.
Thank You To Those Who Made This Compilation Possible
We are indebted to Anne G. Smith who in 1990 opened the Museum. There was much work done and many contributions including the telephone displays. By their efforts and the efforts of others since we can see examples of our town’s past in collected objects.
We are indebted to Paul Shaw and Joy Chamberlain and other interviewers for the book They Said It in Salisbury, a compilation of oral histories. These interviews gives us a personal window into our town’s history. We are pleased that we will again begin collecting oral histories to ultimately publish in a new version.
Thank you to Laura French, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner, for the historic information.
Thank you to Tom Little, who is a direct descendant of William Little, for taking the time to do his write up for this page.
We also appreciate William Little’s descendants Michael Williams and Jayne Rivers for their various contributions of information on this notable family. For more on the Little Family please visit our page focusing on this family. The Littles
In Our Museum
There are several items that are part of our early communications exhibit at the Salisbury Historical Society Museum. The above image shows the first switchboard used in Salisbury at the turn of the 20th century. You will also find:
- A glass case above the switchboard with various brochures and an early telephone directory.
- An amusing “patchwork” article about the early goings on in the telephone office as well.
- A photograph of Kearsarge Telephone #1 Dial Office in Boscawen showing Bill Simpson, Tom Adams (Salisbury), Fred Adams (Salisbury), Ed Carter, George Picknell and Fred Taylor (Salisbury).
- A crank telephone which would have been in a house or store.
In the beginning there were very few telephone lines to accommodate the number of customers so there was something called party lines where sometimes as many as 12 or more subscribers would be on the same line. Each customer on a line was assigned a ring to indicate when a call was for them. For example, 1 long and 1 short, 2 long 1 short etc.. When you heard your assigned ring you would pick up the phone and take the call. The problem was that so could everyone else on the line. Eavesdropping was a common problem. As late as 1971 party lines of four still existed.
A Brief History Of The Kearsarge Telephone Company
Contributed by Laura French, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner:
From a brief write up taken from the book called “Independent Telephony in New England: A History 1876-1976. The following was written by Dottie Eichell in about 1976.
In 1883 (seven years after Bell invented the telephone) four farsighted men organized the Potter Place and New London Telephone Company. One of the partners was the grandfather of James Shepard who was Chairman of the Board until this year (1976). This company was a co partnership and each of the partners invested $100. The primary purpose was to establish telephone communications between the railroad at Potter Place and the town of New London a distance of some eight miles. A single wire ground return line was built and a telephone installed in the railroad station at Potter Place and one in a drug store at New London. Telephones were also installed at the Post Office of two small villages along the way. It is interesting to note that financing plant construction was a problem 93 years ago: before the initial line was completed each of the partners had to make additional investments of $25.
Kearsarge Telephone was organized in Salisbury New Hampshire, 1899. The corporators were businessmen and farmers residing in the towns of Salisbury and Webster, New Hampshire, and included the great grandfather, grandfather, and a great uncle of Arthur Little Jr. and Frederick Adams who are officers in the company at this time. At its inception the capital stock was $2,300. the Articles of Incorporation state that the object of the corporation was to “build and operate a line through the towns of Webster, Salisbury, Franklin, Boscawen and Concord (the state capitol), but lines were built and telephone service in all or parts of the other towns mentioned in the Articles of Corporation as well as the town of Andover.
In 1907 both the Kearsarge Telephone Company and the Potter Place and New London Company were providing telephone service in the town of Andover. In 1907 the Kearsarge Company purchased the assets of the Potter Place and New London companies and issued stock in payment.
The headquarters of the company remained in Salisbury until 1954 when it was moved to New London.
The company provided magneto telephone service from central offices in Salisbury and New London until 1954. At that time conversion to dial service was started. New exchanges were started at Andover and Boscawen and the last exchange was converted to dial in 1957. Directed distance dialing service was provide on the Andover Boscawen Salisbury exchanges in 1964 by connection with the Bell System CAMA equipment at the toll center. In 1968 DDD service for the New London exchange was provided when automatic ticketing was installed in the New London office.
