120 Year Anniversary Story | DirectLink.coop

120 Year Anniversary

DirectLink is 120 years old! We want to take you through the history of DirectLink and how Canby Telephone Association and Mt. Angel Telephone evolved over the years and eventually came together. Decade by decade.

1900 - 1909

Alexander Graham Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago. Credit: Library of Congress.

US Landline Adoption 1904

12%

It had been nearly 30 years since Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call to his assistant, and this new form of convenient communication technology was becoming more commonplace.

By 1904, over 3 million telephones in the U.S. were connected by manual switchboard exchanges. While this may seem like a lot, it only accounted for less than four percent of the population at the time.

There was still plenty of innovation needed.

Fun Facts

In the early 1900s, a gallon of milk cost about 35 cents.

The first silent film, The Great Train Robbery, debuted in 1903.

Knight Mercantile on 1900 Main ST Canby OR. Credit: CanbyFirst.com.

In the Canby area, the Macksburg Mutual Telephone Company was born in early 1904 when local farmers pooled together resources to purchase a 4-line telephone switch: J.W. Smith, J.P. Cole, F.M. Matthews, A.N. Condit, J.H. Heinz, and H. Frachner.

People loved the idea of being able to communicate with others in neighboring towns and cities, and it sure beat waiting on the mail or riding one’s horse to see what business opportunities were available.

The cooperative officially moved to Canby the following year, and a 50-line switchboard was purchased for $150 a year after that, allowing folks to make calls to Molalla, Oregon City, Marquam, and New Era. Membership during these initial days was $24 per year, or $9 per year if folks supplied their own telephone.

Fun Facts

Orville and Wilbur Wright are the first people to fly a controlled, powered airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.

Albert Einstein formulated his famous theory of relativity in 1905.

Baker City Telephone Operators 1910. Credit: https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/

For the next 5 years, the co-op moved toward a more formal business operation as jobs became available to maintain facilities and equipment; telephone linemen made 25 cents per hour, while switchboard operators received $2 annually per customer.

Fun Facts

Henry Ford began production of the Model T in 1908.

1910 - 1919

Canby Telephone Operators. Credit: Canby First.

US Landline Adoption 1910

24.5%

In the early years of DirectLink, the cooperative operated as the Macksburg Mutual Telephone Association, named for the rural area just south of Canby where it all began.

However, after agreeing to relocate switching equipment to Canby proper in 1905 and making the full move in 1907, members voted to change the name to Canby Exchange of Mutual Telephone Companies in 1911.

This change reflected the multitude of smaller farmer lines that all made up the cooperative in Barlow, Canby, Central Point, Macksburg, Mundorf, Mill Creek, New Era, Oak Grove, Riverside, and Union Hall. The name was shortened in 1916 to Canby Cooperative Telephone Association.

Fun Facts

1910: There were 10,000 “nickelodeon” early motion-picture theaters throughout the U.S. that played one- and two-reel films lasting from 15 minutes to an hour.

1912: On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its way from England to New York City, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.

1916 Telephone Operators. Credit: Library of Congress.

At this point, telephone connectivity was booming - there were a multitude of other local cooperatives established in the early 20th century made up of rural party lines. With so many new service providers being established, regulation became necessary for what had become a public utility. The Railroad Commission regulatory agency was created in 1907 and soon extended to also include utilities and transportation regulation in 1911. Today, it is known as the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC), and it oversees electric utilities, natural gas, landline telephone service, internet, and some water companies.

In 1918, the PUC ruled that each company needed to have Class of Service, meaning that telephone connections were required to have certain features and benefits for subscribers.

Fun Facts

1914: World War I started in August 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sarajevo.

1914: Charlie Chaplin began his acting legacy in 1914 as the Little Tramp in Henry Lehman’s “Kid Auto Races at Venice.”

Photo: Mt. Angel Main St.

As the Canby Mutual Telephone Association continued to grow, the need for reliable telephone service in Mt. Angel had reached a tipping point. At the time, Interurban Telephone Company served customers in both Silverton and Mt. Angel. It was founded by Percy Brown, who also owned and operated Silverton’s first electric power plant alongside his father, Matt, and brother, Carl, using the flowing water of Silver Creek.

Marquam Mutual Telephone Association also had subscribers in Mt. Angel, but since they were on a different system than that of the Browns’, customers of the two companies were not allowed to talk to each other.

Fun Facts

1915: Alexander Graham Bell made his first transcontinental telephone call from New York to his assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco on January 15.

1917: The U.S. officially joined World War I on April 16 when Congress declared war on Germany.

Photo: Mt. Angel Creamery. Credit Mt. Angel Historical Society.

Necessity breeds innovation, and the Mt. Angel Telephone Company was born in 1910 when local dairy farmer Henry Berning successfully convinced city leaders of the need for their own independent telephone company.

