Company History

1901-present

    The Geetingsville Telephone Company was first housed in a log cabin that was
built in 1859 by James Mink.  The log cabin, now a monument, can now be found
at the T.P.A. park in Frankfort, Indiana.  Geetingsville's first telephone switchboard
was in Arthur Richard's grocery store.  When the store was closed for the night, so
did the telephone service.
    The Geetingsville Telephone Company was organized under the direction of Dr.
J. E. Robison with W. L. Brown as president.  Its first line was built in 1901.
Rates for the service were $4.00 a year.  Started as a co-operative, the company
changed to a corporate structure in 1917.
    In 1947, Geetingsville acquired the Middlefork exchange which had been
established in 1903.  In 1953, Geetingsville purchased the Beard Telephone
Company, which had been established since 1903, and consolidated it with the
Geetingsville Telephone Company.
    In 1954, REA approved the company's request for a loan to rebuild its system
and install dial service.  Sunday, December 15, 1954 marked the day when
Geetingsville switched over from manual to dial telephones.  A further conversion
was made in December 1955 to multi-line service.  Later the company upgraded to
one, two, and four party services and in 1975 to all private lines.
    Among the names which loom large in the development of the company are
those of George Pullen and Rollo Colby.  Mr. Colby helped build the first line and
set the first terminal pole, cut from native timber.  Mr. Pullen was the president of
the company for fifteen years.  Bessie Koble and Sylvia Godby worked for Frank
Thompson as operators when they were young girls.  They both returned in later
years and worked from time to time until the company changed to dial.  Dale
Robison worked for many years as a repairman for the company.  Dale Patrick
was employed by the company in 1948 for service repair, later served as secretary,
and was manager from 1955 to 1962.  Edna Patrick started with the company in
1948 as an operator and served many years as secretary-treasurer and general
manager until her retirement in March 1987.
    In the summer of 1991, Geetingsville made a giant technological leap when it
replaced electronic switches with a digital fiber-optic system.  After the installation,
Geetingsville caught up with the giants in the telecommunications industry, offering
many services to their customers.  Geetingsville has 100% of its
cable buried under ground.
    The Geetingsville Telephone Company made another big leap in the fall of
1997.  They began to offer internet service to their customers and the surrounding
community.  Currently, Geetingsville services approximately 380 telephone customers and
1200 internet customers.
    Colby, President, summed up the continuous technological changes at
the Geetingsville Telephone Company, "We are striving to provide quality, up to
date service to each individual customer.  Even though we are a small independent
telephone company, we still monitor the telecommunications industry very closely
in search of ways to further advance our systems, in turn, allowing us to provide
quality, up to date service to each customer."