COMMUNICATIONS
(Contents developed through committee discussion.)


Communications in the wide area of Versailles and the Tenth District were as primitive as any other area of the country until the post office was established. Methods used were passing a message along by word of mouth, sending a child to deliver a message by walking, horseback or buggy, or just plain by talking to one another a mile away early in the morning when the air would serve as a better medium. Handed down from generation to generation, the story still is well known that Francis Jackson, living at the High House, could talk to his own two brothers living at the now Captain Francis Jackson place and the Nathan Jackson place more recently known as the Charlie McLain place. These two distances, as the crow flies, are between one and a half and two and half miles. They could hear each other holler and could interpret the message. Gradually as more noise became prevalent this method had go be abandoned. Lots of times messages were left at the nearest gathering points, such as the Versailles store. This was especially true after the post office came into being. These ways were used until 1916 with very little improvement. Prior to the rural mail routes, county papers periodically carried a list of names of persons having letters, or mail, at the local post office in hopes that the addressee would call for the letter.

In 1916, a few forward looking individuals with initiative learned the general procedures for establishing a telephone system. The Rockvale Home Mutual Telephone Association was organized under the existing state laws and system. They cut the poles, dug the holes, strung the wire, sold mutual stocks for $30.00 a share, bought a Western Electric switchboard, and were in business. Mrs Ada Rowland operated the switchboard known as "central" or "center" from 1918 to her retirement in 1943. Monthly charges seldom exceeded one dollar. Connecting agreements were later worked out with the Murfreesboro and Eagleville systems and no toll was charged to these areas. There were seldom as many as one hundred paying stock holder-users. Except to a few within about one hundred yards of "central:, no private line existed--all party lines and as many as eight on occasions. "Eavesdropping" was common place and acceptable. Numbers were two or three digits, such as 24- 3, which meant three rings on line twenty-four.

In the fall of 1933, in the heart of the great depression, the board elected by the users, voted a free months service and reduced monthly residential service to seventy-five cents. This proved to be the downfall of the system as an ice storm in March 1934 laid the poles and wires on the ground. It was rebuilt at wages of $1.00-$1.50 per day with as much salvageable were and poles as possible. The system never fully recovered due to lack of capital and operating funds for construction, maintenance, and expansion for wages for usually two employees, the "central" board operator and the service man. When the availability of capital and management direction from the Federal Government came into being through the telephone Amendment to the Rural Electrification Act, which put competition in the telephone business, the local citizens chose to let south Central Bell have the franchise rather than continue a small system and non-profit basis with local ownership. Thus the locally owned telephone system appeared to go the way of the one room schools into a much larger unit state and nationwide. First eight party lines were tolerated; now only single party service is acceptable. An era has passed. To return to the early 1800's seems impossible as well as unthinkable.

As late as the early 1920's there were only one or two radios. Some would walk a mile or more to listen to the radio with a lot of static interference on Saturday night. Probably as many as 100 home made crystal radios and head sets were in use in early 1930. Soon homes were saturated with radios for communications into the area from the outside world. Just about the same course was followed in the late 1940's and early 1950's with television.

These two mediums, radio and television, did not accelerate in usage in the area until the middle and later 1930's when the Rural Electrification Act made it possible for local rural persons to establish, own and operate an electric non-profit utility. Until then about four delcos were in use; the Lowe family, the Rockvale High School, the Charlie McLain family and at Pucketts.