NK Telephone Company — The First 100 Years

1884

People in New Knoxville were interested in telephone service. Dr. Zuelch and E.L. Kattman had phones in their homes. Interest in telephones did not develop very fast until after the turn of the century.

1896

W.H. Fledderjohann was given a franchise to erect poles along the streets and alleys under specific instructions by the Village Council. Also, a toll line was erected from St. Marys to New Knoxville. The citizens of New Knoxville were slow to respond—only three subscribed.

1903

St. Marys Telephone Company was granted the right of way and franchise to erect, maintain on the streets, alleys, and public highway of the village, wire and fixtures necessary and convenient for the supply to the citizens and the public to communicate by telephone. In two years—only twelve subscribers were secured. Five on one line; seven on another.

1905

William Haberkamp and A.H. Stienecker called a community citizens mass meeting during the latter part of January 1905. Eleven people came. All left enthusiastically. A subsequent meeting was held and the project was a go—as soon as 67 men had pledged themselves to take a share at $35 per share. In a remarkably short time—one hundred shares were sold.

In March—the Village Council granted the NK Telephone Company a franchise which, however, was not accepted by the company due to its stringent terms. The company then dickered with the St. Marys Telephone Company whereby they acquired their franchise. The first company office was located above the B. E. Cook store, later known as Adolph’s Restaurant. Three rooms were occupied—a manager’s room, the operator’s room, and an equipment/repair room. The first operator switch is believed to be a Liech switch.

1937       

Lenora Gritzmaker was hired as an operator. She worked until she was married in 1941. At that time, operators were not allowed to be married. She did fill in on occasions for operators who were ill or on vacation. She was hired full-time again in 1953. She worked as an operator until 1969, when local operators were eliminated. At that time she took an office position and remained with the company until she retired in June of 1988.

1940

Noah Katterheinrich became the manager at a pay of $60 per month.

1941

Operators’ salaries were declared at $40 per month, toll clerks at $32 per month, and outside service men were paid .60 per hour.

1942

For membership dues of $5 per year, it was decided that NK Telephone should become a member of the Ohio Independent Telephone Association. This organization is today known as Ohio Telecommunications Association and plays a vital role in lawmaking for the telephone companies of Ohio.

An 8% of the earnings of 1942 was declared to be paid to the stockholders on January 30, 1943.

1943

A filing of an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for the purpose of raising the rates for local service.

Rate Increases were as follows:

1946

On September 2, 1946, Elmer Henschen was hired as a full-time lineman / serviceman at a rate of $160 per month. A dividend of $6 per share will be paid at the January 25, 1947, meeting. (This rate continued until 1952.) The cost of a new wall telephone was set at $10 and a desk telephone at $12.

1947

Property between the south boundary line of the cemetery and the north boundary line of the school playground was purchased for $150 for a pole yard.

1948

A filing of an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for the purpose of raising the rates for local service.

Rate Increases were as follows:

458 out of the 476 subscribers signed the petition for the increase.

1950

Emma May Stork was hired on a part-time basis to do the toll work.

1952

Mrs. Velma Stork was hired to fill the operator vacancy created by the resignation of Mrs. Beatrice Kuck. Olga Shuster was hired as an operator as well. From 1952-1959 the dividend paid to stockholders was $5 per share.

1953

Rate Increases effective August 1st were as follows:

1954

A contract was arranged that the employees of the New Knoxville Telephone Company would service, maintain, and construct an electric plant in the village along with meter reading and billing work. Roger Eversman was hired on November 15, 1954, at the rate of $1.30 per hour.

1955

A local group of citizens wanting to establish an airport requested that telephone lines along the north side of State Route 219 be placed underground for the width of the landing strip. A dividend of $4 per share shall be issued to any shareholder as of 12/31/1955.

1957

The premises known as the Dairy Bar was purchased for $10,500. It is the property at 304 ½ South Main Street. A 24ʹ x 32ʹ barn was purchased from Ona S. Katterheinrich for $400. On April 3, 1957, a severe ice storm hit the area – causing $1,983.21 of damage. By April 13 – all telephones throughout the plant were back in service.

1958

The crank-type telephone made way for the Kellogg Common battery type equipment. The cost of the new equipment was $46,500. Secure subscriptions to cover the cost of the project for the improvement program were requested of the stockholders and anyone else interested in the project. People still told operators the numbers they wanted to call – it was just not required to crank the phone. 645 Stromberg Carlson black common battery telephones were purchased for $17.50 each. In November – the first Public Pay Station Booth was purchased for the corner of Bremen and Main Streets.

