Changes Came with Phones, Power and Cars

by DAVE RYAN

Changes came with phones, power and cars. By Dave Ryan

The pace of change has picked up in Dorchester County over the last few years, with all the construction taking place and new residents moving in. But that might appear to our ancestors to be a case of just more of the same. In their day, about 100 years ago, their whole lifestyle was being altered, and quickly, too. The first telephone service came to Cambridge in 1896. It had been invented 20 years before, but people seem to have done without it for a couple of decades. ��Footnotes to Dorchester History�� by Walter Hewell says the first phone was listed in the name of Lee Nichols, who lived at 201 Academy St. That address no longer exists, by the way, after the lower part of Academy Street was torn down in the name of urban renewal. Service came to Vienna in 1901, in John Webb��s store. Presumably, he heard from Mr. Nichols right away, who finally had someone to call. The service in Mr. Webb��s store was called the Dorchester Telephone Company. Golden Hill had its own operation, called the South Dorchester Telephone Company - this was found in Mrs. A.F. Berry��s restaurant. In 1945, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company took over the 47 phones serving Golden Hill and gave them a modern dial service, replacing the old hand-cranked system. Church Creek once had its own party line company, and there was another similar loop between Pig Neck and Dailsville. I think I know how that worked. My mother told me once that when she was a girl in Falls Church, Va., they had a party line, which meant that whenever one phone rang, they all rang. So everybody would pick up and start jabbering, and they would sort out who the call was for and hang up - at least you hoped they would hang up, and not listen for gossip. Chesapeake and Potomac eventually bought the many small companies in the area. In 1912, C and P took over the 300 phones in Cambridge. By the late 1960s, there were 7,000 subscribers on the 228 exchange, and 9,300 in the county. It was in the early 1900s that electricity came here. What a change that must have been. Life would be so different if everything pretty much shut down at sunset. The Cambridge Light and Power Company put up lines and started generating power from its coal-fired plant on Cedar Street in 1909. Barges brought coal to town to fuel the generator��s steam engine. The black clouds of smoke issuing from the building were a sign to the region that the city was electrified. Not that people were excited - they weren��t, thinking that it was all just a new fad. Still, the advantages of electricity became clear and soon power had to be bought from a plant in Laurel, Del., to help supply local needs. Power company men were the unsung heroes who helped create our modern lifestyle. By 1915 and for some time thereafter, these men were expected to work 11 hours a day, six days a week. They set poles, strung wires, wired houses, read meters and collected payments, all for $1 a day. Time sheets reveal familiar local names, hardworking great-grandfathers of many of our neighbors: William Geohegan, foreman; William Insley, stoker; Herman Willey, plumber; and Leon Banning, lineman. The records show that Willard Hooper, a retired worker, drew $26.32 for a month��s work. Then there was travel. By the year 1900, technology had existed for some time regarding automobiles of one kind or another, but they were so expensive and unreliable that they were considered rich folks�� toys. Then in the early 20th century, locals started to see more ��gas buggies�� in Dorchester, impressing children and scaring horses as they chugged along. As if fragile construction and temperamental engines weren��t bad enough, the roads made things even worse. In this area, they were made of crushed oyster shell, which tended to cause a lot of flats. The high-pressure tires of the day lasted only about 75-100 miles. Will Bishop was one of the first auto owners in the county, but not of a gas buggy - he drove a Stanley Steamer. Hubert Wright, Sr. and Airey Brannock were competitors as the first auto dealers in Dorchester. In the early days, cars were novelty that required a fair bit of daring to operate. When someone made the trip to Baltimore by way of Elkton, he came home telling of the flats he had to fix or the times he had to ��get out and get under�� the car. They were so unreliable, a song was written, ��Get Out and Under, Get Out and Under, Get Out and Under Your Car.�� People even used to jeer motorists when their vehicles broke down, calling, ��Get a horse.�� Completing a trip of any distance was considered a news-worthy accomplishment. A local newspaper reported on June 13, 1908 a story headlined ��A Delightful Automobile Trip.�� The story began, ��A party composed of Messrs. Zoro H. Brinsfield, John R. Pattison and Daniel H. LeCompte left Federalsburg on Thursday morning of last week for Niagara Falls, reaching there at 8.15 Monday evening, having traveled a distance of 752 miles in five days. ��At the end of their first day they were in Philadelphia; the second day��s travel carried them to Port Jervis, N.Y.; the third day they crossed the Hudson at Newburg and went up the Hudson on the east side to Albany, where they spent the night. They reached Auburn, N.Y. on Sunday, and Monday evening they were at Niagara Falls...They are expected to reach home the last of this week.�� A county landmark got its start in 1915, when Charles, Josiah and William Linthicum converted their Church Creek Bicycle Shop to a Chevrolet dealership and called it B.J. Linthicum��s Sons. In 1923, they moved to Cambridge, where their brick building on Race Street stood for many years, until it was torn down a few years ago. That site is now an empty lot, used for outdoor events. 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