Things were soon up and running as the company began serving 45 customers. Three years later, John T. Bauman arrived in Mt. Angel and took over as manager of Mt. Angel Telephone Company in 1925, where he would be affectionately known locally as “Mr. Telephone.” The Baumans continued to manage and eventually own Mt. Angel Telephone, and that lineage continues today: Tom Bauman currently serves on the DirectLink Board of Directors as the Mt. Angel representative.

Fun Facts

1918: The first documented case of the Spanish Flu began in Fort Riley, Kansas in March, eventually spreading and infecting approximately 500 million people, about one-third of the world’s population at the time.

1919: World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles by Germany and Allied Powers on June 28.

1920 - 1929

Weary Telephone Operator 1920. Credit Deposit Photos

US Landline Adoption 1920

34%

Not much exists in terms of record keeping for the DirectLink cooperative in the 1920s – in fact, historical accounts show that meeting minutes for the Macksburg Mutual Telephone Association (the co-op’s name at the time) were not kept up until 1923.

Minute-keeping began again in 1929 for the Canby Cooperative Telephone Association, which at the time was made up of smaller farmer lines in Barlow, Canby, Central Point, Macksburg, Mill Creek, Mundorf, New Era, Oak Grove, Riverside, and Union Hall.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1920: 783,389 residents counted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

1920: Oregon League of Women Voters founded.

Telephone Machinery 1925. Credit Library of Congress

By 1920, around 35 percent of U.S. households had a telephone, most of which were connected to party lines shared with several neighbors. Folks weren’t as quick to adopt the telephone into their lives as they were, say, radios, which saw about a 60 percent adoption rate in just the first few years of their existence.

However, telephone usage and ownership continued to climb steadily after the economic boom attributed to World War I and as technology continued to advance and improve. At this point, calls were manually connected by switch operators: if you wanted to talk to someone, you called the operator, gave them the name of the person you wanted to call, and the operator would connect you.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1922: First Oregon State Park established at Sarah Helmick State Recreation Area south of Monmouth.

1924: Clarke-McNary Act aids federal-state forest fire protection.

Women Telephone Operators 1920. Credit Library of Congress

Telephone operators were almost exclusively women, with an estimated 178,000 female operators in the U.S. by 1920, more than doubling since a decade prior. Operators were originally young teenage boys, but that didn’t last long as they “had a tendency to roughhouse” and had trouble staying attentive enough to connect calls, according to historical accounts.

In Canby, chief operator Mrs. R. Soper oversaw telephone switching with her daughter and assistant, Miss Rena Hutchinson, until she retired in 1922 after more than 16 years of service. She was succeeded by Zella Hardsey and her daughters, Mabel and Sylvia, who earned a combined $1,800 per year.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1925: League of Oregon Cities founded.

1926: Astoria Column completed.

Young woman holding onto a telephone. Credit Deposit Photos

DirectLink moved from the company’s original Canby location on A Street on the north side of the railroad to a new office on Second Avenue in 1920, the same block the company calls home today, after the purchase was organized a year earlier by Franz Kraxberger.

The move, which was spearheaded by longtime lineman Russell Scramlin, also included the acquisition of a new 100-line switchboard suited to serve even more members as the cooperative continued to grow.

1930 - 1939

Lending a sympathetic ear — Photo. Credit Deposit Photos

US Landline Adoption 1930

39.5%

As the DirectLink cooperative neared its third decade of operation, the company continued to improve and expand telephone service as demand grew. By the end of the 1920s, over 40 percent of all U.S. households had a telephone line at home. Folks wanted to make more calls, talk longer, and reach areas further away.

Locally, DirectLink worked with then-neighboring co-op Aurora Mutual Telephone Company to build a new calling circuit between the two service areas in 1930. According to a newspaper clip from the time, “this line has always been a busy one and the service poor.” This project was one of many that expanded communication access and elevated call quality.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1930: U.S. Census counts 953,786 Oregon residents.

1933: Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Projects Administration start projects.

1935: Congress authorizes Bonneville Dam along the Columbia River.

1930s Man with multiple telephones. Credit Deposit Photos

Like almost every other industry, telecommunications felt the economic downturn of the Great Depression; the number of telephones in homes decreased as folks cut costs. By 1934, U.S. household telephone adoption had fallen by 25 percent in less than 5 years.

Several who kept telephone service opted to subscribe to a party line to keep costs down. A party line is a telephone connection shared with as many as 16 other customers. Calls were rarely private and often limited to just a few minutes each.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1935: Fire destroys the Oregon State Capitol building.

1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Timberline Lodge and Bonneville Dam.

1937: Oregon Shakespeare Festival begins in Ashland.

