History of The Bell Telephone in Bradford It's a safe bet that Thomas Driffill, a blacksmith from Yorkshire, England, who became Bradford's first reeve more than 100 years ago, would hardly recognize the place nowadays. It's an equally "sure thing" that Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, would be astounded at the progress which has been made in telephones and communications systems since his time. There is one great difference, however, between work of Bell and Driffill. Today, the need for a blacksmith, vitally important in other years, has almost dwindled to nothing while the need for telephones in daily life, while not considered essential in the 1880's, is now virtually mandatory int he hustle and bustle of modern living. In a sense, the telephone has taken over many of the jobs formerly done by the horse. Before telephones were invented, messages were taken either on foot or by horse. Now, an order placed by telephone will even result in milk and bread, items once hailed exclusively by horse, delivered to the door - by truck. However, the telephone has yet to win the Queen's Plate race, the annual Canadian turf classic! When the telephone came ot Bradford in 1885, the Bell Telephone Company of Canada was just give years old, having been founded in 1880 by Charles Fleetford Sise, a New Englander. Alexander Graham Bell had invented the instrument in 1876. On a March evening of that year, Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, finally achieved success in their countless experiments to send voice messages over a wire strung between rooms in the attic of a Boston, Mass., house. The young inventor took time our from a busy life to get married in 1887 and, before leaving Europe for an extended honeymoon, assigned to his father three-quarters of the Canadian patent rights for his invention. To Alexander Melville Bell, then living in Brantford, Ontario, fell the task of developing the telephone commercially. From 1877 to 1880, the story of the telephone in Canada was a bit stormy with several companies competing in the field, undercutting one another's prices and none worrying too much about having adopted Bell's invention without bothering about the Bell patented rights. After the elder Bell sold his interests to other companies interested in the Canadian telephone business, the National Bell Telephone Company in Boston sent C.F. Sise to this country to reconcile the various competing interests. Thus was born the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. Originally continent-wide in scope, it contracted its sphere of operations to concentrate on Ontario and Quebec. When the first Bradford agency was opened in 1885, it operated a switchboard serving three customers. One of these was the Bell "agent" as the managers were called in those days. Gibson Cook operated the telephone exchange in his grocery store on Holland St. He was responsible for seeing that Samuel Lukes and Mark Scanlon, the Bell's other two local customers, were given telephone service. "Service" in those days was certainly a far cry from what it is today. Compared with today's standards, it seems primitive and rather quaint. In the first place, telephone numbers were not used. Each subscriber was called by name. Operators were usually young boys. Later, the decision was taken to employ girls at this sort of work since it was found that boys lacked the patience and tact needed to place calls and deal with the public. If you were one of the few who had a telephone in Bradford in the 1880's, you could use it only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays. On holidays, the exchange was kept open from to 10 to 12 int he morning and from two to four int he afternoon. Sunday was definitely a day for activities other than talking on the telephone and the exchange was only open from two to four in the afternoon. Local history indicates that the whole business section of Bradford was wiped out by fire in May, 1871. Twenty-one years later, another disastrous fire swept through the village, destroying about half of it. Included in this devastated part was the telephone exchange, now operated by R.F. Green, Gibson Cook's son-in-law. Mr. Cook had died in 1891. It was decided at this time to drop the title "agent" and Mr. Green was called local manager. Telephone numbers were assigned to the four Bradford customers in 1897. These are listed below: 4 Elliot, John, Mgr. Standard Bank, Holland 15 Grand Trunk Ry Station, Holland 8 Stevenson, F.C., M.D., residence, Barrie. 12 Wright, Wm., grain merchant, Holland. Shortly after the turn of the century, Bradford's population was officially listed as 984. In 1904, the first long distance equipment was installed for A. Thompson, a hardware merchant on Holland St. Previous to putting instruments equipped for long distance calling in the homes or offices of subscribers, telephone users wishing to call long distance had to go to the exchange to place their call. Although in terms of numbers, the early development here of the telephone was rather slow, by 1905 it had picked up to the point where a new switchboard providing facilities for handling more customers was installed. By the end of that year, Bradford had 35 telephones. A minor emergency which Bell repairmen met with traditional promptness occurred on June 7, 1939, when a construction crew digging for the purpose of laying a pipe line for a waterworks connection at a new gas station then under construction int he east end of town disrupted the communications system with the "outside world." With two hefty swings of his axe, one of the workmen sought to clear his way through what he though was a tree root. The object of his destructive tactics turned out to be, however, the main telephone cable linking Bradford with Toronto and other points south of the town. A good many of the 214 fine wires making up the cable were cut by the sharp blade. Bell Telephone men worked all night at the ticklish task of re-connecting the myriad of parted wires and by morning communications had been restored. R.F Green, who had adopted the title of branch manager, was replaced in 1932 by G.G. Green. The former had held the post as manager of the Bradford exchange since 1891, thus ending a 41-year term in the position. G.G. Green remained as branch manager until 1935 when Bradford was placed under the Bell Telephone manager in Barrie. From 1938 to 1945, Mrs. J. E. Green was local representative. Responsibility for the Bradford office was transferred from the Barrie manager to the on in Newmarket in 1939. Mrs. Green was succeeded as local representative by Miss M.E. Sutherland, who retained the position from 1945 to 1950. The post was successively held briefly by Miss D.E. Payne, Miss D.E. Sturfeon and Mrs. A.D. Currie during the years 1950 to 1953. At the end of this period the position of Bradford local representative was abolished. As an indication of the post-war expansion which took place here, the Bell moved into new and larder quarters int eh Evans' Block on October 8, 1948. The move was carried out with practically no disruption in service to the 330 telephone customers then served by the exchange. Although it took 63 years for Bradford to acquire its first 300 telephones, this number was tripled in the next nine. Today, there are more than 1,200 telephones listed here including 225 sets formerly owned by the Beeton Telephone Company purchased by the Bell earlier this year. One of the most memorable, if not particularly pleasant, events which took place int his area recently was Hurricane Hazel's visit int he fall of 1954. About 100 people lost their lives, mainly i the Toronto area, and many house int he Holland Marsh district were flooded. Telephone service was cut off to about 250 subscribers, most of them in rural sections. Many of the lines reported out of order started working again when the water receded and service for the others was re-established when the marsh was drained. Newspaper accounts of the disaster are prominent in their accounts of the tremendous part played by Bradford residents in helping those injured and left homeless by the rampaging storm. It was a hectic time for all, but out of the main story of misery and destruction shine the many accounts of individual and collective heroism displayed by residents of Bradford and district. The most important announcement to be made here in many years was the news last year that Bradford would be cut over to dial service in the summer of 1957. The introduction here of the dial system paves the way for eventual introduction of Direct Distance Dialing. Through DDD, a telephone customer will someday be able to dial his own long distance calls to any telephone in North America without contacting an operator. At the present time, many long distance operators are dialing long distance calls without first contacting an operator at the our-of-town centre to which the call is being placed.
