Our Past Is Present March 12, 2018

March 12, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            We all have our cell phones that receive signals from towers that bounce off of satellites in the sky and think nothing of it.  Well in 1911, there were some improvements made on serving telephone customers that were more … shall we say .. down to earth.

            Big improvements in the telephone service were being contemplated by the Wareham-Dewey Telephone Company in March of 1911.  The Wareham-Dewey Telephone Company was Junction City’s first telephone service. 

            Appropriations amounting to nearly $60,000 had been set aside to make the system lines modern throughout the city.  The first thing to be attended to was the replacement of the lines on poles with underground conduit throughout the business section.  The poles south and along Jefferson Street were all taken down and the wires run onto the alley poles.  Manager Ben Fegan was said to be doing good work and it was his desire that the company give the very best service possible.  Indeed, it was noticed that there was considerable improvement.  The “Daily Union” newspaper stated that “the inadequate service in the past few months justified subscribers for their complaints.  However, they were satisfied with the efforts of the telephone company in putting up the new system and were ready to give honor where honor was due.”

            Our frustrations with phone service today may be caused by a dropped call, inadequate or no wi-fi, low battery power when needed and others.  Times change, products improve and  services change, but we always seem to want more. 

Well, that’s an historical perspective isn’t it!  This has been “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.