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McDonough Telephone Cooperative
Paul W. Carlson The McDonough Telephone Cooperative has brought up-to-date phone service and other communication technology to rural areas of west-central Illinois for more than forty years. It started in the early 1950s when those living in rural McDonough County and many smaller surrounding communities did not have dial telephone service. At that time, calls had to go through an operator. Thanks to the formation of a telephone cooperative, however, dial service became a reality. The McDonough Telephone Cooperative has continued to deliver modern communication technology; today it provides service to nearly 4,500 access lines in six counties. The phone cooperative's beginning goes back to the establishment of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1935. This is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that makes insured loans and loan guarantees to rural electric cooperatives and companies. When the REA started, only about 10 percent of American farms had electricity and about half were served by REA-financed systems. In 1949 only about 35 percent of U.S. farms had telephone service. At that time, the REA made loans possible to improve and extend rural telephone service. In its history, about 75 percent of the borrowers in the telephone program have been commercial phone companies. Almost all the rest have been cooperatives; McDonough Telephone Cooperative
is one of those cooperatives and is one of seven phone co-ops in Illinois. The May 5, 1951, Macomb Daily Journal reported that about 140 rural telephone users met on May 3 to discuss setting up the McDonough Telephone Cooperative. Nye Bouslog, county farm advisor, and Arthur Peyton, McDonough County REA manager, helped organize and conduct the meeting. The biggest part of that first meeting, according to the Journal report, was spent in hearing how to set up a co-op by Jennings Ray, REA field representative. He told the group that the REA generally required 400 to 500 subscribers in an area fairly close together to start a phone co-op and get an REA loan. He said that "the co-op would not necessarily operate as a county unit. It would be a series of small units in several centers surrounding a trade center, such as Macomb." At the time there were many local mutual phone companies. The mutuals had to dissolve before the co-op could be set up. Hook-ups to cities had to be made under a contractual agreement between city phone lines and the co-op. By the close of the first meeting, "seventy persons signed up as members in the newly incorporated co-op and deposited $5 application fees." On May 25, 1951, the Macomb Daily Journal reported that membership applications had reached 200. By mid-June, the membership goal of 500 was exceeded and applications were made for loans totalling $500,000 to bring dial telephone service to McDonough County rural areas. According to the cooperative records, the towns of Adair and Bardolph were the first two exchanges to receive dial service when they converted on December 15, 1955. During the late 1950s, dial telephone service was delivered to Raritan, Smithshire, Colusa, Industry, Littleton, and Lomax. Then work was begun on the Good Hope, Swan Creek, Blandinsville, and Colchester exchanges. Colchester was the last exchange to be converted to dial service with work completed on August 1, 1962. The next challenge was the installation of switching equipment that would provide members with direct-distance dialing and long-distance service. In early 1965 the cooperative began installing automatic number identification equipment that would enhance the direct distance service. This speeded up service and helped eliminate billing errors. Also during the late 1960s the cooperative started work to replace all four- and eight-party lines with private-line service. This was completed in August 1970. Mobile telephone service was added in 1968. In 1976 a second channel of mobile telephone service was added, increasing the potential of mobile users to ninety. By August 1981 the cooperative had converted ten switching centers to digital operation, replacing electromechanical switching equipment that had been used for more than twenty years. This was the first time the cooperative could record and time all long distance calls. With the break-up of American Telephone and Telegraph, the cooperative had to add billing software packages to bill interexchange carriers. This required another computer upgrade. As the cooperative grew, it was housed in four facilities. The first facility shared office space with the power cooperative on West Jackson Road in Macomb. The company then leased the Ashmore Equipment Building, the property next to its first home. In August 1960 they moved to 119 Macomb Street, Colchester. In 1988 they decided to build a new building with eight thousand square feet at 210 North Coal Street in Colchester. The cooperative has had only three general managers. Arthur Peyton served as manager of both the electric and telephone cooperative from 1951 through 1956. Earl Snowden served as phone cooperative manager from 1956 through 1984; present manager Norman Welker assumed that post July 1, 1984. Features being provided by the cooperative today include custom-calling features, calling-number identification, remote programming for call-forward and selective-call acceptance, forwarding and rejection. Distance learning and internet services are being planned. In conclusion, the McDonough Telephone Cooperative has served the McDonough County area for more than forty-five years. It now serves some 4,500 members, making it the second largest telephone cooperative in the state. And the tradition that brought up-to-date phone service to this rural area continues. As the leader of the cooperative today, Welker stated: "Technology is advancing so fast that it is like a steam roller. All of us in the rural area must take part in making sure that we are not left out of all that might be available to maintain and improve the quality of life and offer opportunities to us, our children, and grandchildren."—[From: McDonough Telephone Cooperative, Open House Program Book, May 15, 1988; student historian's interview with Norman Welker, Oct. 9, 1995; Macomb Journal, May 5, 10, and 25, 1951.]
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