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Storyline

Telephones in Hillsborough and the countryside, 1883–1964

Hillsborough’s first telephone line, the Morris Telephone Company’s exchanges from 1906 and its dial system of 1947, and the rural lines that reached Schley, Calvander, Efland and western Orange.

In briefHillsborough's first telephone line ran from the railroad depot to Hooker's drug store in 1883. In 1905 the town gave John D. Morris of Roxboro a twenty-year franchise, and his exchange opened in March 1906 in the Murdock house on West King Street with Mamie Murdock, later Mamie Gordon, at the switchboard, where she stayed for 41 years. Morris switched Hillsborough to dial telephones in a new East King Street exchange in September 1947. In the countryside, Schley Grange members strung lines to 51 families in 1948, and the University's telephone service reached Calvander in 1949. Morris opened an exchange at Efland in 1951. The Mebane Telephone Company built 140 miles of rural lines in western Orange in 1955, the year Hillsboro merchants and the county commissioners asked the state to investigate Morris's service. In 1964 Morris built a larger exchange on East King Street.

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In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 31 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Hillsboro Telephone Company puts up a line from the depot to Hooker's drug store The Hillsboro Telephone Company, made up of A. W. Graham and a partner named Hooker, had a telephone line put up from the railroad depot to Hooker's drug store under the direction of T. C. Ellis. It was expected to be working by September 1 and then to serve the public at small charges. People: Augustus Washington GrahamSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), September 1, 1883, p. 3
  2. Hillsboro grants John D. Morris a franchise to build a telephone exchange The town commissioners gave John D. Morris of Roxboro the exclusive right for twenty years to build and run a telephone system and central office in Hillsboro, if he began work within six months of July 1, 1905. By late 1906 the Morris Telephone Exchange was advertising service in town.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), June 29, 1905, p. 3 · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), November 22, 1906, p. 2; Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), September 20, 1906, p. 3
  3. The Morris telephone exchange opens in Hillsboro The Morris Telephone Exchange went into service at Hillsboro by late March, with its central office in W. H. Murdock's house on West King Street and his daughter Mamie Murdock at the switchboard. It started with 24 stations and nearly doubled them within a week, charging $1 a month on a shared line or $1.50 for a private one.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), March 22, 1906, p. 3
  4. Orange Telephone Company president R. O. Cate resigns R. O. Cate resigned as president of the Orange Telephone Company in the spring of 1923, and the stockholders were called to meet at the courthouse in Hillsboro on May 12 to elect a successor.The News (Chapel Hill), April 26, 1923, p. 5
  5. William Courtney's Yellow House serves as Hillsborough's telephone exchange The 1924 Sanborn map shows the old Courtney house at 141 East King Street in use as a telephone exchange.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 141 E. King Street (William Courtney's Yellow House)
  6. Morris Telephone Company asks to raise Hillsboro rates for a dial system The Morris Telephone Company petitioned the State Utilities Commission to raise Hillsboro telephone rates by about $1 a month to pay for converting the town to dial service. The company said a new building and equipment would cost more than $40,000; a hearing was set for November 29 in Raleigh.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 7, 1946, p. 1
  7. Morris Telephone Company switches Hillsborough to dial telephones in a new exchange building The Morris Telephone Company of Roxboro replaced Hillsborough's hand-crank telephones with a dial system housed in a new brick exchange on East King Street, begun in March 1947 at an estimated cost of $40,000 with equipment. The cutover was set for 4 p.m. on Monday, September 1.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 28, 1947, p. 1 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 20, 1947, p. 1; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 11, 1947, p. 2
  8. Hillsboro honors Mamie Gordon after 41 years as its telephone operator Merchants and subscribers to the old telephone system raised $265 for Mamie Gordon, who had run the Morris Telephone Company switchboard from her father Henry Murdock's King Street home since 1906, at first on call around the clock for $15 a month, and whom the town's new dial system had relieved of most of her work. Townspeople remembered her as Hillsboro's fire alarm, police and ambulance caller and doctor finder.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 4, 1948, p. 1
  9. Schley Grange brings telephones to fifty-one families and wins a national community award For a National Grange and Sears-Roebuck Foundation contest, Schley Grange members cleared right-of-way, cut cedar poles and strung three miles of wire so the telephone company could give service to 51 families; they also held a soil conservation workshop with the extension service. Schley won the national prize in November 1948, and the new brick Grange hall it paid for was dedicated on December 6, 1949 before about five hundred people. People: W. Kerr Scott, Don S. MathesonSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Schley Grange Hall National Register nomination (OR3148)
