Kleinburg Archives

THE COMING OF TELEPHONES AND POWER TO KLEINBURG

Dr. Allan Hogg

(Reprinted from the 1969 Binder Twine Festival Guide)

Kleinburg and Nashville were first linked with the network of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada in June, 1904, when foreman J. Curzon's crew completed "the Kleinburg loop" - two miles of poles and four miles of copper wire through these communities. The request for service had come from the Howland Estate whose administrators undertook to help the telephone company obtain poles for the line and to guarantee sufficient revenue to justify its construction.

Mr. Charles Shaw was the first local manager for Bell, and the only initial subscribers in addition to Mr. Shaw were H. C. Card of Nashville and Howland Bros. of Kleinburg. The number of subscribers grew only slowly, and the March 1908 telephone book carried the following list:

Card, John L., Lumber Mills, Nashville; Dalziell, Adam, Grain Merchant, Nashville ; Finn, D. J., Queen's Hotel, Kleinburg ; Howland Bros., Flour Mill, Kleinburg ; Jones, C.W., Butcher, Kleinburg ; Robinson, Dr. T. H., Kleinburg; Shaw, Charles, Hardware & Furniture, Kleinburg

Mr. H. C. Card had a public telephone in Nashville which was listed among the Woodbridge subscribers.

By 1935 the Kleinburg directory listed 36 subscribers: Lewis Agar; Thomas K. Agar; John S. Bell; G. F. Mayety's Circle M Ranch; Eric Clarke; James 1. H. Devins; Egan Brothers; Johnston Egan, Merchant; Lewis Egan; Miss Irene Elliott, registerd nurse; Forrester & Go.'s Farm; Stewart Hawman; George Hemphill; J. S. Henry; Charles Hewitt; Henry Hilliard, butcher; Sam Hilliard; Wm. Howland; Sam Ire- land; Geo. Irwin; J as. E. Kerr, trucker; John Mitchell; Dan McLean Sr.; Dan McLean Jr.; Elmer MacTaggart, Garage; Dr. F. Shannon, physician; Carl Shaw; Earl Shaw, Merchant; James T. Shaw; Martin Shaw; William Shaw; John Tebutt; Arthur Train, trucker; United Church Parsonage, Rev. Fortner; Robert Watson; and H. Don Whitehead, hotel.

Twenty-four persons listed had Nashville addresses:; Adam J. Agar; W. J. Agar; Wm. Bagg; Mrs. Robert Burton; Colin Cameron; W. L. Card; Albert Dick; George Fry; Emmerson Irwin; R. K. Johnston; John H. Kellam; J. T. Maw; George Miller; Alvin McCluskey; Thos. McDonough; Charles Nattress; James Neal; Pearson Neal; George Oldfield; H. Albert Parr; J. W. Roe; F. H. Taylor; Herbert Wardlaw; and Mort Wardlaw.

It was not until the 1920's that electric power came to Kleinburg. George F. East took a leading part in getting the necessary contracts to justify bringing power from the Coleraine corner on the tenth concession where the power line ended at that time. Three farm contracts per mile of line or the equivalent were needed. It took about two years of missionary work, endless calls and explaining to overcome the opposition and get the required signers. Tommy Hemphill's was the final contract obtained to make up the minimum needed. Stewart Hawman's and Lou Agar's were not far ahead. Strangely enough, for one so active in the community, Charlie Shaw apparently did not contract for electric power for some time after power had been brought to Kleinburg based on the contracts of others

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