At present the company has 4901 telephones in service providing service to some 2979 customers.(1976)
On October 30, 1970 Telephone and Data System, Inc. acquired most of the common stock of Kearsarge Telephone Company.
Location of the Salisbury Office
We know the first office was located at South Road Village as it was referred to then. It is now referred to as “The Crossroads”. It is at the junction of Rte 127 and Rte 4 in Salisbury NH.
A massive fire occurred May 18, 1894 resulting in four buildings being destroyed. These were on the SE side of the Crossroads prior to Rt 4 extending through the crossroads all the way. One was used as a Telephone office for a short time. A map drawn in 1890 shows TD Little owned a building. Presumably it operated as a store for some time as the Crossroads store dates back quite a bit. It is reasonable to think that it was rebuilt shortly after the fire as its location is prime. It does not seem to be the same building that was used as the bull rake factory nor does its location on the map show it as such. It is also described below as where the Crossroads Store is today by Liza Buzzell.
At some point the telephone office was moved into the the home of John Dearborn. In 1908 this house is listed under 3 owners Alexander Beaton, Kearsarge Telephone Co and Margaret (Little) Gerry. The front room, driveway side, served for many years as the telephone office. There were two barns, one behind the house which was attached and one adjacent at the Greenleaf/Hill/Red Tea House Store. Both barns burned at some point but in the barn behind the house there were 40 old phones and equipment lost.
Below you will find information on the early telecommunications systems in our town from three sources.
Two are oral histories from interviews with Liza Buzzell and Fred Adams. She was the daughter of John Dearborn who wrote the History of Salisbury in1890 and was perhaps Salisbury’s first woman operator at the age of 14.
Fred was a great descendant of William Little. The Little Family over time were closely involved with the development of telecommunications in our area.
Oral Histories
Oral histories give us a glimpse of times past from a personal perspective.
Liza Buzzell:
- Liza (Dearborn) Buzzell moved to Salisbury abt 1889. She was the daughter of John Dearborn who wrote the History of Salisbury in 1890. They resided in the first house house on the northeast side of the crossroads
- When 14 (1901) she worked in the telephone office not he switch board. “The office first was in the back of Little’s store. That was across the street They had a back room”.
INTERVIEW:
Liza Buzzell b. 1887 and worked at the Telephone office by 1901.
Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD. and Joy Chamberlain
Date Dec. 6, 1988
Place: New London Nursing Center
Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD
p 45-46
L- I went to work for the telephone company when I was fourteen. I got a dollar and a half a week, and if I had half a day off a month I was lucky. And I got paid when they went collecting. When I got trough I was getting five dollars.
PS- Was the telephone office right here in the house? (note: House #1 NE Crossroads of Rte 127 & Rte 4 referred to as the Richardson house by Fred Adams)
L- The office first was in the back of Little’s Store. That was across the street. They had a back room.
PS- Was that beside the church?
L- No, it was across the street, where the Crossroads Store is now. Chapman’s hotel was next. There were four buildings there. And the Grand Army got the building and fixed it up, made a dance hall, a dining room and a check room.-everything it was lovely. And up in the attic a fire started . etc (note: This area was devastated by a fire and the buildings burned in 1894)
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page 50-52 Excerpts
PS- Tell us about the Telephone Company:
L- John Little was the manager, and Tom Little the general manger. W.W. Burbank was president and lived in Webster….(etc. see p.50 They Said It in Salisbury.)
PS- Who else worked there?
L- Etta Holmes, and she was Etta Taylor, she married Fred Taylor. Viral Taylor she just died she worked there. George Fellow’s wife worked there. I think those were the (ones). I liked the telephone company work. I wish I had stayed with it.
PS- You say you had to crank the thing to make it ring?
