Five Men Who Have Given 241 Years
Of Service to the Bell System
Occur Eanes R. L. Wright Wythe White P. 11. Sullivan J. W. Creics
J,O years. years. oO years. J8 years. -t> years.
Memories of the earliest days of
the telephone in Virginia and in the
telephone industry generally were
revived recently when associates of
five veteran telephone mon gathered
at a testimonial dinner tendered
them ir. recognition of their long
and faithi'uP service.
More than 50 years ago Patrick
Henry Sullivan became the first
employee cf the Southern Bell Tele
phone ar.d Telegraph Company.
Just a half century ago Wythe
White joined the organization. One
year later Oscar Eanes followed. In
1883 J. W. Crews and R. L. Wright
became telephone men. These five
are Virginians. They started in the
telephone business in Virginia, and
except for short periods of time in
Other parts of the original Southern
Bell territory, their entire service
life has been spent in Virginia, and
all five of them are still employed
in the telephone business in Vir
ginia, four of them at Richmond
and one at Danville.
All five of them have worked to
gether from the beginning, and
have been close friends during all
of that time. On the night of the
dinner they sat together at the hearl
table, with Mr. Wright presiding.
The happy memories reviewed on
this occasion brought out bits of the
history of the men who were in on
the beginning of the telephone in
dustry in Virginia.
\ Wythe White holds the record for
the longest term of continuous serv
ice in Virginia. He entered the
service as an operator on October 18,
11880. Three years- later he was
made inspector. In 1884 he was
"sent to Raleigh, N. C., to check up
ixecords and to look after other mat
ters of importance in that office.
When affairs in Raleigh were in
satisfactory shape Mr. White was
recalled to Richmond to take the
.position of chief inspector, which
he retained until 1894, when he was
Appointed manager at Alexandria.
•There he gained an excellent work
ing knowledge of the business ad
ministration of the telephone busi
ness, and armed with this knowl
edge he was later transferred to the
FOREST CITY COURIER
FINE JOB PRINTING \> 'P HON E5B
! Programs
Prompt Service IZrZ'ilL'^
I w/PENCIL
M> &* K® BAfcIO \ ■maS^Si mml JJ
Commercial Department at Rich
mond, where he now is employed.
Patrick Henry Sullivan "would
have excelled Mr. White's record
«
but for a break in hie service, as
he was the very first telephone em
ploye in the South. He was em
ployed as a messenger boy, In the
fall of 1878, by the men who started
the "business in Virginia. On April
1, 1879, the first switchboard in
Richmond wa3 put into operation
with young Pat Sullivan In charge.
There were about 25 stations. In
the capacity of chief operator Mr.
Sullivan employed the first girl op
erator in Richmond. This was in
1883. That same year he was sent
to Danville as temporary manager
and Wythe White succeeded him as
chief operator. By 1886 girl opera
tors were employed exclusively.
On March 1, 1884, Mr. Sullivan
became manager at Wilmington,
N. C., and later in the same year
he was transferred to Alexandria,
to succeed as Manager W. T. Gen
try, who eventually became Presi
dent of the Southern Bell Company.
In 1894 Mr. Sullivan returned to
Richmond. In 1908 he was made
chief clerk to R. L. Wright, at that
time Division Superintendent of
Plant. From this position Mr. Sulli
van entered the rights-of-way work,
in which he has since remained.
H. Oecar Eanes entered the serv
ice on August 14, 1881. He saw
Danville's telephone system grow
from the crude beginning to the
present modern equipment, remem
bering perfectly the primitive type
of switchboard by which Danville
was served at the time that he was
the first and, for some time, the
only operator.
Mr. Eanes held successive assign
ments as installer, inspector and
collector before his appointment, in
August, 1883, to the position of man
ager at Danville. He probably
holds the record in the entire Bell
System for continuous service as
manager in the same city as he
continued in that office for more
than 44 years. On January 1, 1928,
he was made commercial represen
tative at Danville, continuing val
uable work in maintaining the good
public relations which he had built
THE FOREST CITY COURIER, THURSDAY, AUGUST. 7, 1930.
up while manager, but devoting his
activities largely to sales develop
ment.
When J. W. Crews entered the tel
ephone service in 1883 he already
had a background of 16 years in
the communications field, having
entered the service of the Western
Union shortly after the War Be
tween the States. He resigned from
the Western Union to become man
ager of the Southern Bell exchange
in Richmond. In 18S5 Mr. Crews
was made manager of the growing
telephone business in Norfolk.