Man using phone in police car 1936. Credit Library of Congress

Despite the difficulties that surfaced from the Depression, people found unique ways to stay connected. DirectLink decided to delay replacing the manually operated switchboard with an automatic switch as subscribers did not want operators to lose their jobs during the difficult economic time.

Folks began to barter and trade services instead of currency in exchange for telephone service. In fact, former DirectLink President Larry Cole noted that the company had once traded a local farmer a telephone for a cow.

Congress created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1934 to keep telephone service affordable for more people.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1938: Bonneville Dam completed.

1939: University of Oregon wins NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.

1939: New Oregon State Capitol building completed in Salem.

1940 - 1949

Cpl. Alma Bradley operates the switchboard at "Little White House", the residence of President Harry S. Truman during the Potsdam Conference in Germany. 13 July 1945. — Public Domain. Credit: Women of WWII

US Landline Adoption 1940

35%

The hard times of the Great Depression began to subside in the early 1940s.The subsequent economic boom created renewed demands on the telephone industry. US households with telephone service jumped from 31 percent in 1939 to 60 percent by 1949. It had become a necessity rather than a luxury as wartime activity and communications expanded. Providers scrambled to meet the growing demand, especially for long-distance service. In 1942, the local Mt. Angel-area newspaper published an article detailing that Mt. Angel resident Janie Christman received a telephone call from her enlisted son, Ensign Elwyn Christman, to let her know that he was “in good shape and good health.” Ensign was a pilot in the naval air corps and had been missing for two weeks after he was shot down.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1940: U.S. Census counts 1,089,684 Oregon residents and 998 in Canby.

1941: Oregonians enlist to serve in World War II.

Telephone operators at switchboard. Credit: Deposit Photos

Expansion increased costs for labor and materials, including copper, rubber, lead, and gasoline for vehicles and machinery. Smaller, independent companies struggled to keep up without raising subscriber rates. For the Canby Telephone Association, a 25-cent monthly rate increase for individual, two-party, and multi-party lines was approved by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 1944 but resisted by politicians and communications officials. This revenue boost allowed the co-op to offer 24-hour service with dedicated, skilled operators to support extensive logging and wartime operations throughout the region.

A few years later in Mt. Angel, the PUC approved rate increases of 50 cents per month for business, residence, and suburban service; $3 per year for farmer line service; and 15 cents per call for emergency service. This also helped raise salaries for the co-op’s employees and ensured dependable service for the increased demand. Around the same time, AT&T was making large profits from their near nationwide long-distance connection system.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1945: Canby continues to grow to 1,286 residents.

Farmland in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, a rich truck producing area, Clackamas County, Oregon. Credit: Library of Congress

Local, regional, and national regulators were concerned with ensuring universal service so that even folks in the most rural areas of the country had access to telephone service at reasonable rates. This resulted in the creation of Universal Service Funds, in which earnings from larger urban-based companies were shifted to smaller rural ones. Revenues from long-distance services like AT&T began to flow back to independent telephone companies and co-ops like DirectLink, subsidizing local subscribers and community connections.

Direct Distance Dialing was introduced by AT&T, which allowed people to make some direct calls. As a result, the need for telephone operators began to decrease. In October 1949, DirectLink put into operation a new dial telephone service after nearly two years of setup and implementation. The changeover to the new system took just a few minutes.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1946: Portland State University founded.

1948: The Columbia River flood destroys Vanport, the wartime public housing community near Portland.

Thanks for Reading

Come back next month to see more of DirectLink's history. We'll be adding more segments every month, decade by decade.

References and Sources

Mt. Angel Historical Society

Library of Congress

CanbyFirst.com

Wikipedia

Music

Music by PianoAmor from Pixabay

"Hyperfun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Poppers and Prosecco" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"On Hold for You" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Music by Geoff Harvey from Pixabay

Play music from this decade.

Music by PianoAmor from Pixabay

"Hyperfun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Poppers and Prosecco" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"On Hold for You" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Music by Geoff Harvey from Pixabay

1900 - 1909

1910 - 1919

1920 - 1929

1930 - 1939

1940 - 1949

US Landline Adoption Rate

1904

12%

1905

14%

1906

18%

1907

20%

1908

21%

1909

23%

1910

25%

1911

26%

1912

27%

1913

28%

1914

29%

1915

30%

1916

31%

1917

32%

1918

33%

1919

34%

1920

34%

1921

35%

1922

35%

1923

37%

1924

37%

1925

38%

1926

39%

1927

39%

1928

41%

1929

41%

1930

40%

1931

38%

1932

35%

1933

32%

1934

31%

1935

32%

1936

33%

1937

34%

1938

35%

1939

31%

1940

35%

1941

39%

1942

42%

1943

44%

1944

45%

1945

46%

1946

50%

1947

54%

1948

58%

1949

60%

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120 Year Anniversary

DirectLink is 120 years old! We want to take you through the history of DirectLink and how Canby Telephone Association and Mt. Angel Telephone Company evolved over the years and eventually came together. Decade by decade.

