About 1895, Bob Gilmore a pioneer and progressive druggist in De Leon started the telephone exchange on the second floor of the building on Gonzales north of Frank’s Appliances.  Gilmore helped organized the De Leon Free Press which operated on the first floor.

   He eventually sold the exchange to L.H. Shannon who also was an early settler and father of Mrs. J.D. Ham.  He extended service to all parts of the community and later sold the exchange to A.I. Stephens yet another of De Leon’s early settlers and a photographer.  Stephens, who actually suggest the name “Free Press” added new poles and numerous extensions as the town grew, and by the time he sold the exchange every business house and most homes in the community had telephone service.

   It is unclear who owned the company immediately following Stephens.  The Dunn and Bradstreet report for 1906 lists J.E. Davis as owner of the exchange. B.E. Howe bought and managed the exchange, probably with some other investors perhaps around 1909 as tradition says he owned the company about 20 years. In any event the City of De Leon granted the De Leon Telephone Co. (unincorporated) a 25 year franchise on September 18, 1917.  At that time the owners were Howe, J.Doss Miller Sr., S.R. Haynes, and S.W. Kenward.  The company was to install poles of 30 feet in height with no more than five cross arms or 25 feet in height with no more an four cross arms.

    During Mr. Howe’s ownership, Frank R. Carter Sr. was the foreman and equipment manager.  Howe more than doubled the service area during his ownership and between Howe and Carter there were few problems and the exchange was considered one of the most efficient systems in Central Texas.  A Miss Sue Bryan of Cisco was hired at some point to be the operator and came to De Leon living with the Howes.  She had been working about a year when she suffered an appendicitis attack and died at the age of 24. 

    Howe kept the exchange until April 1, 1929 when it was sold to Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.  Bell leased the home of Mrs. May Streety Whaley on the southwest corner of Texas and Labadie (currently Woffords) and moved operations to that location.  SWB owned the system until April 1,1944 when they began to concentrate on larger cities and sell their holdings in the smaller communities. 

    E.F. Stephens purchased the De Leon Telephone Exchange April 1, 1944. At the time the exchange had 136 subscribers.   The office remained at the Whaley house until June 1, 1950 when it was moved to a facility in that same block on Austin Avenue.  Stephens began a conversion of the system from crank phones to rotary dial phones at the time of the move.  On Wednesday October 31 1951 at 9:00 a.m. the old rotary system was taken offline and at 9:45 a.m when the transition was completed, the fire whistle blew to inaugurate the operation of dial telephone service in De Leon.  The cost of the dial system was $50,000.

      Service was eventually expanded to Carbon, Desdemona, Olden and the surrounding areas.  

     On October 19, 1966 Comanche County Telephone Company acquired Stephen’s De Leon Telephone.  See Comanche County Telephone below the photo.

Telephone

Ben Howe in the window, Frank Carter on the left.  The operator is unknown.  The photograph was probably taken around 1912 and the location of the office is believed to have been in the two story building on Gonzales just east of Texas Avenue.

The De Leon switchboard and staff just before the switch to rotary dial phones in October 1951.  L-R: Leta Terry, Nadine Stephens Sutton, Zadie Terry at the switchboard, Mickey Stephens, Betty Wofford, Edith Short and owner E.F. Stephens.

Top:  A De Leon hand crank telephone.

Bottom:  The original De Leon switchboard on display at Comanche County Telephone.  Both photos by Xandra Morgan Carter 1981

SOME PHONE NUMBERS

FROM THE 1920S

Steakley and Smith                145

J.T. Edmondson, The Tailor       2

C.L. Kinchen, Tailor                124

Steakley’s Filling Station           13

Bill Walker’s Garage               246

De Leon Meat Market               40

Terrill Grocery Company             5

Hayes Transfer Company         15

A.M. Pate Sanitary Grocer      284

De Leon Ice Company             150

Barry Brothers Coal and Ice     150

Walton’s Quality Bakery           244

Butler Transfer Co .                  131

Sammon & Smith Garage          60

COMANCHE COUNTY TELEPHONE COMPANY 

   Many of even the smallest communities of Comanche County had an established local telephone system very early in the 20th century but, following World War II the need to modernize those systems and the aggressive effort of the Rural Electrification Administration (R.E.A.) to bring electricity and phone service to all parts of the country, provided an opportunity to expand and upgrade those systems.

   On October 3, 1950, a group met to discuss forming a telephone cooperative with the Sidney, Newburg and Hasse-Proctor exchanges and on September 3, 1953, the company officially incorporated as the Comanche County Telephone Cooperative Association, Inc.

   On December 13, 1953, the existing Sidney and Proctor magneto exchanges were purchased and a survey made for a Newburg exchange. A loan from the REA was obtained and construction began on open wire, 8 party, unattended dial facilities for Hasse, Newburg and Sidney.

   In January 1956 Sidney was cut over to an 8 party system with 64 subscribers and in August Hasse with 29 subscribers and Newburg with 60 made the transition.

   In December 1965 the Cooperative filed with the state for a charter as a stock company under the name Comanche County Telephone Company, Inc.  Among other things, the change made the possible purchase of Stephen’s De Leon’s Telephone Company.  That purchase was completed on October 19, 1966 adding 1,394 subscribers to the existing 841 of the coop.

    Contracts were immediately let to upgrade service in De Leon and to furnish all one party buried service and the old coop exchanges were upgraded from 8 to 4 party lines.  The Hasse exchange was changed to Proctor.

    In 1973 Gorman Telephone Co. was purchased and upgraded to one party buried lines bringing in another 606 subscribers.  That was soon followed with a similar upgrade of the other exchanges.

     In February 1980, the company moved into a new headquarters building just south of De Leon.