  10. The University's telephone service begins extending lines into rural southern Orange The University Consolidated Service, managed by J. S. Bennett, built a telephone line to Calvander, about four miles from Chapel Hill, and began building lines west on the Antioch Road and south toward the Chatham County line. People: John S. BennettSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 3, 1949, p. 1
  11. The first long-distance call goes out from the new rural telephone lines near White Cross The first long-distance call from a rural telephone in the White Cross area reached the News of Orange County's office from Charles W. Stanford's farm, the farthest point on the new rural lines and the University Telephone Company's test station. The lines had gone up after residents cut the rights of way during the summer, and all the rural telephones were to be in by the end of January. People: Charles W. StanfordThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 14, 1950, p. 1
  12. Morris Telephone Company opens an exchange at Efland with lines to Cedar Grove The Morris Telephone Company put a new 30-line switchboard into service in its new building next to the Baptist church in Efland, along with about 14 miles of rural lines running to the Cedar Grove community.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 22, 1951, p. 1
Show all 31 dated events
  1. Hillsboro merchants vote a second protest against the Morris Telephone Company's repair service Meeting on August 12, 1952, the Hillsboro Merchants Association elected hardware dealer H. G. Coleman Jr. its president and voted to send the Morris Telephone Company a second protest over slow repairs, with telephones reported out of service for one to two weeks, before taking the matter to the state regulators. The company's manager had answered the first protest by saying a permanent repairman would be assigned as soon as one could be trained.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 14, 1952, p. 1
  2. Twenty-seven miles of rural telephone lines are finished in the county The county farm agent reported that 27 miles of rural telephone lines were completed in Orange County during 1953 and that many more miles of prospective lines had been surveyed.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 14, 1954, p. 8
  3. Morris Telephone Company puts its country lines around Hillsboro on two-code ringing On January 1, 1953, the Morris Telephone Company changed the country party lines around Hillsboro with more than five parties to a two-code ringing system, already in use at Efland and Cedar Grove, to end the interference from power lines that made them hard to hear. Under the new system two telephones rang at once, one with a long ring and one with two short rings.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 1, 1953, p. 1
  4. St. Mary's Grange finishes a rural telephone line serving 35 families St. Mary's Grange completed the community telephone project it had begun in 1950, bringing service to the 35 families who signed up in its survey. Grange men cleared more than six miles of right of way in a one-day work party in the summer of 1952 and dug the pole holes themselves. People: Clyde Roberts, Reid RobertsThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 2, 1953, p. 1
  5. Morris Telephone Company asks the Utilities Commission for a general rate increase The Roxboro company, which served 828 telephones in Orange through its Hillsboro and Efland exchanges, applied for a substantial increase, saying its earnings returned only 2.12 percent and that its Hillsboro rates had gone up only slightly since 1947. The Utilities Commission set a public hearing in Raleigh for October 27.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 20, 1953, p. 1
  6. County commissioners join the Hillsboro merchants' complaint against Morris Telephone The commissioners voted unanimously to sign a Hillsboro Merchants Association petition asking the State Utilities Commission to investigate Morris Telephone Company of Roxboro, which served Hillsboro; the merchants complained of crowded party lines, long waits for new telephones, businesses and schools put on party lines, too few pay phones and trouble reaching information. In July the commission said it would first ask the company what it planned to do, putting any investigation off for weeks.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 9, 1955, p. 1
  7. The Mebane Telephone Company builds 140 miles of rural lines in western Orange The Mebane Telephone Company was building 140 miles of new telephone lines over a 140-square-mile area from NC 49 north of Mebane to NC 54 south, and from Efland west to the Southern Bell territory, covering the southwestern and northwestern parts of Orange County.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 22, 1955, p. 3
  8. Hillsboro merchants take telephone complaints to the State Utilities Commission A Hillsboro Merchants Association delegation went before the State Utilities Commission in Raleigh to complain about telephone service, citing crowded party lines, long waits for private lines, information calls routed through Durham, and Efland businesses and schools stuck on ten-party lines. The association asked citizens to put their complaints in writing.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 8, 1956, p. 1