Skip to Decade:

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940

Slide #02: Alexander Graham Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago. Credit: Library of Congress.

There was still plenty of innovation needed.

Fun Facts

In the early 1900s, a gallon of milk cost about 35 cents (available to buy through the Sears catalog)!

The first silent film, The Great Train Robbery, debuted in 1903.

Slide #03: Knight Mercantile on Main ST Canby OR. Credit: CanbyFirst.com.

Fun Facts

Orville and Wilbur Wright are the first people to fly a controlled, powered airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.

Albert Einstein formulated his famous theory of relativity in 1905.

Slide #04: Baker City Telephone Operators 1910. Credit: https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/

Fun Fact

Henry Ford began production of the Model T in 1908.

Slide #05: Telephone Operator 1920. Credit Library of Congress

In the early years of DirectLink, the cooperative operated as the Macksburg Mutual Telephone Association, named for the rural area just south of Canby where it all began.

Fun Facts

1910: There were 10,000 “nickelodeon” early motion-picture theaters throughout the U.S. that played one and two-reel films lasting from 15 minutes to an hour.

1912: On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its way from England to New York City, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.

Slide #06: 1916 Telephone Operators. Credit: Library of Congress.

In 1918, the PUC ruled that each company needed to have Class of Service, meaning that telephone connections were required to have certain features and benefits for subscribers.

Fun Facts

1914: World War I started in August 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sarajevo.

1914: Charlie Chaplin began his acting legacy in 1914 as the Little Tramp in Henry Lehman’s “Kid Auto Races at Venice.”

Slide #07: Photo: Mt. Angel Main St.

Fun Facts

1915: Alexander Graham Bell made his first transcontinental telephone call from New York to his assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco on January 15.

1917: The U.S. officially joined World War I on April 16 when Congress declared war on Germany.

Slide #08: Photo: Mt. Angel Creamery. Credit Mt. Angel Historical Society.

Fun Facts

1919: World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles by Germany and Allied Powers on June 28.

Slide #05: Weary Telephone Operator 1920. Credit Deposit Photos

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1920: 783,389 residents counted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

1920: Oregon League of Women Voters founded.

Slide #10: Telephone Machinery 1925. Credit Library of Congress

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1922: First Oregon State Park established at Sarah Helmick State Recreation Area south of Monmouth.

1924: Clarke-McNary Act aids federal-state forest fire protection.

Slide #11: Women Telephone Operators 1920. Credit Library of Congress

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1925: League of Oregon Cities founded.

1926: Astoria Column completed.

Slide #12: Young woman holding onto a telephone. Credit Deposit Photos

Slide #13: Lending a sympathetic ear — Photo. Credit Deposit Photos

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1930: U.S. Census counts 953,786 Oregon residents.

1933: Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Projects Administration start projects.

1935: Congress authorizes Bonneville Dam along the Columbia River.

Slide #14: 1930s Man with multiple telephones. Credit Deposit Photos

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1935: Fire destroys the Oregon State Capitol building.

1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Timberline Lodge and Bonneville Dam.

1937: Oregon Shakespeare Festival begins in Ashland.

Slide #15: Man using phone in police car 1936. Credit Library of Congress

Congress created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1934 to keep telephone service affordable for more people.

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1938: Bonneville Dam completed.

1939: University of Oregon wins NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.

1939: New Oregon State Capitol building completed in Salem.

Slide #16: Cpl. Alma Bradley operates the switchboard at "Little White House", the residence of President Harry S. Truman during the Potsdam Conference in Germany. 13 July 1945. — Public Domain. Credit: Women of WWII

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1940: U.S. Census counts 1,089,684 Oregon residents and 998 in Canby.

1941: Oregonians enlist to serve in World War II.

Slide #17: Telephone operators at switchboard. Credit: Deposit Photos

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1945: Canby continues to grow to 1,286 residents.

Slide #18: Farmland in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, a rich truck producing area, Clackamas County, Oregon. Credit: Library of Congress

State of Oregon historical events/facts:

1946: Portland State University founded.

1948: The Columbia River flood destroys Vanport, the wartime public housing community near Portland.

Thanks for reading!

Come back next month to see more of DirectLink's history. We'll be adding more segments every month, decade by decade.

References and Sources

Mt. Angel Historical Society

Library of Congress

CanbyFirst.com

Wikipedia

Music

Music by PianoAmor from Pixabay

"Hyperfun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Poppers and Prosecco" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"On Hold for You" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Music by Geoff Harvey from Pixabay