Telegraph,Telephones and Electricity - Part 4 by Pete Zizka 2-26- 2022

By the end of 1883 more and more people were requesting access to telephone and/or telegraph lines. In Willimantic, everything was going well and the utility companies worked closely with the public and the city government which, at that time, was known as the Court of Burgesses. But in Danielson and Brooklyn, work crews had evidently damaged or cut down shade trees and that was considered to be vandalism. A town meeting was called since,” The people have suffered so much from the telegraph fiends cutting and slashing their trees”. At the meeting, a committee was formed to work with both the citizens and the company in order to rectify the problems. Still, some poles were cut down at night by a party of citizens who were indignant at the wholesale mutilation of shade trees in that village by the company's employees, thus disrupting service and “creating sad havoc”. The same problem was occurring in Andover. Workmen putting up a new line of telegraph poles for the American Rapid Company, incurred the ill will of some people by cutting down their trees and by setting poles in places where they had been forbidden to do so. In Andover too, poles were cut down. Interestingly, “The telegraph poles recently cut here stood adjoining the land of Mr. Lucius J. Hendee of Hartford, and were cut by his order. One of the poles stood within a few feet of Mr. Hendee's house.” Mr. Hendee was, at that time, President of the Aetna Insurance Company. And so, the Andover selectmen drew a line in the sand and let the company know that,” in the near future, unless they pay a little more attention to the rights and wishes of our land owners and if they do not stop cutting valuable shade trees without leave some of them are quite likely to be prosecuted.” (Note: Within a year, things had improved. The company took down their old wires and shifted them into their new poles north of the railroad. They cut down the old poles, “so that our street through the Center is freed from an unsightly obstruction”). In Willimantic,new poles were constantly being put up and more wires added to the poles. “The Rapid Telegraph Co. are pushing the work of erecting new poles for the addition of a number of wires to their line and are planting some whoppers through this village. It is estimated that the company will distribute about $10,000 for labor and supplies in this vicinity, which must have a healthy effect on the business of this village while the line is building. Another thing of much public interest is the fact that this company have secured the McDonough telephone patent and will soon be establishing a telephone system and the charges will be about half the present telephone rates. Good.” Things were going well in Windham too. “As requested the Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Company placed their new poles on one of our side streets; they have removed their old wires and poles from our Centre, making a great improvement. It will be a long time before another telegraph company will be allowed to pass through our Centre”. The telegraph company had also enlarged their work crew by 16 men, making a total of 66 who were setting new poles through the Center. In one month, the company had paid out $7,275 of which $860 was board for their men, “and about every farmer who owned a wood lot got a slice too. What a fine line of poles they have erected along Main Street, averaging 75 feet in length.” Getting the lengthy new poles to Willimantic presented some challenges.  They were transported by rail and due to their size, they stretched the length of two flatcars with wood stakes between the cars. Being securely tied down, there was no leeway between the cars with the result that, on a sharp curve in Columbia, the stakes gave way and both cars went off the track. The poles were strewn all over the track and train traffic was delayed for over three hours while the poles were cleared and a section of broken track repaired. Today’s photo shows a phone company work crew on High Street in Willimantic. The “Model School” is in the background. Click on photo for larger version

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