  9. Hillsborough grants Morris Telephone a 30-year franchise under protest The town board approved a 30-year franchise for the Morris Telephone Company, which needed it to borrow for expansion, but with Town Attorney A. H. Graham calling it 'the sorriest telephone service' anywhere, the board also resolved to carry a formal protest to the State Utilities Commission unless the company installed adequate equipment within eight months. The company said it had invested $101,197 since 1947 and raised local phones from 457 in December 1948 to 1,268, with about 200 orders waiting. People: Alexander H. "Sandy" GrahamThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 7, 1957, p. 1
  10. Morris Telephone Company spends about $75,000 enlarging its Hillsboro system Morris Telephone Company said it was spending about $75,000 to improve and expand its Hillsboro service: new central office equipment and cables were in, lines had just reached a new subdivision and an area north of Fairview, and lines were being pulled to the town water plant. Pay telephones were added at the town hall and Dud's Tavern, and crowded party lines were being thinned.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 1, 1957, p. 1
  11. Morris Telephone wins approval to sell stock and readies a Prospect Hill exchange The State Utilities Commission authorized the Morris Telephone Company of Roxboro and Hillsborough to sell $241,050 in preferred and common stock to pay for expansion. The company had built and equipped a new exchange at Prospect Hill, with 42 miles of pole line planned to serve about 90 subscribers in the Frogsboro, Ridgeville, Carr and Corbett communities of Caswell and Orange; it had installed 522 telephones in 1957 for a system total of 5,299.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 23, 1958, p. 4
  12. Telephones are installed for families in the White Cross community Families in the White Cross community who had wanted telephones for a long time had them installed in the first week of March, the county home agents reported.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 13, 1958, p. 5
  13. The Utilities Commission grants Morris Telephone a rate increase for Hillsboro The State Utilities Commission granted the Morris Telephone Company increases worth about $40,000 a year on an interim basis from July 1, about $9,400 of it from the Hillsboro exchange. One-party business phones in Hillsboro went from $4.00 to $6.25 a month and one-party residence phones from $3.00 to $4.50; the Efland exchange was not part of the request.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 26, 1958, p. 1
  14. Caldwell families get telephone service from the Morris Telephone Company The Caldwell community in northern Orange was being served by a new Morris Telephone Company network, with forty families already connected and reporting good service.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 20, 1958, p. 7
  15. Mamie M. Gordon, longtime Hillsboro telephone operator, dies Mrs. Mamie M. Gordon, 73, who for many years was, in the paper's words, the one-woman telephone service for Hillsboro, died in a Durham hospital after a heart attack. The Hillsboro Business and Professional Women's Club had named her its Woman of the Year in 1956; her funeral was held at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 18, 1958, p. 1
  16. Hillsboro merchants protest poor telephone service to the Morris Telephone Company At a luncheon meeting at the Colonial Inn, the Hillsboro Merchants Association voted to write the Morris Telephone Company's Roxboro office that poor business telephone service was costing its members trade, citing other parties already talking on private lines, busy signals before a number was dialed, and phones that did not ring. Copies went to the Town of Hillsboro and the State Utilities Commission.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 26, 1959, p. 1
  17. Morris Telephone installs more than 175 telephones in Walnut Grove and northern Cedar Grove The Morris Telephone Company had installed more than 175 telephones in the Walnut Grove and northern Cedar Grove communities in recent months, an expansion the Cedar Grove Ruritan Club had pressed for as a club project.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 20, 1961, p. 21
  18. Western Power and Gas Company takes control of the Morris Telephone Company Western Power and Gas Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, acquired more than 95 percent of the common stock of the Morris Telephone Company, which ran the exchanges at Hillsboro, Efland, Prospect Hill, Roxboro and Yanceyville. Manager Walter Murray said the owners traded their stock because they could not find financing for needed improvements; the new owner, parent of Central Telephone, promised new central office equipment within 18 to 24 months.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 15, 1962, p. 9
  19. Morris Telephone Company builds a larger exchange on East King Street As part of a half-million-dollar improvement program around Hillsborough, the Morris Telephone Company put up a new telephone building on East King Street about twice the size of the old exchange. Subscribers got new numbers on May 17, and in November the company moved its business office into the new building.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 27, 1964, p. 1 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 14, 1964, p. 16; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 19, 1964, p. 8

