DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Rocksprings Telephone Company. Now, most big things start small — and in 1898, this one started with a wire, a dream, and two men willing to string them both across the Texas Hill Country. Local businessman Street Gilmer and D.
H. Comparette of Kerrville built a long distance telephone line from Rocksprings all the way to Kerrville. That was no small undertaking out in Edwards County.
And when they were done, they installed the town's very first telephone right inside Newton and Smart's store. Just one phone. One line to the world.
The phone eventually moved — landed itself over at Gilmer's Drug Store — and right there, in that modest relocation, the Rocksprings Telephone Company was born. Early customers in the 20th century cranked those magneto wall phones by hand and waited for an operator to connect them. And here's a detail worth letting sink in: as many as seventeen parties shared a single phone line.
Seventeen. You weren't just making a call — you were broadcasting to the neighborhood. Then came 1927, and with it, a tornado.
It impaired many of the Rocksprings lines and, the marker doesn't flinch about this, it devastated the town. But there's one name that rises out of that wreckage. Telephone company employee Foster Owens left his home in the unstable weather — the storm still churning around him — to clear the toll lines by hand and call for assistance from Kerrville.
That's not a small thing. That's a man who understood that when the lines go down, people are alone. After the tornado, the telephone company built a new rock building.
Solid. Permanent. Like they intended to stay.
And they did stay. The 1950s brought major changes for the growing company. Street Gilmer died in February 1951, and his son Claud — a former state legislator and speaker of the House — stepped in as president.
The next year, 1952, the Rocksprings exchange purchased the Nueces Canyon Telephone Company. Then in 1953, Claud Gilmer's son became general manager. The family wasn't just holding on — they were building out.
Over the next decade, the company reached further, acquiring the Utopia, D'Hanis, and Vinegarroon telephone exchanges. And by 1958, every single exchange in the company had been converted to the dial system. No more cranking.
You just dialed. In 1983, the Rocksprings and Nueces Canyon Telephone Company became the Southwest Texas Telephone Company. New name, same family.
One hundred years after Street Gilmer and D. H. Comparette strung that first line between Rocksprings and Kerrville, two of Street Gilmer's grandchildren and five great-grandchildren were serving on the board of directors.
A hundred years. Same family. Same wire.
Still connected. Some things in Texas just hold.
What the marker says
(Southwest Texas Telephone Company) Local businessman Street Gilmer and D. H. Comparette of Kerrville built a long distance telephone line from Rocksprings to Kerrville in 1898. They installed the town's first telephone in Newton & Smart's store. The phone was later moved to Gilmer's Drug Store; this marked the beginning of the Rocksprings Telephone Company. Telephone customers in the early 20th century used crank-handled magneto wall phones to contact telephone operators. As many as seventeen parties shared each phone line. A 1927 tornado impaired many of the Rocksprings lines and devastated the town. Telephone company employee Foster Owens left his home in the unstable weather to clear the toll lines by hand and call for assistance from Kerrville. Following the tornado, the telephone company built a new rock building. The 1950s brought major changes for the growing company. Street Gilmer died in February 1951 and his son Claud, a former state legislator and speaker of the House, became president of the company. In 1952 the Rocksprings exchange purchased the Nueces Canyon Telephone Company. Claud Gilmer's son became general manager in 1953. Over the next decade, the company acquired the Utopia, D'Hanis, and Vinegarroon telephone exchanges. By 1958 every exchange in the company had been converted to the dial system. The Rocksprings and Nueces Canyon Telephone Company became the Southwest Texas Telephone Company in 1983. It continues to be a family business: two of Street Gilmer's grandchildren and five great-grandchildren served on the board of directors one hundred years after the company's inception. (1998)