(below) This historic Centre Street building housed one of Dashwood’s first post offices, when Joseph Snell was postmaster and during the same period, the village’s first telephone (1893). It also contained the infamous “Farmer’s Bank”; which, when it failed during the first decade of the 20th century, lost local investors $85,000 (Rader; pg.6). [Ed. note: This is the equivalent in today’s funds of approximately $4,000,000.]
“In 1893, Bell Telephone built the first line from Crediton to Dashwood. It was in the present home of Lloyd Guenther then owned by Joe Snell. Edmund Zeller built the Hay Telephone line from Zurich with Bill Hess electrician. The switchboard was in the front part of Tieman’s furniture store then owned by Pete McIsaac. Later it was in the old post office building then in Guenther apartment building until dial came into effect in 1966. McIsaac died in September, 1939 and Harry Hoffman carried on taking it over in 1940. The Hay Township Telephone System took over September 26, 1949.
There was a time when you could ring the operator and find out just about any source of information – where was the fire? who died? etc., [Ed. note: It has been a long practised custom in the village, that when a member of the Zion Lutheran Church congregation passes away, their church bell is tolled to honour them. At one time, this would normally precipitate enquiring calls to the telephone operator on duty to discover the identity of the person who had died.] but with the installation of underground cable in 1965 and the building of a new dial building on Helen Street and the switchover set for November 6, 1966, all that is changed.
Other operators who worked at the old switchboard during the last months were: Mrs. Cliff Penhale, Mrs. John MacDonald, Mrs. Edwin Miller and Mrs. Loretta Zimmer, Mrs. Clarence Geoffrey, Mrs. Frances Gibson.”
extracted from “Friedsburg-Dashwood 1860-1985” by Mary (Patterson) Rader, 1985; pgs. 37-38, ISBN 0-9692115-0-3
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The Hay Municipal Telephone System
“The Hay Municipal Telephone System, which also serves Stephen Township residents, remains one of Ontario’s independent telephone systems. In the early 1960’s, there were 400 to 500 similar companies, usually located in rural Canada. While many of these have been absorbed by Bell Canada, several independents, like the Hay system, still thrive along Lake Huron’s eastern shore. The Hay Municipal Telephone System operates today from dial exchanges at Grand Bend, Dashwood and Zurich. This system has also been associated with two local families, both of Swiss descendant [sic], for much of it history.
In 1906, Edmund Zeller, publisher of The Zurich Herald, saw the need for a telephone system in the Zurich area. A telephone line had been erected from Crediton to Dashwood in 1893 and Zeller wanted to extend the line to Zurich. The publisher combined efforts with William Hess of Zurich, a mechanic and telegraph linesman by trade, to bring the telephone to their community. The first two telephones in Zurich were installed in a bicycle shop owned by William Hess and in a jewelry store owned by Fred Hess. The telephone switchboard was installed in Zeller’s newspaper office on Victoria Street. Telephone lines were gradually extended to rural subscribers around Hay Township. These were connected to the Bell Telephone switchboard in Dashwood, operated by Peter McIsaac.
Edmund Zeller called his system the Farmer’s Exchange Line, incorporating it in 1910 under the title the South Huron Telephone Company Limited. The company was granted permission to operate in Stephen Township by a bylaw passed in April, 1910 and signed by Reeve Samuel Sweitzer and Clerk Henry Eilber. The public interest in telephone service continued to grow and telephone meetings were held around the area.
Some citizens began to promote the idea that a telephone system should be operated by the township as a public utility. This idea gained acceptance and in 1911, the Hay Township Municipal Telephone System was established. The Municipal Corporation of Hay bought the entire Zeller system, which served the villages of Zurich and Dashwood and subscribers in Hay and Stephen, for $7,150. [Ed. note: in this context that figure would represent the better part of $1,000,000 in today’s funds.] The new system had 138 phones; within two years it was serving almost 400 subscribers. The Hess family remained directly involved with the company until the late 1950s.
Peter McIsaac remained manager of the Dashwood office, assisted by his wife Lucinda, their sons, Milfred and Erwin and by Miss Sadie McIsaac. T. Harry Hoffman managed the Dashwood and Grand Bend exchanges from 1939 to 1949.
A favourite anecdote about the early years of the Hay system is this story of an early subscriber. The man refused to sign the petition for the new service until he was assured that he could talk over the telephone in his native German. After his telephone was installed, the man complained that the service had been misrepresented. He had tried to speak to his son’s wife in German but she could not understand him any better than if he had been right there in her home. (The son’s wife, unfortunately, simply did not speak German!)
