Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / June 16, 1955, edition 1 / Page 43
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Heartiest Congratulations On The 100th Birthday! We Look Forward to ???/.. . Growing and Developing with FRANKLIN and MACON COUNTY During the Next 100 Years! Farmers Federation GENE FRIZZELL, Mgr. Franklin, North Carolina GENERAL OFFICES Asheville, North Carolina 'So You're The Hussy . . By ARTHUR HICKS (Of Aquone) They used to tell the story about the man, in the old days In the mountains, who was go ing down the road and found a piece of a mirror. He had never seen a mirror before. \ He looked in the glass and said "Dog-gone-it if it ain't grandpa's picture." So he took it home and put it in the loft. He would go every day and look at "grandpa's pic ture". llis wife thought he was see ing another woman ishe was awfully jealous.) So she went to the loft and found the look ing glass and looked in it, and said "so you're the old hussy he's been. running around with;" Folk Pop-Eyed When First Plane Arrived By MRS. FRED WOOD The first airplane to come to Macon County came in the spring j of 1921. It landed near where the I airport is today. At that time, it was Mr. John Thomas, farm. | My Daddy, my Husband, and I ? were in Franklin when the plane ' came over. Daddy said it had land ed over in the John Thomas field and if we would hurry we might get over there to see it while it was on the ground. Ah airplane was a big show to most of us in Macon County at that time. -We started home and when we got over where the plane had landed, Daddy said he wanted to go down to the plane and get a closer look at it. He didn't know then that he would live to see an airport built at Franklin or that he would see plenty of airplanes. That one plane was enough of a show that many people brought their children to Franklin to see it. Watauga Plains <in the Iotla section) and what is now East Franklin were first considered as sites for the Macon county seat. A 400-acre tract in the Watauga Plains, in fact, was surveyed for a town. 1 Jim IJour Home AM YOUR HOME, product of nature and man and ma chines . . . thousands of skills at thetr best ... to make living easier for you. HI am the symbol of man's progress from the days of the Cherokee and the cave. I lighten your tasks. I make strong your spirit. I make secure your future. I make enjoyable your leisure hours. HI keep you safe from the elements. I shut out the cold and snow, the wind and the rain. I make you warm or cool. I bring you beauty and color and light. I frame for you the everchanging magic of trees and flowers and mountains and sky. No king of ages past possessed as much. HI am built to endure. I caji cradle your young at birth, shape their character at youth, comfort them in their maturity, shelter them in their sunset years. HI am your companion, your friend, your host, your servant, your bodyguard, your bondsman. I am your proud est possession. HI will grow nearer and dearer to you through the years. I will be loved because of the storms I have helped you weather, the heights I have helped you climb, the tears I have dried, the joys I have created. HI am the expression of your faith in a way of life. I am the fruit of your labors and the spark of your incentive. I am a bulwark against tyrants. I am yours ? your stake in Franklin ? and in America, a nation made free and great by men and women who ? like you ? be lieve in the stronghold of free enterprise. HI am your Home! REALTORS J* f Ted Reber-Realtor REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST ? SINCE 1920 ? MEMBER: National Association of Real Estate Boards . . . National Institute of Real Estate Brokers . . . Interna tional (Real Estate) Traders Club . . . North Carolina Association of Real Estate Boards . . . Western North Carolina Associated Communities . . . Franklin Chamber of Commerce. "Under All Is The Land" The Telephone Story . . . Looking hack one hundred years on Franklin and telephone service, we find that the idea of a telephone had only been con ceived in the minds of man for one year. In 1854, a Frenchman, Charles Bourseul, in an article entitled "Electrical Telephony", after having admired the telegraph apparatus, said, "It would seem impossible to go beyond this in the region of the marvelous. Let us try, nevertheless, to go a few steps farther. I have asked myself, for example, if the spoken word itself could not be trans mitted by electricity ; in a word, if what was spoken in Vienna may not be heard in Paris?" He was probably considered foolish to imagine that words could travel through wires. Little was heard of the telephone for a number of years. It was in 1876 that Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone and after numerous trials and failures was able to make the telephone a practical method of communication. In 1877 there were only 778 telephones in the United States. This marvelous manner of communication took hold of the country like wild fire, and Telephone Companies began to spring up in towns all over the United States. The first telephone service in Macon County was a line from Franklin to Corrundum Hill Mines and a line from Franklin to Dillsboro. The line to Corrundum Hill was owned by Dr. Lucas and Mr. Bidwell. The line from Franklin to Dillsboro terminated in Trotter's store, which was located on the corner across from the Courthouse, where the S and L 5 & 10c Store is now. As this line to Dillsboro was next to the road, it was very conven ient for people to cut portions of the line out to tie up broken wagons and buggies as they crossed the mountain. This became so frequent that the line to Dillsboro was finally abandoned. Franklin's first Telephone Exchange awaited the arrival of Samuel Kelly, one of the pioneers of one of the most important developments of all times. Samuel Kelly was a lawyer and organ ized atfd incorporated the first telephone system in Franklin. It was\j<n(jj&>T) as the Franklin Telephone and Electric Company. The first rural line built out of Franklin was through the Car toogechaye community and to Silver Birch Lodge near Wallace Gap. The Silver Birch Lodge was owned and operated by R. L. Porter. It was one of the most popular resort lodges located in Western North Carolina. Two of the mon who helped construct this line were Lester Conley and A. B. Slagle. The operator ? and there was one ? was Mr. Siler. A little later on lines were extended into other sections of Macon County, to Almond in Swain County and to Clayton, Ga. The line from Almond was used to relay the first telegrams into the town of Franklin. A few years later this line was abandoned from Etna to Almond. The line to Clayton was the first contact with other telephone systems. Upon the death of Samuel Kelly in 1907, the management of the company was taken over by his sister, Miss Lassie Kelly. The old Franklin telephone exchange was located in the old Johnston Porter building on Main Street. A few years later the telephone system was sold to S< A. Munday, who after a while sold it to / W. W. }on6s and Gilmer A. Jones. This was about the year 1914 and it was reorganized under the name of Franklin Telephone Company. At that time there were about one hundred and fifty telephones in the system. During this period two men were oper ating the company, one man clearing trouble from horse back and another man at this time, Jehu Tyler, the operator. The ex change was then sold to Will McCoy. Arthur Jacobs was the trouble shooter for a number of years when the exchange was owned and operated by Will McCoy. A Ford truck was used to shoot trouble at this time. Heretofore all work had been done from wagons and horseback. The Western Carolina Telephone Company was formed in 1924 and in 1925 it was reorganized, with Mr. W. B. McGuire as president and D. G. Stewart as manager. The reorganized com pany consisted of Franklin, Clayton, Bryson City, and Sylva. A few years later the Cashiers Telephone Company and the Cullo whee Telephone Company were added to the system. Dr. W. A. Rogers served as the president of the Western Carolina Telephone Company for a number of years. Upon his death in 1946, Mr. Henry Cabe became president. At this tune there were less than three hundred telephones connected with the Franklin system. In the year 1948 the old magneto type switchboard and the old crank telephones were removed and Franklin had a new tele phone system. Since 1948 the Western Carolina Telephone Company has grown until it now serves seventeen towns in Western North Carolina and one in Georgia. It owns hundreds of miles of long distance lines and is expected to put in it's ten thousandth tele phone during the year 1955. Today there are 936 telephones con nected with the Franklin exchange and a total of 1,361 telephones in Macon County. Western Carolina Telephone Co.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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June 16, 1955, edition 1
43
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