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Media
& Communications
In November of 1847
Cuyahoga Falls was linked to the outside
world by telegraph. The company, with lines
to Pittsburgh and Cleveland via Beaver
Falls, Pa., also had offices in Lisbon,
Canton and Akron Ohio. It was the Lake Erie
Telegraph Company with its local office in
the back room of the Heath Drug Store.
William Scupholm, the
Falls health officer for many years, was the
first telegraph operator and it was he who
took the sad news of President Abraham
Lincoln's assassination as it was announced
over the wire in 1865.
Telephones in Cuyahoga
Falls homes were first installed after the
first exchange was built in 1882.
There were only 35 local telephones and they
had access to only a small local area of
less than 150 phones.
The first telephone
exchange was opened in a small room about 10
feet square in the rear of Mercer's Drug Store
and was opened by the Central Union
Telephone Co.
The room was crowded with
furniture. In addition to a 50-wire switchboard,
there was an old cupboard through which
passed the wires (there was no cable then).
In the bottom of the cupboard was stored the
night operator's bedding which at night he
spread out on chairs or on the floor. A
small rickety kitchen table served as a desk
and an old fashioned coal stove kept the
room warm in winter and added to the
operator's duties by requiring frequent
attention. A public telephone placed on the
wall next to the switchboard attracted the
public to the exchange to make calls.
Fred Wills was the first
operator on duty at the exchange and H. E.
Allen the second. Miss Laura M. Hall
was placed on duty in 1885.
The Cuyahoga Falls office
was installed under M. J. Carney, manager of
the Central Union at Akron. Miss Hall's
brother, W. C. Hall was the first manager at
Cuyahoga Falls.
Because of the cramped
conditions and the inconvenience of the
location, the office was moved to the Apollo
Building in 1888. Shortly before the move
took place, Mr. Hall resigned as manager and
Miss Hall took his place continuing in this
position until 1897 when she became
associated with the AT & T.
Blake transmitters and
grounded circuits added to the problems of
the operators. It was almost impossible to
talk to Akron, only five miles away. The
trouble was worse after a streetcar was
extended from North Hill to the Falls. The
line ran parallel with the telephone wires.
Citizens would have to wait until the
streetcars passes the route so they could
continue their conversations.
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