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 Telephone
service for Hagerstown began with the establishment in February 1883 of a
central office by the Telephone Exchange Company. It was situated above
Stouffer and Darner's marble cutting shop on West Antietam Street near Court
House Alley. Later that year the Telephone Exchange Company was succeeded by
the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company.
J. H. Beachley was the first subscriber, and Miss Maggie McCarty was the first
operator. As the number of subscribers grew, 24-hour service was required and a
nighttime operator, Mr. Beimis Stauffer, handled the big switchboard from 5
p.m. until 8 a.m., according to Ron Reaves. In 1883 Hagerstown was connected
with Frederick and in 1884 with Baltimore. In 1885 the telephone office was
moved to the old Mail Building on South Jonathan (later Summit), with Frank
Kennedy as the manager. In 1888 there were over 300 subscribers in Hagerstown.
By 1893 Hagerstown was a progressive city, and the City Directory (also on this
web site) boasted "The city possesses all conveniences of modern invention,
such as electric lights, water works, telegraph and telephone service, etc."
The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone exchange employed at least 13 men whose
profession was listed in the directory as "tel operator". And in the same 1893
directory, five businesses listed their telephone number - a family market, a
steam bottling works, a steam laundry, a florist and a dealer in "all Kinds of
Lumber, Doors, Sash, Blinds, Shutters, Mouldings, &c."
 The additional exchanges in the county were added
over time. Williamsport had a 25-wire switchboard in 1886, but only eight
subscribers. By 1907 Clear Spring, Hancock, Keedysville, and Smithsburg had
separate sections in this directory, indicating perhaps they also had exchanges
by then, though the written history is unclear of the dates. The party line
system allowed phone lines to be shared by a number of subscribers. The letter
after some of the Hagerstown numbers (F, K, R and W) indicates that this was a
party line, shared by four subscribers. In the country, party line subscribers
shared the line with many more users. The operator calling the Keedysville
number Keedys 9-15 would have selected the 9 line and then rung one long
and five short rings for the 15 at the end of the number. Subscribers on the
Keedysville 9 line would have heard all the rings, but in theory would have
picked up only when they recognized the shorts and longs of their own ring.
By 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in the Hagerstown district had
grown so large that the admonition in red ink on the front cover of the Hagerstown
District Directory of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company read:
Since no operator can correctly memorize the 1500 numbers contained in
this directory, it is necessary, in order to secure quick service, that you
call by number, not by name. Some of smaller towns in
1907 still had only one phone, usually in the local store. The villages of
Tilghmanton, Spielman, St. James, Reid, and Benevola, among others, have an
entry in the 1907 directory with no subscriber listed. Other small towns listed
where the phone was located. For example the entry for Rohrersville reads: Rohrersville,
MD., S .H. Norris, Groc. & Dry Gds, Rohrersville. The merchants
would provide a messenger to deliver calls from the stores to private homes
when necessary. The directory however states:
Messenger service is arranged only for the purpose of summoning a person
to a telephone. Not everyone was at ease with the new
device. The directory included: Instructions For Using The Telephone.
To obtain good results, it is necessary to hold the lips close to the
transmitter to speak directly into the mouth piece, in a distinct though
moderate tone. There was also an admonition: Please
do not allow outsiders to use your telephone. Such use may keep your line busy
many times when calls are made for it. Calls that might result to your
pecuniary advantage may thus be delayed or lost. Please refer outsiders to the
nearest public pay station.
There were pay stations located throughout Hagerstown, for example in the
Bellevue Asylum, Diamond Café in the Public Square, the Court House, the Gantz
Hotel, Hotel Hamilton, Landis House on West Washington, North Potomac Street,
the Baldwin House, the Market House, and the Railroad Y. M. C. A. Pay stations
were also located at the C. & P. office in Williamsport, Mrs. Sallie
Ankeney in Clear Spring, Dr J. A. West in Hancock, and Mrs. Steck in
Smithsburg. Several businesses in Hagerstown had their own Private Branch
Exchange System, what today would be called a PBX, among them the Hagerstown
Railway, Mail Publishing Company, and Diamond Bindery.
It is noted that Miss Mary Titcomb, Librarian of the Washington County Free
Library, had a phone in her Summit Avenue home in 1907, but the Library itself
did not.
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Resources
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland. The Telephone in
Maryland, 1974.
Martin, Oliver. Chesapeake and Potomac Country. Chesapeake and Potomac
Telephone Company, 1928.
Reaves, Ron. Telephone service comes to Maryland. Cracker Barrel, Dec 1988.
The assistance of Don Donat, Washington County Genealogical Society
and Tara Potter of Verizon Maryland is much appreciated.
Illustrations
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing
Company Collection (det 4a27894).
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland. The Telephone in
Maryland, 1974.
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