The Telephone Comes to McHenry County

    •    Early evidence of telephones in McHenry County can be found in Chicago’s 1883 telephone directory, which listed Harvard, Marengo and Woodstock as being available for toll calls from Chicago at 30 cents for 5 minutes.
    •    Many McHenry County towns established their own telephone exchanges, with private companies started by local businessmen. Telephone exchange service first came to Harvard, Woodstock and Marengo in 1895 to McHenry in 1898 and to Crystal Lake in 1899. By the end of 1898 there were 154 telephones in Harvard, 101 in Woodstock and 127 in Marengo. At the end of the following year there were 105 telephones in McHenry and 26 in Crystal Lake.
    •    The Illinois Bell Telephone Company had established a presence in McHenry County by 1920 and eventually bought up the remaining local telephone exchanges.

Problematic Telephone Service

    •    Frustration resulted from all the early competition between the rival companies within the same area. What resulted were duplicate services, lines, equipment, and phones.
    •    Party lines provided no privacy in communication, used as a source of entertainment and gossip. One party could also monopolize a multi-party line. 


Dial Service in McHenry County

    •    Dial service came to McHenry County in the late 1950s. In addition to the construction of new buildings, the conversion called for new equipment and new instructions to employees and customers.
    •    Along with dial service of course came direct distance dialing, enabling telephone users to dial direct to millions of telephones throughout the nation.

Featured Objects: Western Electric Wall Phone, Candlestick Telephones, Rotary Dial Phones, Princess Phone, Touch-Tone Phone, Trimline Phone

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