L- Oh, yes. You had to crank the phone, and in the switchboard you had to turn that- alarm at night. And then they brought the thing to ring with batteries…(etc.)
PS- You had several people on each line and you had different rings for different people?
L- Yes. long rings and short. They’d ring each other and there’d be four or five talking. It was a party line. Ha! Ha! You’d have go in and ask for the line.
PS- Was there a tea room in the telephone office?
L-??? No there was one across the street in the store. (note: Another building existed between her house and the church that was called The Red Tea House for a time after around 1938).
L- They moved the telephone office to the front room in our house, in my room. That’s where it was last. Now they don’t have a telephone office. (note: Update-There is currently a Kearsarge Telephone Company building located a short distance away on rte 4)
PS- Fred Adams’ father, Bert, was pretty active in the telephone company wasn’t he?
His mother was a Little.
L- Yes. Carrie Little, Tom Little’s daughter. Ralph Little and George were in the telephone office when I was, and Tom Little was general manger.
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Fred L Adams born 1911 in Salisbury NH. He was a descendant of William Little as well. His account of the early days of telecommunications gives us a glimpse of the challenges faced.
INTERVIEW:
Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw
Date Feb 1989
Place: Fred’s house, North Road Salisbury
Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD pgs 5-6
PS- Your Dad was involved with the telephone company, in the formation. Can you tell me something about that?
F- My Dad didn’t come here till about 1909, somewhere around there. He had been in a New York in a brokerage firm working there. He was and an accountant. He and mother were married and lived in New Jersey for a year and a half, and then came back here. He took over the telephone company at that time.
PS-Your mother’s father was one of the directors?
F- Yes. he took over management of the company. That was located where Fred Richardson lives now. (note-this is house #1 a the crossroad of Rte 127 & Rte 4 NE corner)
PS- Yes, I have of tape of Liza Buzzell’s description of being the first operator.
F- I would say she probably was over in the old store across the road but I wouldn’t swear to this. Eventually in was in the Richardson’s house, the front room of the house on the corner, the room next to the driveway in the front.
PS- How complicated a system did you have in those days?
F- It wasn’t very complicated, just a pair of wires running here and there. Eighteen people on one line or more, sometimes up to twenty. There were two toll circuits going into Franklin then, later there eight or nine. There there was a circuit into Penacoock and one into Concord.
PS- Any interesting stories about the company in your fathers day?
F- The most interesting were the storms. They could be snow or hurricanes. They’d blow the stuff down and you have’d to go up and work like hell.
PS- When you got through school you went to work with the telephone company?
F-Yes
PS- How big a crew did you have and what part of the telephone lines did you cover?
F- Well, we were into Wilmot, Andover, Danbury, East Andover, Salisbury, Webster, Boscawen and into the edge of Franklin.
PS- How big a crew?
F- In the wintertime, two and that wasn’t full time either. In the summertime we’d have three or four especially if we were putting in a line, setting poles and running new wires. As the company grew we had to keep putting up cross arms and wires on the poles, so there were five pairs of wires on each cross arm. At one time going between the Crossroads and the Heights there were four ten-pin cross arms on the poles, so there were five pair of wires on each cross arm. Also, the first cables we had there were just a few short pieces around the village here, because we had so many wires going out we didn’t know what to do with them.
PS-The people that don’t remember the old days before cables can’t get a picture of what the world would be today if we had separate pairs of wires for every telephone.
F-Oh my God! It would be impossible, you just can’t do it. I know today (note: 1989), especially in New London where they have condominiums they are putting in two pairs of wires for each unit. And that isn’t enough. One fellow up there recently wanted four or five lines for one unit.
pg 8-
PS. How about natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, or anything like that. Anything unusual happen with the telephone Company?
F-Yes. The 1938 Hurricane kicked out most of the equipment we had outside those were all single wires in those days. It took three weeks before we got the last telephone working and that’s working from daylight until dark. We stayed in Andover and worked as long as we could see, and took off the next morning just as soon as there was light enough for us to see. Then we’ve had a lot of heavy snowstorms that have taken a lot of stuff down I can’t tell you the years or when.