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Background on Business, Shops & Commerce

Background reading on Business, Shops & Commerce. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Widely held

Classic Restaurants of Chapel Hill and Orange County

Cullom, Patrick ; Holaday, J. Chris · 2020

Patrick Cullom and J. Chris Holaday recount the history of restaurants in Chapel Hill and Orange County, with a pictorial strand of photographs and facsimiles. Published in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2020 by American Palate, an imprint of The History Press, 139 pages plus sixteen pages of plates with illustrations, some in color, facsimiles and portraits.

NC Cardinal UNC Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

William Terry Couch and the Politics of Academic Publishing

Shiflett, Orvin Lee · 2015 · McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Orvin Lee Shiflett's biography of William Terry Couch, 1901 to 1988, the editor who built up UNC Press at Chapel Hill over four decades in publishing, with a subtitle that calls his career a lightning rod for controversy. Chapters treat culture in the South, a case history in book publishing, objectivity and social science and 'The Sainted Book Burners'. It bears on scholarly publishing and university presses in the twentieth century. McFarland, 2015, 268 pages with illustrations.

NCCU UNC Library of Congress

Mebane

Oakley, J. Ronald · 2012 · Arcadia Pub.

J. Ronald Oakley's pictorial history of Mebane, the railroad town on the Orange and Alamance county line, from Arcadia Publishing in 2012, 127 pages of photographs. Chapters cover the railroad, industries, businesses, the Depression and war years, profiles past and present, churches and civic clubs, recreation and sports, school days, and preserving the past. Topics include Mebane's history, economy, buildings and railroads.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.658 OAKLEY NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress

Orange County, North Carolina

2012

A group of materials combining a county planning document with a highway map of Orange County, dated 2012. The planning piece, issued in Raleigh by a state commission, lays out a planning and management process for the county with recommendations on land development. The map, based on the statewide highway planning survey, shows roads, bridges, utilities, public property, businesses and industries across Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough; one copy carries red-pencil notes naming the county's voting precincts.

✓ Held at OCPL · 368.122 ORANGE UNC Duke Library of Congress

Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Twenty-First Century

Thorp, Holden; Goldstein, Buck · 2010

Holden Thorp, then chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Buck Goldstein make the case for the entrepreneurial university in chapters on entrepreneurial science, enterprise creation, social entrepreneurship, multidisciplinary centers, leadership, academic roles, teaching entrepreneurship, accountability and the new donors. Topics include entrepreneurship at Chapel Hill and academic-industrial collaboration in North Carolina. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2010, 170 pages.

Reviewed in New England journal of entrepreneurship (2011).

UNC Chapel Hill PL Durham NC Cardinal CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Chapel Hill Food Lover's Guide

Neal, Moreton Hobbs · 2009 · Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau

Moreton Hobbs Neal's guide to restaurants in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, published by the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau in 2009 with illustrations by Laura Frankstone. 82 pages with illustrations and a map.

UNC CH Historical Society
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I raised my hand to volunteer: students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill : an exhibit of the Manuscripts Department in the Wilson Library

Hollingsworth, Biff · 2007

Catalog of an exhibit mounted by the Manuscripts Department of Wilson Library from January 23 to May 31, 2007, on student protest in Chapel Hill during the 1960s. Topics include civil rights demonstrations, the Speaker Ban Law, the Black Student Movement, restaurant strikes and Vietnam War protests at the university. Compiled by Biff Hollingsworth, 59 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, published by the university library.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke Library of Congress CH Historical Society

The talking phone book: phone book

2002 · Talking Phone Book

Telephone directory issued in 2002 by the Talking Phone Book, covering Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough alongside Durham, Butner, Creedmoor, Mebane, Pittsboro, Saxapahaw, Research Triangle Park and the Raleigh-Durham airport. 472 pages with illustrations.

NC Cardinal

Bell South Sprint GTE

2001 · s.i

Telephone directory for 2001 issued under the Bell South, Sprint and GTE names, covering the Triangle exchanges with Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough listed alongside Durham, Raleigh, Cary and a dozen smaller places out to Butner, Creedmoor, Wendell and Zebulon. 214 pages. Directories of this kind serve family and business researchers who need to place a name or a firm in a given year.

NC Cardinal

Orange County, NC small business resource guide

Orange County Economic Development Commission · 2001

Small business resource guide for Orange County issued by the Orange County Economic Development Commission in Hillsborough in January 2001, 37 pages with illustrations. A directory of the agencies and programs a start-up could call on at the time.

UNC

James J. Freeland

Freeland, Maxine · 1999

Maxine Freeland's biography of James John Freeland (1918-1999), a Hillsborough man of the twentieth century, compiled in 1999.

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO FREELAND FRE

Orange County major employers : a publication of the Orange County Economic Development Commission

1997 · The Commission

Directory of major employers in Orange County published by the Orange County Economic Development Commission from its Hillsborough office in 1997, 24 pages, accompanied by two shorter lists: Manufacturers in Orange County and Distribution and Assembly Firms in Orange County, North Carolina.

UNC

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