In 1916, the Bell Telephone Company sold their four remaining telephones and local facilities in Dashwood to the Hay system for $100. Then in 1931, Bell also sold its trunk lines running through Dashwood to Grand Bend and Parkhill along Highway 81, to within two miles of Greenway, to the Hay Municipal Telephone System.
In April 1947, the Hay system purchased part of the Crediton Rural Telephone System, owned by Francis Clark, for $2,275. This consisted of telephone lines and equipment installed in part of Stephen and McGillivray Townships. Until the 1960s, switchboard operators still served the Hay Municipal Telephone subscribers. Not only did they make switchboard connections, but also politely answered queries on everything from time of day to the art of properly changing a diaper. The last operators worked in Grand Bend in 1962; the dial conversions program was introduced at Dashwood Central in 1964.” [Ed. note: Although the entire conversion was not completed until November 1966.]
extracted from “The History of Stephen Township”, by Susan Muriel Mack, 1992; pgs. 344-346.
(below) Immediately to the west of the former Joseph Snell house on Centre Street; the location of the first telephone in Dashwood, lies the Helen Street building housing the village’s modern telephone switching equipment, which opened in 1966.
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[Ed. note: Although these recollections represent the personal experiences of Gertrude (Thiel) Fleischauer in the Zurich Central Telephone Office during the 1930’s and 1940’s; they also reflect many of the same day to day experiences that any village switchboard operator of the era would have been expected to endure as part their normal duties; including the Dashwood Central facility.]
“During thunderstorms, especially those that were severe, the switchboard numbers on the operating panel would keep dropping down, and we would push them up again. If one or so of the numbers would buzz, then we would answer it since it might be a fire call. During thunderstorms, we would see the electricity sparking from the cables behind the switchboard. When storms blew up, we resorted to using the hand operated crank at the switchboard when the power failed. It was our only means of making the switchboard work and very inconvenient for the operator. We had to use one hand on the crank to keep the line alive and the other hand to connect the incoming calls. At times like these three hands would have come in handy!
The night operators (and we took turns) would pull up a rollaway cot in front of the switchboard. The buzzer would be operating at night, so we would be aroused by incoming calls. Usually there were not too many calls at night, but some nights we hardly got any sleep if there was a prolonged storm crossing the area. Any calls directed to the Fire Department were in our hands. We had to call the fire brigade and provide them with instructions on where the fire was located.
Oh yes, we had prank calls, too. There were customers who would put the receiver to the mouthpiece, which caused a feedback, and we would get a shrieking squeal in our ear. There were times when we had to tell someone on a party line, who had been using the line to visit rather than to relay a message, that there were others who needed a line out.
There were no toilet facilities on the premises but we did have an indoor toilet in the back shed. Sometimes we made some mighty quick trips to this old fashioned accommodation! We had a pot bellied stove, and we had to start our own fires and keep those fires stoked. We washed our own bedding and kept the place clean, so that it looked nice. All the switchboard connections had to be cleaned with Brasso every night, just to be sure the connections would work the next day.
There was never a dull moment in the Zurich Telephone Office. As we remember, there were holes near the top of the wall in our office. Sometimes we would see the rats peeking through. There was a feed mill nearby which attracted the rodents. The only public telephone booth in Zurich at that time was in the corner of the telephone office. There wasn’t any counter between the booth and the switchboard. When some customers came in to use the telephone, and began interfering with the operator on duty, it was necessary to install a counter to provide a barrier between the operator and the customer. It was scary at times, as the outside door had to remain open to the public until 10 p.m. at night.
Sometimes the doctor would be out on house calls and no one would be at home to take his calls. he would ask the operator to keep track of these calls. He would then phone in to get the calls that had been collected by the operator when he returned from his rounds. Telephone numbers were certainly much simpler in those days. The Dominion Hotel was 70; Wagner’s Confectionery was 91 and Harry Hess’ number (our boss) was 107. basic operator’s pay in these years started at $5 per week and finally rose to $7 and $10. Those were certainly memorable days – times we all enjoyed and will never forget!
extracted from “Hay Township Highlights: 150 years of Diversified Progress, 1846 – 1996”, published by the Hay Township Book Committee under the auspices of Hay Township Council, Alice Gibb ed.; pgs. 111-112 ISBN : 0-919939-43-0