Muskogee's First Telephones

"I'll phone you." One hundred and ten years ago this summer Muskogee residents began hearing another person tell them that they would use the latest technology in communication.

Mr. A. Z. English was an insurance agent. He represented more than a half dozen insurance companies in Indian Territory. In his business of dealing with home offices in the eastern United States, he saw firsthand how important telephone service was.

During the spring of 1898, he decided to bring the concept to Muskogee. Those joining in the investment included Captain F. B. Severs (Mr. English's father-in-law), S. M. Rutherford, C. W. Turner and Dr. Jesse Blakemore. The largest paper in town saw the effort as the "advance guard of civilization and progress." Most teenagers today would agree.

In fairly short order, English ordered the initial supplies and equipment. By May, his workers were planting telephone poles across town. The first single-wire switchboard English ordered could handle only forty lines.

Twenty businesses subscribed for telephone service quickly. Workers began stringing the single strand of copper wire as soon as poles began appearing.

Not all businesses were interested in having telephone service, however. When Mr. English asked the president of the First National Bank, the president could not see any advantage in having a telephone. This is interesting because the telephone company switchboard was installed on the second floor of the First National Bank building. More slowly, residents subscribed to the remaining lines.

The Muskogee National Telephone Company began operating on Monday, June 4, 1898. The first telephone operator hired to make line connections by plugging in a connecting cable sometimes went hours without a call coming in. If the operator planned to be away from work, as she was one Sunday afternoon in mid-July, the telephone subscribers saw the announcement in the newspaper.

Yet, there was a lot to talk about during the summer of 1898. The Curtis Act passed Congress. When it was signed into law, it insured the breakup of tribal control in Indian Territory. Also on the national front, the United States went to war with Spain with many local boys serving in the Rough Riders.

Residents also discussed significant local events during these months. Muskogee became an incorporated town earlier in the year. An election during the spring ushered in the town's first mayor and city council. Just as the telephone company began operation, residents and businesses found themselves having to live under the town's first city ordinances.

Throughout the fall and winter, residents explored the advantages and disadvantages of having local telephone service. They found out, for instance, that the telephone serviceman was a part-time employee.

Unfortunately, fire destroyed the telephone company slightly more than seven months after service began. The great fire the following February that wiped out Muskogee's downtown district engulfed the First National Bank building, too.

Mr. English suffered a total lost of about $40,000. Part of his lost included about $12,000 he invested in purchasing the switchboard, telephones, wire and poles.