In 1900 Mr. Crewe was appointed
Superintendent of the Southern
Bell Company at Savannah. In
1902 he was promoted to the post
of Assistant General Manager with
headquarters at Atlanta. In 1907
another promotion came and he was
made General Commercial Superin
tendent, having his office in Rich
mond. When the Chesapeake and
Potomac Telephone Company ac
quired the Virginia territory he was
made Division Manager. In May,
1913, he was appointed Vice Presi
dent of the Chesapeake and Poto
mac Telephone Company of Vir
ginia.
Robert Lewis Wright had Vis first
telephone work in Lynchburg. He
came to the Company on May 1,
1885, as night operator and lineman.
At that time there were 38 tele
phones at work in the city, but
they kept Mr. Wright busy. When
he was not operating the switch
board he was out repairing the
lines or the instruments; according
to his own statement it fell little
short of being a twenty-four-hour
a-day job. However, the experience
qualified him for higher things,
in 1886 he wa3 transferred to Roa
ncke to become Manager of the
newly established office there. Dur
ing the four years he held sway
he saw the office grow from eight
subscribers to 300.
In the years that followed, Mr.
Wright devoted, his time and talents
to Plant work, in which he had al
ways taken great interest. On Jan
uary 1, 1900, he was made wire
chief at Richmond. From there he
went to Norfolk, a similar ca
pacity, where he regained until, in
August, 1906, he was appointed As
sistant Manager at Birmingham,
Alabama, having charge of all
Plant work in the district. Sep
tember 1, 1908, saw him again in
Richmond, where he was made Di
vision Superintendent of Plant. He
is now the General Plant Manager j
of The Chesapeake and Potomac
Telephone Company of Virginia.
By ETIENNE ALLIO, Chef,
Hotel New Yorker, New York City
prepared
sauces can add greatly to
Wg-gJ the appetite appeal of
ffillgsll many kinds of meats and
fowl. This secret the
French discovered long ago, and it
is unfortunate that the American
housewife so often passes by the
opportunity to give an added zest
to the piece de resistance of the
meal.
In making such sauces, the
greatest care should be taken that
the least pos
■ —=z sible amount
rrfliAvlh J' ° f remains
y Mwk //. in the liquid.
Another excel
lent point to
remember is to
W tJHp add a little
sugar to the
$ other season
li \ ings ' not for
]l J, I J \>\| sweeten
ing purposes
CHEF ALLIO but to bind the
various fla
vors. In making a brown sauce,
for instance, heat a teaspoon of
sugar until it melts, and add to the
sauce, bringing it to a boil. It im
proves the flavor, browns the sauce
and does not sweeten.
Orange Sauce for Roast Duck —
Erown two tablespoons butter in a
j Tiy some of our home made milk j
I chocolate candy—4oc pound. Stahl's j
' Ten Cent Stores. j
1 I — i
x J
When a man has occasion to de
fend his actions he admits his weak
ness.
Telephone Topics
Metropolitan Boston's latest tele
phone directory contains 806 pages
as compared with 768 in th . e
v»us book. The first
name in the directory is thai. of Ole
Aalerud, and the last is Stanley
Zyzvs. They are the Alpha and
Omega of the list, but in this case,
Omega really comes up to the be
ginning as the double - a
Aalerud's name is pronounced as a
single "O." Aalerud is a native 01
Norway, and Zyzys was born in
Lithuania.
"Send flowers by telephone,"
was the suggestion made at the
North American Flower Shov/, held
in Detroit recently. At the time, it
was pointed out that it was quick
er and would insure personal at
tention to one's order at a distant
point for a florist to telephone out
j of-town orders.
A telephone call from New York
to San Francisco, which a little
over three years ago cost $16.50,
now costs §9. Night rates, of
course, are about 50 per cent lo'wer.
David Irvine, a jeweller and
watchmaker at Vancouver, is a bit
deaf and is unable to hear the tele
phone bell distinctly. However, the
problem has been solved by his dog
Tommy. The dog has been taught
to bark whenever the telephone bell
rings, and Tommy keeps up this
barking until he attracts his mas
ter's attention. Whenever Tommy
'starts barking vigorously and
points his nose towards the tele
phone, his master knows there is
someone who wants to talk to him.
There is one place where obso
lete types of telephones are in de
mand and that is in the big movie
studios at Hollywood.
Styles change in telephones just
as they do in everything else, and
the telephone sets of twenty-five or
forty years ago look as out of place
today as do the women's gowns of
the same period. But at Hollywood,
many pictures are made portraying
conditions in the past and it is nec
essary when a scene is shown rep
resenting any particular year, not
only to have the costumes of the
actors correspond with the period,
but to have the other properties in
keeping. That is why the movie
directors find a place in their equip
ments for various obsolete types of
telephones, rfiaflf of •tf'fifeu n&r* Ai*
most been forgotten by the present
telephone-using public.
