Ardmore Telephone Co

Description

Zelma Parker had moved to Ardmore in 1904 (her family following later) to teach at the local school. She remembers the installation of the town's first telephone four years later in a little store owned by Lonnie Ivy. Only a handful of residents had telephones of their own, so Ivy would take messages for others and pass them along.Miss Zelma recalls taking her students on a tour of the telephone company in 1928, located now in an upstairs office near the railroad depot. Bula Troxler was operator at the new magneto switchboard installed the year before. For thirty years Ardmore remained a small, rural hamlet, suspended in time, and things changed very little, including its telephone service.By the mid-1950s the antiquated system was serving about 230 customers over 20 miles of open wire. The operation was owned by the Merrill family. Besides this business, Fount Merrill worked as a TVA engineer. In August 1955 he officially incorporated Ardmore Telephone Company and became one of the first Tennessee companies to apply for a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration. With the funds Merrill installed 90 miles of new copper cable and finally replaced the aged magneto switchboard with a modern dial office in a new commercial building.

Fact sheet

Company contacts

Products & services

Similar companies nearby