History

Interesting Hamilton Facts In 1901 telephone subscribers were charged $1.50/ month for a business phone, $1/month for residential phone and 75¢/month for a farm line. In 1908 there were 1,634 telephone subscribers in Aurora. Today there are 5,146 access lines. In 1901 the salary pay of a secretary, treasurer or general manager was $75 per month for each position. In 1908 a bill for $10 was presented to board members from a lineman for horse feed. It was declined but later brought back in front of the board. The bill was approved to pay the lineman $10 [...]

A story of persistence Earl Nelson worked on a construction crew at Northwestern Bell building telephone lines in Iowa in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression. “They would all build pole lines, stay at hotels and come back on Friday night,” Phil Nelson recounts. And every Friday night, as the Depression worsened, employees were laid off based on their seniority with the company. “Everybody checked the list each Friday to see if their names were on it,” he says. “And sure enough, one Friday Dad’s name made the list.” Nelson said his father sought advice from a good [...]