The North Mountain Historical Society

Meeting: October 2000

October 16, 2000

The History Buffs met at the Brass Pelican on Monday, Oct. 16 with 22 people present.
Zane Hartman asked the blessing and the minutes of the last meeting were read.
After breakfast, Jim Vance introduced Gerald Zeveney who spoke on the history of telephone service in the area. Gerry had worked for the Commonwealth Telephone Company for many years. When he started working the phone system consisted of telephones on the wall with a crank on the side to be turned to call the operator or someone else on your party line. Each person on the party line had a distinctive ring (a long and a short, two shorts, etc.) People could listen in on other people's calls and this often happened, especially if neighbors knew someone in the family was sick. Also, sometimes the receiver would not be returned to the phone properly. If this happened no one on the party line could use their phone until the receiver was hung up properly. Use of the party line required patience and cooperation. Gerry retired when Commonwealth went to the digital system.
In very early years the Luzerne Telephone Company served Benton. The Commonwealth Telephone Company, owned by Andrew J. Sardoni in 1928, acquired this company. Commonwealth has served Benton and the surrounding area ever since.
In 1948 Mr. Zeveney worked to change the Benton System using operators and a switchboard to the dial system. Mention was made of the early telephone operators. Two that were mentioned were Mrs. Arley Meeker and Miss Ella Laubach. Some one told of calling the operator and telling her "I need to speak to my father and he doesn't answer the phone. Do you happen to know where he is? "
The answer came back "I believe he is down to the lumber yard. Let me ring there and see." Sure enough the man soon had his father on the line. With service like that, who needed an answering machine.
Mr. Zeveney closed his remarks by telling several anecdotes about things that happened to him as a telephone repairman. Some were funny, some were frightening, and all were interesting. Our thanks to Mr. Zeveney for bringing to us an account of the many changes in the telephone system over the years.
The next meeting will be at the regular time, 8:30 AM on the third Monday, Nov. 20 at the Brass Pelican. The speaker will be Mr. Charles Petrillo from Wilkes Barre who will speak on Col. Ricketts and the Ricketts Estate.