Hello central

Voice activated dialing meant another thing at the turn of the century when the hand crank phone came into homes.

One long crank would connect you to central, where you told the operator who you wanted. Those on your line were dialed by a series of long and short cranks “rings.”

For example, for the number – 8F31 – anyone on the eight exchange you could dial. To dial this number would be three longs and one short. People on other lines could be reached by calling central. The central office handled calls through the switchboard by inserting plugs to connect the calls.

If someone was on the line when you picked up, common courtesy prevailed, you would ask for the line and it was given.

Of course, anyone could listen in. If there were too many on the line, the batteries would have too much drain. The voice would become faint, and people would have to ask for someone to hang up.

Clare Keeney remembered hearing, “I wish the rest of you would hang up, I can hear you breathing!”

Central was on call day and night, and these women knew everything going on in the neighborhood. It was also the place for notifications of fire, deaths, accidents and more.

In 1884, it was noted the Osceola Telephone Exchange would be in operation soon. In 1901, a switchboard was installed at Smyrna and lines ran to Leroy, Weldon, Derby and Woodburn.

In that year, Osceola had 50 subscribers. Rates for subscribers in 1915 were around $30 a year.

Marinda May ran the Lacelle switchboard from its installation in 1909 until her death in 1925 at age 72. In these early years the pay was about $7 a week.

Nina King, Aletha Rush, Jessie Stansbury, Mae Hartshorn and Florence Miller were some of the Osceola operators. Louleen Thompson ran the Osceola switch just short of six years with only two days vacation the entire time.

Fern DeVore ran the 20 line Ottawa switch from the mid-30s to mid-40s in the middle of their living room. Their little daughter Beverly even remembered making long distance phone calls by talking to operators to get across the country.

In Woodburn, J.E. Oliver opened the first telephone office in his home, its only location. His niece Neta Staley worked for him in the early teens.

Art and Eva Ecklund were operators up until the 30s. In the early 30s, Merle and Ella Davenport moved into this home, with Ella operating the switch. High school girls would help at times.

Linda Lee ran it for 18 and a-half years. Marie White remembers visiting her Woodburn cousins and knowing if you ever needed anything you could stop at Mrs. Lee’s house. She had a blue and white sign at her house indicating it was the telephone office.

Granddaughter Twyla Davis remembers Linda sleeping downstairs in order to be on call. In 1957, the Osceola exchange took over the Woodburn exchange.

Automatic switchboards came into use in the 1960s and the central operator was no longer needed. In the 1970s, long distance direct dial was installed.