dubuque City Council for a charter to operate within the city. He asked for the same privileges as the Bell Company and promised lower rates. The petition was approved. (18) On July 3, 1897 the Interstate Telephone and Electric Company was granted a charter for the construction of the Dubuque Telephone Company. The new company would operate in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin with cities linked by toll lines and "long distance instruments." (19)

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

Continued acceptance of the telephone led by 1906 to the construction of a new building for the Iowa Telephone Company at 824 Locust Street. (20) 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. (21) 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. (22)

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. 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. "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. "Dubuque--Telephone History," October 28, 1948, Adult Vertical File, Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

3. Ibid.

4. "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

5. "Cornerstone...".

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

7. Ibid.

8. "First Phones Entertained..."

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. "First Office Phone Here Installed by Dubuque Herald," Dubuque Herald, March 2, 1924, p. 1

12. Ibid.

13. "Telephones," Dubuque Herald, February 18, 1879

14. Ibid.

15. "First Office Phone Here..."

16.

17. "Growing With Dubuque..."

18. "City Council," Dubuque Herald, June 12, 1884

19. "Sustains Stewart," Dubuque Herald, July 4, 1897, p. 8

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

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.