On an August night, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first long-distance telephone call using a Dominion Telegraph Company line between Brantford and Paris, Ontario. Four years later, the Bell Telephone Company of Canada was incorporated and immediately began erecting poles and stringing line throughout Ontario. In1886, Bell built a line from Meaford to Owen Sound but for rural townships like the former Sydenham Township, telephone service was slow to arrive.
One of the first areas of Sydenham to crank the magneto generator of a black wall phone was Balaclava. The Balaclava Telephone Company, organized in1912, had thirty-four original subscribers, each paying $35.00 toward building a line that would connect to the Bell office in Owen Sound. The line was built during the summer in one of many “bees” that were held to erect the poles.
The Fifth Line Telephone Company had its start in 1911 when poles were cut in Robert Vair’s swamp on the Sixth Line of Sydenham and drawn by sleigh in the winter. Local telephone companies did more than just fund lines. The Fifth Line Telephone Company also sponsored community debating teams, spelling matches, and public speaking contests.
The Leith and Annan Telephone Company had its start in 1908 when Charles Scott visited Orangeville where telephones were already in use. There were 80 shareholders and 135 subscribers receiving service in Leith, Annan, and Garryowen. The Silcote Telephone Company, born in 1912, was privately owned, requiring each shareholder to buy their own phone with a yearly service charge of $5.00.
Sydenham’s many telephone companies survived for decades until consolidation by the Bell Company in the 1950s.
Originally aired December 2nd 2016
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