The Littles and The Telephone Company
Courtesy of Tom Little descendant.
Upon his retirement in 2011, he returned to New London for about six years and spent five of those years on the board of the New London Historical Society. He also spent three years on the board of the Abbot-Downing Historical Society in Concord.
For Background information on the Littles of South Road Village Salisbury:
Mentioned below in the information from Tom Little are the following people:
Thomas Little b 1853 d.1937 Salisbury (son of Thomas Dearborn Little)
John W. Little b.1861 (brother to Thomas Rowell Little b 1853 d.1937 Salisbury).
Arthur Stanley “Stan” Little b.1889- d. 1948 (son in law to Thomas Rowell 1853-1937 & Carrie Belle Hawkins 1856-1929).
George Bertram Adams b.1877-d.1960 Salisbury NH (son in law to Thomas Rowell 1853-1937 & Carrie Belle Hawkins 1856-1929).
Fred Adams B. 1911 d. 1999 Salisbury NH (son of George Bertram Adams and Carrie Little Adams b1871-1961)
Arthur S. Little JR. ( 1916-2001)
Tom Adams (b unknown, son of Fred Adams 1911-1999)
Tom R. Little (son of Arthur Stanley Jr.-1916-2001)
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When asked of Tom Little “ Which Littles were involved with the Kearsarge Telephone company his reply was “The short answer is – darn near all of them.”
Mentioned below are excerpts from submitted information:
“I believe that Thomas R’s brother, John Little, was also involved and may have been the first person to “run” the company.
In 1907, KTC merged with the Potter Place & New London Telephone Company.
TR’s young son, A. Stanley Little, moved to New London to handle operations in that end of the territory. As I understand it, Stan was not paid a salary but was paid on a per-subscriber basis, so he had an incentive to expand the business.
Then, Bert Adams, TR’s son-in-law moved back to Salisbury in 1909 and became company Manager.
I don’t know when Fred Adams, Bert’s son, started working for the telephone company, but I believe it was very early in life that he started working for his dad. He continued handling much of the Andover / Salisbury / Boscawen territory in his ever-present moccasins for decades, even when climbing a pole or trudging through snow. He also held a seat as a Director of the company, probably even after he retired. TR’s other grandson, Arthur S. Little Jr, also followed in his father’s footsteps.
Upon Stan’s death in 1948, Art became manager of the telephone company, which by now was based in New London. Starting as a part-time role, Art split his efforts between Kearsarge Telephone Company and A.S. Little & Son, the auto dealership and garage that his father started in New London.
Then, with the advent of dial telephone service in the 1950’s, KTC brought in someone from outside the Little family as full-time manager, although Fred and Art both retained their positions on the Board of Directors.
A few years later, this manager found a new career opportunity and Art became full-time manager of the telephone company, leaving the day-to-day operation of the auto dealership to his brother-in-law.
While their involvement was overshadowed by the efforts of their fathers and grandfathers, the Little family involvement continued for one more generation, as Fred’s son, Tom Adams, and Art’s son, Tom (TR) Little, both worked for the telephone company as young men. In fact, since Art and his wife lived upstairs, above the business office and the telephone operators in New London, toddler Tom Little got an early exposure to the telephone company while sitting on the telephone operators’ laps. However, his favorite job was blowing the “noon whistle” (actually the fire siren).
Fred & his first wife (whom I don’t remember) had two children, Tom & Priscilla. I don’t think Tom had any children and he died young, but Priscilla may have kids. I have a feeling that Priscilla may still live in Franklin, but I really don’t know…. To my knowledge, Margaret had no children.
………………………..
From another communication with Tom Little:
When asked about a building in an old photo between the church and the Old Red Tea Room/Hills store, now demolished, Tom Little answered referring to the concrete modern building that currently exists on Rte 4 just beyond the crossroads that house today’s modern telecommunications equipment.
