Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/361

Rh The early times operators in Oregon were a fine lot of fellows, and but few are left. With scarcely an exception they have done well in their various life engagements. Among those living now I recall, D. W. Wakefield, S. B. Eakin, Dr. S. Hamilton and his boys, J. Waldo Thompson, of San Diego, Thos. Sheridan, C. K. Wheeler, George Mercer, F. A. Taylor and Joseph Purdom. I need not give their addresses, they can be easily located, they are all well known good citizens, and to this day I am proud of the old operators.

In 1865 the California State Company's properties were acquired by the Western Union Company and the condition of the lines in Oregon was soon much bettered. Better insulation and better service in every way was introduced as the business grew.

James H. Guild succeeded me as manager of the Portland office in September 1866, where he rendered valuable service for many years. I practiced medicine for two years at Albany, when I was tendered the superintendency of the lines in Oregon and northern California and acted in that capacity until 1875, when I was relieved by Colonel Frank H. Lamb, who had for several years been superintendent of all lines north of the Columbia river, and who is yet rendering most capable and efficient service with his headquarters at Los Angeles. Mr. Guild superintended and operated the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's lines for many years. So much in regard to telegraphy in the earlier days in Oregon.

Now in this year of our Lord, 1910, a wonderful change is presented, an advance and development scarcely conceivable, even to those who have marked the progress. Instead of with great difficulty making the one wire which traversed Oregon from north to south, transmit communications to the California border and frequently not so far in those days, we now have several wires and a single wire is made tO' pass several messages at one time to and from San Francisco or like distant points.

Instead of generating a weak current of electricity by means of a few cells of batteries, it is now created by water power or other means in vast amounts and stored for use as required. The creating of this power and the uses to which it is now applied are hard to realize. With the wonderful advances of our great state and her phenomenal growth, the telegraph has kept pace.

Forty-six years ago a handful of men did all the telegraph service in Oregon. Today there are employed in the telegraph service in the city of Portland of men, women, boys, and line men, engaged in commercial and railroad dispatching work a total of one thousand, eighty-six. And what of the telephone service? The Pacific States Company, with its twenty-four thousand, five hundred, sixty-seven instruments (phones) in use in the city of Portland furnishes employment for eight hundred, forty-one persons. The city of Salem has two thousand, three hundred, ninety-six phones, and other cities and towns throughout the state are also well accommodated.

The Home Telephone Company has ten thousand, five hundred phones installed in Portland, in which service the patrons do their own switching. The service in connection with our fire department and our police system are important uses. Then the rural lines, the great aid and convenience for the country folks, are so numerous and distributed that to approximate a stating of their number would be an almost impossible task.

The uses of electricity in street car service are wonderful. Three hundred and thirty-eight such cars are running in the city of Portland and to suburban points every day, and furnish employment for approximately four thousand persons. Several other cities throughout the state have similar service.

The Mail Service.—The first movement to establish mail communication with Oregon by United States mail service was made in 1845, when the post master general advertised for proposals to carry the United States mail from New York to Havana, thence to Chagres river and back; with joint or separate