Early Days of the 217

Please enjoy tonight's encore Throwback Thursday post,
Early Days of the 217, originally published in January, 2015.   

 From The Litchfield News Herald in 1966...

TRY IT OUT: First direct distance dialing call from Raymond was placed by the village president, Ned Bockewitz, when the new system went into operation last week. At left is Gary Clifton, manager of Litchfield exchange, which handles Raymond and Harvel toll calls, and at right, Charles Bandy, Raymond businessman. 

(From the Raymond Centennial book published in 1971)

The telephone was introduced to Raymond in 1901, when a Mutual Telephone Company was formed with the office above Preston’s Drug Store. The first telephone operator was Mrs. Jett. In April of 1901, the town had 33 phones, most of them in the businesses. A little later, the Bell System installed a telephone exchange, with the office located near the old firehouse. Most business establishments had two telephones, one for each exchange, and people serviced by one exchange had to pay a toll to cover the other. About 1915, service was provided by the Montgomery County Telephone and Telegraph Company. The property was acquired by Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company in 1924. The People’s Mutual Company was sold to General Telephone Company and later acquired by Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company in 1930. Approximately 100 telephones were in service at that time.

In 1964, a new exchange building was constructed at 212 South O’Bannon Street for the installation of dial equipment. The exchange was converted to dial operation on August 31, 1964, and at that time,  Raymond became part of the Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) network, which enabled customers to dial and receive long distance calls to more than 80 million telephones in the United States. On the same date, the Raymond exchange boundary was expanded to include the Village of Harvel and surrounding rural area.

In 1971, Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company served nearly 1,000 telephones from the Raymond exchange. 

While we cannot deny the value of automation, the citizens of the Raymond area will long remember the local telephone operator. By merely lifting the receiver, the caller was in contact with a friendly voice who would call the doctor, the fire department, give you the correct time, or put your long distance call through for you. Miss Emma Younker gave more than fifty years of service in the Raymond office. Miss Anna Kelmel spent eleven years as the night operator, handling many emergency situations. Mr. Roy Huber was the local serviceman for over forty years.

Before the office was converted to the dial system, the following were employed as operators: Isabel Donini, Chief Operator; Beulah Miller, Mary Fern Halford, Hilda Cade, Bea Moore, Delores Lange, Dorothy Hough, and Helen Hartman.

Pete Henderson started working as the local serviceman in 1963. 

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As the Centennial Book pointed out, the local telephone operators provided excellent service to the folks in the Raymond area back in the day. Dad always told a story about calling home when he was returning from the war. It was the middle of the night when his ship docked in New York and he placed the call to the Raymond Exchange. My Grandma, Anna Bandy, was living in the apartment above the Raymond Cafe, and the operator on duty that night ran from the telephone exchange to Grandma's apartment to wake her up and tell her the news. Grandma got so excited that she ran over to the telephone exchange wearing only her nightgown. She spoke to Dad and everything was fine until she hung up and realized that she was not wearing any shoes. Grandma had issues with her feet and could not walk without her orthopedic shoes. The problem was so severe that she could not even walk around inside barefoot. But that night in all the excitement, she had somehow managed to run almost two blocks without her shoes! The night operator was nice enough to go back over to the apartment and retrieve her shoes for her so she could walk back home. Talk about service! 

The Comet Cometh

This is a photo I found online that supposedly shows Halley's Comet over Texas in 1910. While I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the photo, I think it would be so cool if that's really how it appeared in the night sky.   

Excerpt from the diary of Mary E. Potterf in Raymond’s 125 Years of Memories book: 

Wednesday, May 14, 1910

The day on which the world ends. The comet hits the earth today. Sat up late to see the comet but could not see a thing of it. Someone in town sent up a big balloon and tried to make people believe it was Halley’s Comet. 

Mary Potterf was referring to the week in 1910 when Earth passed through the end of the 24-million-mile-long tail of Halley’s Comet. There were rumors that the comet contained poisonous gases and that it might even collide with the Earth. It was at its closest point to earth (about 14 million miles away) between May 14-22, 1910. 

 A family friend, Grace Leslie (1902-1996), a resident of Morrisonville, never forgot her experience seeing Halley’s Comet in 1910. When Grace was in her 90’s, she told me that she clearly remembered going outside to look at the comet every night with her father. She described it as "huge," and said it seemed to just hang there in the sky, so close to Morrisonville. Grace, who was about 8 years old at the time, said she was terrified of it and felt so relieved when it finally disappeared. 

Grandma Gamlin (the only grandparent I really knew), would have been in her early 20’s in 1910, but I don’t remember that she ever mentioned it. Mom always said that back in those days, people were always predicting the world was going to end due to one thing or another, so I suspect that grandma probably didn’t pay too much attention to all the hype. 

A random, yet interesting connection to Halley’s Comet is that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was born in 1835 when Halley’s Comet passed over Earth. He predicted that he would die the next time it appeared, and he died on April 21, 1910 of a heart attack.

People from the Past: Jess and Francelia Broaddus

From Raymond's 125 Years of Memories book published in 1996:

(Back from left) Paul, Robert, Betty, William, and George
(Front from left) Francelia, Norma, Linda, and Jess

Jess C. Broaddus was born August 19, 1900 in Richmond, Kentucky. Francelia C. Broaddus was born February 17, 1902 at Chatham. They were married in Springfield on February 21, 1921. They moved their family of seven children to the Fitzgerald farm northwest of Raymond in 1940. Their children are William H. who married Mary Jeanette Kelmel; George W. who married Helen Ragland; Robert L. who married Evelyn Edge of Farmersville; Betty J. who married Robert R. Poggenpohl; Paul Eugene; Norma R. who married Donald Jones; and Linda L. who married Marvin Waldeck from Farmersville. They had 24 grandchildren. 

Jess and Francelia retired from farming in 1963 and moved to Raymond. Jess passed away in 1990 and Francelia in 1994. Jess was a World War I veteran. They attended church at the Raymond United Methodist Church. 

Main Street Musings: Fires in the Business District

Riffey's Drug strore burns in 1941

The Raymond 125 Years of Memories book published in 1996, has a few references to fires that occurred on Main Street in 1892, 1915, and 1941. The pictures are from the 1941 fire and very little information was given other than the fire on Broad Street destroyed Riffey’s Drug Store.   

Another view of the fire on Broad Street in 1941

A fire in August, 1892 started in a building known as the “Old Tackett Store” and extended to the Costley building, the Casper Young Building (where Scott Tilden ran a post office), the Whealen building, burning out Dr. Harmon’s Office and Dudenhoffler’s Saloon, and ending at Starr’s Store where Chas. Scherer kept a grocery store. Lost in this fire was estimated at 10,000.

In 1915, fire swept through a portion of the business district, located on the East side of Broad Street. A store owned by Mr. Bishop, a jewelry store owned by Sam Bentley, a movie house, and a bakery belonging to Steve Schulte were destroyed. Mr. Schulte said that he had his bread baked, but that the cookies burned a little.