Are you referring to the cinder brick building on Rte 4, just around the corner from South / Franklin Road? If so, I know exactly what it is! When Kearsarge Telephone Company transitioned from operator-attended calls to dial service in the mid/early-1950’s, they needed a place for the switching equipment. So, they built three identical buildings in Andover (behind the post office & in front of the elementary school), Boscawen (on Rte 4 near the Congregational Church & the intersection w/ rte 3), and Salisbury.
In New London, they built a larger building (on Pleasant St.. behind the bank), which included business offices as well as switching equipment. However, the business needs increased, particularly in New London, to the point that, by the late 1960’s, they were bulging at the seams.
Before the transition to dial, the New London telephone business office and central office (operators) were on the first floor of a house that was attached to the A.S.Little & Son auto dealership (across the street from the present fire station). However, the dealership closed in about 1960 and the building had been sitting empty for several years. So the decision was made for the telephone company to buy the building and move back to the other side of the structure they had left about 15 years earlier. Most of 1967 was spent preparing the old garage space to become the new telephone office. Since the switching equipment had to remain operational throughout the move, a complete set of equipment was installed in the new location while the old equipment continued to operate in the old location.
As a summer job during college, I worked alongside a crew from the equipment manufacturer, installing and testing this new equipment. Then, during the winter of 1968, they “threw the switch”, firing up the new equipment and taking the old equipment out of service. When I returned from college in the summer of 1968, I had the job of taking all the equipment from the old New London central office and relocating it to Andover, Salisbury, and Boscawen, to augment the switching capacity of each of these telephone exchanges. That summer, I got to know each of these three buildings very well.
If memory serves, the first house at the Crossroads was the home of Bert & Carrie Adams. When the barn burned, there was a ton of old telephone equipment lost.
………………………..
From another communication with Tom Little:
I have a commemorative item that shows the incorporation date as 1899, although I thought it was before that. I believe that the Salisbury Historical Society actually has some of the original incorporation papers. Early on, I don’t think there was much of a “headquarters”. In the beginning, there may not have even been a switchboard.
The Potter Place & New London Telephone Company was incorporated in 1888 and only had four phones, all on one line. I’m not sure when either of the pre-merger companies installed their first switchboard but there were 26 telephones in the New London exchange in 1900, so they must have installed a switchboard by then. It’s possible that the Salisbury-based Kearsarge company had a switchboard from the outset.
Immediately after the merger, it appears that Salisbury was the “headquarters” for the company. And, with New London at the far western end of the company’s service area, I think that company operations were split between Salisbury and New London for most of the first half on the twentieth century.
When did Bert Adams cease to be “manager” and Stan Little become “manager”? I really don’t know. However, by the end of WWII, I think that the business portion of the company was largely based in New London and with the advent of dial service in the early 1950’s, Fred Adams became the only KTC employee who wasn’t New London-based.
I also have no real knowledge of how the coverage area expanded over time. I tend to think of telephone coverage in term of the current telephone exchanges – 526 for New London and Wilmot, 735 for Andover, 648 for Salisbury and Webster, and 796 for Boscawen. However, the lines of demarcation are arbitrary. I think it’s safe to assume that coverage expanded outward from the main service line. For example, with a phone in the center of New London, one in Elkins, one in Wilmot Flat, and one at the train station in Potter Place, it stands to reason that potential customers who were located on or near route 11 between Potter Place and New London could be easily be added, while other parts of these towns were less likely to get telephone service. For example, there’s a portion of New London, on the western end of Little Lake Sunapee, that’s still part of the Sunapee telephone exchange. Similarly, I think there’s a portion of North Wilmot that’s part of the Danbury exchange. Unfortunately, I don’t have any real understanding of the pre-merger Kearsarge Telephone Company service area. Were portions of Andover, Salisbury, Webster and Boscawen all included? I don’t know.
Any further information is always welcome. Please email us.