Construction work has been com
pleted on a new Long Distance cir
cuit providing direct telephone
communication between the cities
of Montreal and Toronto. The plac
ing of this new circuit in operation
marks the opening of the sixteenth
direct telephone circuit linking
these two important Canadian
cities. The new line is made nec
essary by the increasing use of
Long Distance over this route, the
increase for the first three months
of 1930 having been 27 per cent
over the average for the same pe
riod in 1929.
The new line forms an important
part of a big construction program
in 1930 for Quebec and Ontario.
Approximately $11,000,000 is "being
expended this year by the Bell Sys
tem for Long Distance lines and ai>-
paratus throughout the two prov
inces.
Sauces for Meats and Fowl
saucepan. Add two tablespoons
flour and stir until the mixture
bubbles and becomes brown. Add
three-fourths cup meat stock. Cook
until smooth and creamy, stirring
constantly. Add six drops onion
juice, one-half teaspoon walnut
ketchup, one teaspoon sugar, few
grains cayenne, and salt to taste.
Continue stirring and add juice and
grated rind of two oranges. Bring
to boiling point. Serve around fil
lets of breast of roast duck, ar
ranged on a platter with a pile of
wild rice in the center.
Sauce Chevraux for Fish, Poul
try or Game —Dissolve one tea
spoon vegetable bouillon extract in
one cup of boiling water. Add one
half teaspoon pepper, one-half tea
spoon paprika, and salt to taste.
Add one cup orange juice, pulp of
two oranges, few slices of rind,
and one teaspoon sugar. Brown
two tablespoons butter in sauce
pan. Add two tablespoons flour,
and cook until mixture is brown,
smooth and creamy. Add slowly
to stock mixture, stirring con
stantly. Cook until thickened.
Take oft fire and add one-half cup
skinned and seeded white grapes.
Currant Sauce —To make a cur
rant sauce for roast lamb, add one
glass currant jelly to a cup of
brown gravy made from drippings
in the pan. This is especially good
when slices of the cold roast are
warmed in it.
After a younger man has made his
| first ringing speech he should buy
| the ring.,
i
We have all the latest hits in
sheet music. New ones received every
week. Stahl's Hn Cnt Stors.
Romina thea tr r
"AS COOL AS THE ARCTIC" Hi
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY^
Sl'MtN-ARt
KUKE THAT _
WITH I J | ! ;
HAL SKELLY i !
CLQciramount
Tbe star of "DANCE OF LIFE" in a rip roaring con-p' : -
all fun and frolic. """* .»
—Added—
Talking Comedy Sound X e „ s
DON'T FORGET:
THE TWIN PONIES will be given av*ay at 9:3(1 Tli
night and the person to get same be in the audi.
FRIDAY SATURDAY
Girls and Music ....
Songs and Fun !
Sweetest Picture
The Laugh-Love Riot
A glittering galaxy of stars
make whoopee in a big way. | jf)" £3J i
A swell show to see and hear. : >:f I
i Jjl,
Nancy Carroll Helen Kane - fl
Jack Oakie \ |
Qo remount
X % f
i '■■■.
Hear the latest heart-throb, "Sweeter Than % \
Sweet." See the newest dance craze, The Prep IV \
Step." And a hundred other thrills that will i
make you feel great! |
—Added— ■* | | f I
All Talking Comedy | t ;fl
Sound Cartoon j |
CHAPTER 5 .V-'
Tarzan The Tiger
MONDAY TUESDAY
First and Exclusive Showing!
7he greatest story of adventure ever filmed!
Men battling the last frontier! At the very bottom of the world! W here
no woman has ever been. Scenes of desperate daring. Rare humor in
spired by high courage. Amazing beauty.
And nerve-tingling drama with a mighty punch. Filmed as it was
lived, 2,300 miles beyond civilization! You actually fight and fly
PWITH BYRD'
AT TH E
SOUTH POLE !
J j CL Qaramount Qicture j |
ft ' The Only Actual Picture
i J
of This Colossal Event! > I
F' OREST CITY f \ Telephone 58 I
, Our Hobby.
v>ourier|
u
Letterheads, Billheads
Cards, Circulars,
Folders, Fine Booklets,
Pamphlets, etc.
We never disappoint a customer on a
promise. You get the job when its due
—.— —.—_ i
11 — 7 —
FOREST CITY, NORTH CAROLINA