1959

In June – an open house was held at the business office to inspect the new offices and the new exchange equipment at the 304 ½ South Main Street location. Colored telephones became available at a cost of $7.00.

Rate Increases effective September 1st were as follows:

1960

The first request was made for a toll credit card. A pay phone was installed at the Airport. A dividend of $5 per share was issued to each stockholder.

1962

In December, Noah P. Katterheinrich asked to be relieved of his position as Secretary due to health reasons. He would remain on as manager. Emma May Stork served as secretary for the unexpired period.

1965

A rate increase case was put before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The new proposed rates were as follows:

The rates went into effect on August 1, 1965. Billing was changed so that each customer would receive a monthly statement – rather than the current quarterly statement. Discussions began in reference of changing out the common battery equipment to automatic operation.

1968

Common growth made a larger switchboard and more operators necessary – or a change to a more modern system. John Hoge and Silas Lammers were named to the Board of Directors. Roger Henkener became the new president – replacing Elmer F. Kruse who had held that position since 1957. To finance the cost of putting in an automatic dialing central office – subscriptions were offered to the stockholders with a minimum of $1,000. The board was looking for a total of approximately $125,000 to finance the project. Semi-public pay stations were installed at The Way International. Plans began for the new equipment – a building was erected to house the new central office. It was placed directly behind the business office at 304 ½ South Main Street.

1969

The company installed a North Electric Cross Bar system, the direct dialing system – thus ending the use of live local operators.

1973

The first major buried cable project was started on 219 East – starting at Bay Road.

1976

The board decided to split the stock shares – thus making 200 shares available instead of the original 100. Doug Hoelscher was hired on as a lineman / central office technician.

1980/81

The company installed a Stromberg Carlson digital switch. All party lines were reduced to 2-parties. In January of 1980, Preston Meyer was hired as a lineman / technician.

1985

The premises of 301 West South Street was purchased from the Piehl brothers. This location will serve as our business office and storage/garage area in the future. The Telephone Company constructed a coax cable TV plant to service the Village of New Knoxville.

1988

On May 25 – the business office was relocated to the 301 West South Street location. In February, Susan Quellhorst was hired as bookkeeper – to replace Lenora Gritzmaker who retired in June of 1988.

1989

A switch upgrade was completed to enable 911 service.

1990

The current digital switch was replaced with a new Siemens-Stromberg Carlson switch. Equal access became available with the new switch. Equal access allowed customers to choose the carrier that they would like to handle their long-distance service. With the new switch – all lines were moved to private lines.

1994

The first fiber optic cable was installed to meet Telephone Service Company and GTE at the intersection of 33A and Glynwood/New Knoxville Road.

1996

Preston Meyer was named General Manager in May. A franchise agreement to offer cable TV service to the Village of New Bremen was signed. In August the first subscribers were hooked up. The 1996 Telecommunications Act was passed to encourage telecommunications competition.

1997

A franchise agreement to offer cable TV service to the Village of Minster was signed.

1999

New Knoxville Telephone was the first Small Local Exchange Carrier in the State of Ohio to be granted a waiver to provision Local Service outside of its current service territory by the Public Utilities Commission. This edge out allows us to provide telephone service to areas beyond our original local service boundaries. Dedicated cable modem service was made available to any subscriber that had our cable TV service. A special modem was required. A subsidiary company was formed – NK Telco. It consists of the Cable TV and Internet businesses.

2001

In order to start servicing customers with additional telephone services that were outside of our local telephone territory, a competitive local exchange company (CLEC) was formed. GoldStar Communications, LLC was the name chosen to handle such services. The first service offered by GoldStar was long distance. DSL Internet service was made available to New Knoxville telephone customers who live outside of our cable TV serving area. The billing software was changed to GenSoft Systems – allowing us to bill for Telephone, Cable TV, Internet, Long Distance, and future services all on one bill.

2003

GoldStar purchased a new softswitch – MetaSwitch – to handle the upcoming CLEC telephone services.

2004

GoldStar Communications & NKTelco companies joined together to build a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) backbone. This allows the residents of Fort Loramie to receive Cable TV, Internet, and Voice over Internet Protocal (VolP) through a single fiber.

2005 & Future

GoldStar began offering wireless telephone service in June of 2005. New Knoxville Telephone is researching with plans to deliver video service over existing phone lines. Once tested, plans are to offer video to existing phone customers in the rural area.

Notes