~ by Julia Pearson
In 1929, there were three telephone offices in Brown County: Nashville, Belmont, and an office in New Bellsville. In early spring that year, Monte and Martha Weddle moved to the Nashville telephone office with their sixmonth-old son, Jack, where Martha was replacing Mrs. Clyde McDonald as operator. It was located on West Main Street between the bank and Miller’ s Drug Store on the corner— now the Hob Nob Restaurant. The“ business” part of the new home was the telephone office with one switchboard in the front room. A boardwalk on the east side of the building led to a booth holding a phone, which could be used when the office closed after 5 pm. For a monthly salary of $ 30 and housing— which included lights and wood, Martha was on duty seven days a week. She sent and received all telegrams, collected payment for all phone bills, and received all trouble calls.
The domestic arrangements provided a living room with wood stove and bed for the Weddles behind the office. Next to that was a kitchen, with a privy outside behind the woodshed. Nashville had no running water in homes at that time, so Martha or Monte carried water
Lightspinner
STUDIO Martha Sechler
Unique Watercolors Mixed Media Gourd Art
4460 Helmsburg Rd. Nashville, IN • 812-988-7379 Open whenever home. Call ahead.
56 Our Brown County May / June 2017
Early Telephones
Brown County History Center’ s early telephone. courtesy Ivan Lancaster from pumps at the courthouse or the Village Green for all their personal washing, cooking, and laundry needs. Help was hired at the phone office for 10 cents an hour when Martha needed to be away.
All long distance calls went through Morgantown, and then were completed in Martinsville, which was Nashville’ s“ toll center.” There were
two lines to Morgantown and one to Martinsville. Morgantown, Nashville, and Martinsville used the same line for long-distance calls to and from Martinsville. It was not uncommon for calls to take one or two hours to be completed. This required the Martinsville operator to keep the party being called on the line until she could get the line to Morgantown and then to Nashville. The two lines between Morgantown and Nashville were also used for local calls.
There was an unwritten rule that people only use their phones for emergencies after 9 p. m. in the wintertime. But farmers would start their calls as early as 5 a. m. if butchering was to be done. It allowed time for those helping with this cold weather chore to get fires burning and water sufficiently heated.
The summertime found farmers starting their phone calls at 4 a. m. to arrange trips to Indianapolis markets for their hogs, eggs, and produce.
There were often fifteen telephones on one line. Each party was assigned a special ring.
SR 135 Rd S. to 8419 Bob Allen Rd in Southern Brown County( 812) 988-7053 • Open Mon.– Sat. 10am – 6pm; Sun. 10am – 3pm