Saco River Telegraph & Telephone Company:
Connecting Buxton and Hollis With the Rest of the World
by Meg Gardner
The Industrial Age was booming in Buxton and Hollis when the visionary inventor Alexander Graham Bell made the first “telephone call” on March 10, 1876, with these not-so-memorable words to his assistant: “Mr. Watson, come here; I want to see you!” Actually the idea of transmitting sound – music and speech – over various ingenious devices had been around for a couple of hundred years at that point, and the fact that Bell’s patent was registered first was almost accidental resulting in a huge patent battle. When the dust settled, Samuel Shepard was ready to establish a regional telephone and telegraph office.
According to the “Acts and Resolves of the Sixty-fourth Legislature of the State of Maine” the Senate and House of Representatives “in Legislature assembled” passed “An Act to Incorporate the Saco River Telegraph and Telephone Company;” it was approved February 23, 1889. Besides Samuel Shepard, others named as the “body corporate” were Frank Southwick, Charles Towle, Edwin Palmer, Freeman Palmer, and George Lang.
This “Act of Incorporation” gave the company the right to “own, construct, maintain and operate, from some point in the city of Saco, a line or lines of telegraph and telephone, through the towns of Buxton, Hollis, and Standish, and terminating at a point in the town of Hollis, and also branch lines within the limits of Buxton and Hollis…” It further gave the corporation the right to locate its poles and lines “along and upon the highways, streets and bridges, as now traveled by the teams carrying the United States mail from Saco to Bonny Eagle village,” through the towns and along highways, streets, and bridges. They could cut down any trees within these limits in order to construct their lines, except “fruit, ornamental or shade trees…” (My thought as I read this: ‘what other kinds of trees are there?’). Their capital stock was limited to ten thousand dollars, which in today’s dollars would be worth about $258,000.
Incorporation didn’t save the company from many trials and tribulations, however. In 1921 there was a hearing before the Public Utilities Commission concerning the extension of one of the existing SRT&T lines. Mr. Charles Marble “and other complainants” alleged that they were unable to obtain telephone services even though they wanted the service.
According to the “Acts and Resolves of the Sixty-fourth Legislature of the State of Maine” the Senate and House of Representatives “in Legislature assembled” passed “An Act to Incorporate the Saco River Telegraph and Telephone Company;” it was approved February 23, 1889. Besides Samuel Shepard, others named as the “body corporate” were Frank Southwick, Charles Towle, Edwin Palmer, Freeman Palmer, and George Lang.
This “Act of Incorporation” gave the company the right to “own, construct, maintain and operate, from some point in the city of Saco, a line or lines of telegraph and telephone, through the towns of Buxton, Hollis, and Standish, and terminating at a point in the town of Hollis, and also branch lines within the limits of Buxton and Hollis…” It further gave the corporation the right to locate its poles and lines “along and upon the highways, streets and bridges, as now traveled by the teams carrying the United States mail from Saco to Bonny Eagle village,” through the towns and along highways, streets, and bridges. They could cut down any trees within these limits in order to construct their lines, except “fruit, ornamental or shade trees…” (My thought as I read this: ‘what other kinds of trees are there?’). Their capital stock was limited to ten thousand dollars, which in today’s dollars would be worth about $258,000.
Incorporation didn’t save the company from many trials and tribulations, however. In 1921 there was a hearing before the Public Utilities Commission concerning the extension of one of the existing SRT&T lines. Mr. Charles Marble “and other complainants” alleged that they were unable to obtain telephone services even though they wanted the service.
The PUC hearing was held at the Bar Mills Grange Hall with a “considerable number of the residents of West Hollis and Bar Mills…present.” The crux of the case was that there were eight potential subscribers who wanted the service, but the company felt that the proposed extension, at an estimated cost of $1,337 for approximately 2.8 miles, was too expensive because of the limited number of customers. The company had offered to build the extended line, however, if the potential customers offset the initial expense by each contributing $60.00 towards building it.
The PUC did not consider this proposition “unreasonable.” However, the members of the commission did find that it would create “a very decided burden” on the potential subscribers if they were required to pay the extra charge or, alternatively, to be deprived of telephone service.
As a compromise the PUC required Saco River Telephone accept volunteer labor to clear the land, to dig the holes and to provide transport for materials in lieu of the cash payment as a means to contribute to the cost of building the extension. The Commission decision found that this substitution would be “a far less burden to them than a cash contribution.” However, the company would not be required to extend the lines unless all eight of the potential customers agreed in writing to subscribe to the telephone services. The “treasurer and manager of the company” expressed her opinion that “any contribution of labor and material, other than cash, would not be very satisfactory.”
The PUC did not consider this proposition “unreasonable.” However, the members of the commission did find that it would create “a very decided burden” on the potential subscribers if they were required to pay the extra charge or, alternatively, to be deprived of telephone service.
As a compromise the PUC required Saco River Telephone accept volunteer labor to clear the land, to dig the holes and to provide transport for materials in lieu of the cash payment as a means to contribute to the cost of building the extension. The Commission decision found that this substitution would be “a far less burden to them than a cash contribution.” However, the company would not be required to extend the lines unless all eight of the potential customers agreed in writing to subscribe to the telephone services. The “treasurer and manager of the company” expressed her opinion that “any contribution of labor and material, other than cash, would not be very satisfactory.”
This “treasurer and manager” was Mary Bell Shepard, who had succeeded her Uncle Sam as chief executive in 1907. During her tenure, the Saco River Telegraph & Telephone went through good times and bad – including the Depression; the 1936 flood, which drove the operators to the second floor in rowboats; and the destruction of miles of poles and lines by the 1947 forest fires. Some have described her as “strong-willed,” and she must have been so, because in spite of these disasters, the company moved forward.
The switchboard, which had first been installed in Bar Mills in 1900-01, was replaced by dial service in 1956. It was the end of hand-cranked telephones and the pleasant operators’ voice saying “number please.” Mary B. Shepard died at about that time and control of the company was returned to Samuel B. Shepard, who managed it until he, too, died in 1960 at the age of one hundred and two years.
The switchboard, which had first been installed in Bar Mills in 1900-01, was replaced by dial service in 1956. It was the end of hand-cranked telephones and the pleasant operators’ voice saying “number please.” Mary B. Shepard died at about that time and control of the company was returned to Samuel B. Shepard, who managed it until he, too, died in 1960 at the age of one hundred and two years.
There were about thirty years left for the company to adapt to the changing world of communications under the management of the Carroll family and others. Sometimes it had to catch up with its counterparts in more urban areas. I can remember the old hand-cranked phone at my grandmother’s house, and how I loved it when she let me speak to that nice lady who said “number please.” I guess it is progress, but sometimes I watch the young people texting and using the internet and all those other abilities that “smart phones” are equipped with these days (a young man who visited me recently even had a flashlight in his), and I long to crank the phone, to hear a disembodied voice chime out “number please,” and to say “one-ring-three, please” just one more time.