The Building of Midway Telephone Company
by Robert Godell

The communications act of 1934, as enacted by the United States Congress, was designed to assure universal telephone service at a reasonable cost to all people, regardless of race, creed or location. The act itself did nothing to help people in an area from Covington to Trout Creek, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to get telephones; it was a combination of the right people being in the right place, with a loyal and willing populace to back them, that enabled Midway Telephone Company to grow and prosper in an area that was considered unfeasible to serve. With no growth center, no major industry, homes scattered here and there and everywhere, it was no wonder other companies did not desire the area. Fools walk in where angels fear to tread. Nevertheless, we succeeded.

The beginning was not easy. Mr. Harris lived in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, and has his hands full with that company and another one he acquired in Wisconsin.

Robert Godell, chosen as manager, (without his knowledge), did accept that position, but very quickly found out that he knew absolutely nothing about telephones; did not even know how to dial one. So, what does a red-blooded farmer-logger do in this situation? It's natural, he just hollers, "Help!" and help came from Michigan Bell's telephone personnel, who were installing toll equipment in Trout Creek. They must have been amused by this green horn company, but very kindly answered a million questions, solved puzzles, such as a color code for cable pairs, and furnished technical names for various equipment peculiar to telephone work.

Michigan Bell quickly realized that their fortunes were tied to Midways. Poor transmission on long distance calls would reflect on them. Doug Hartz, outside plant engineering supervisor or Marquette, graciously offered the services of Robert Ray, engineer out of Bell's Ironwood office, for one week to train and assist Midway's workers. The education started for the manager, John (Jack) Kangas of Trout Creek, employed by Midway in April 1959, and Len Manninen of Covington. The education began with basics, such as how to drop a pole from the trailer without breaking it, which way the sweep of the pole should face, how to angle corners, the depth to set the pole in, and where the anchor should go.

Then the training advanced to more complex jobs, like stringing wire, tying it to brackets, and finally to hanging cable and splicing the ends of the wire together. Ray furnished the company with a stack of Bell company practice manuals.

There was a manual for every job, showing in detail how it was to be accomplished, and the books proved invaluable and were very much used as the one-week of training couldn't possibly cover all the complex details of the various items used. Midway continued to employ Mr. Ray on every occasion that he was available.

Pole climbing was supposed to come naturally, after a few basic rules; head and feet to the pole, butt way out, never mind the slivers if you burn out, (fall).

Construction of the lines became a routine; brush the right-of-way, haul the poles, dig the hole, set the pole, tamp the dirt tight, (this was a muscle building job), unwind the wire, hang it, stretch it, tie it to the insulators, dead-end it to an anchored pole.

The roads seemed endless; North Road, South Road, Aho Road, Red Town Mill, etc. Len Manninen left the company May 9, and was replaced by Bill Maki of Watton.

All poles were native cedar, bought from local loggers. The holes were dug by Godell's farm tractor, equipment with 18" diameter auger.

The next step in construction was to run a drop wire from the main line to the subscriber's house, connect it to a lightning protector, from which the I-O wire led into the house, and was connected to the telephone itself.

A telephone directory also had to be prepared. For Trout Creek, the Reverend Leslie Niemi, Pastor of the Lutheran church, typed one up and mimeographed copies.

Cutover is a term used to describe the act of cutting a switchboard into service. It is always a big deal, but more so for a brand new office. Much planning and coordination is needed. The telephone networks must be prepared for a new office; Code 852 in Trout Creek; old numbers, new numbers for subscribers listed in operator information sheets. Toll trunks tested and ready to go. A precise time to the minute is set for the cut.

August 15, 1959 was the big day in Trout Creek. Forty-six homes in the village all set for dial service. Personnel from Bell, Western Electric, and Midway watched as the insulating strip was pulled from the heat coils in the Central Office. A test call was made to the Ironwood operators, and everything checked out A-OK. 852 was on the national network. What a feeling!

Meanwhile in Kenton, a business office was set up in the Anton Maki residence. Lydia Maki, who had accepted the position as clerk, made sure the bookwork was in order. The first customer bill sent included installation charge of $5.00, plus $4.00 local service for party line customers. For thirteen years Mrs. Maki prepared the monthly bills, recorded payment, accepted trouble calls twenty-four hours a day, took care of correspondence, reports, etc, and even provided lodging and food for the accountants who visited the company quarterly.

Vince Wright and Mr. Saxon were the first accountants, with Mr. Wright preparing the charter and by-laws, and setting up the company's bookkeeping system. 

The hardest thing the company had to cope with was the constant lack of operating capital. Many times the clerk, secretary-treasurer, and manager had to forego payday in order to have funds to pay the hourly help and other pertinent bills.

After the Trout Creek cutover, installation of phones proceeded quite rapidly. The village itself was completed, then Red Town, Mill Town, and out into the country. Used material for the constant expansion was obtained from many sources. One man who would not identify himself called from Ashland, Wisconsin, and said if Midway would pay the freight, he would send some materials. About a week later, a Clairmont semi pulled up to the Trout Creek office, loaded with bolts, anchors, and rural distribution wire, and other hardware, at a cost of $26.00 freight car. the company couldn't thank the benefactor, but surmised it was Bell Company material, destined for the dump.

The winter of '59-'60 was kind as far as snowfall depth was concerned, enabling the company to continue building lines, for on February 19, the diary shows construction reached the western boundary of the service area, which is six miles from the Central Office.

On February 28, Jack Kangas left for greener pastures, leaving a great void. Gerald Perttula of Trout Creek joined the company and quickly learned to climb poles, picking up where Jack left off.

With installation in Trout Creek area basically done, construction was moved to the Watton area, and the routine of brushing and setting poles started over again.

Perttula left the company and was replaced by Gerald Niemi of Watton. 1960 also saw land purchased in Watton from Arvid Salli, Jr., and a concrete block building constructed by local labor under Alex Anderson's supervision.

A new phase of telephone construction was entered into; cable plowing. Bob Ray and William Scherzer, another Bell engineer, engineered and supervised the installation of buried cable from the junction of U.S. 41 along M-28 westward to Sidnaw, a distance of twelve miles. The cable was placed 6 feet from edge of blacktop on the road shoulder and, according to stringent regulation issued by Michigan State Highway Department, the shoulder had to be resorted to its original condition immediately behind the plow, requiring the company to employ twelve men hired locally, two of whom served as flag men, Bob Ray, Al Manthei, and Godell did the splicing of the cable and the entire job was done in record time, with no big problems.

While construction in the Watton area continued, Trout Creek area lines required maintenance and phones were added wherever lines were available. Lydia Maki and the operators in Ironwood took trouble calls from Midway customers and it was daily routine to call in to check for trouble reports. The used switchboard at Trout Creek objected to being moved and showed its resentment by shutting off at crucial times, usually late at night, and the operators seemed to take special delight in waking the manager with the sweet words, "Trout Creek is out".

One late night while checking why Trout Creek was out again, the manager found that eight six-volt batteries that powered the switchboard were completely discharged, the rectifier had blown a tube, and no spare was on hand. Fortunately, there was a direct line from the office to Ironwood and soon D.E. Ferguson, manager of Ironwood area Bell's office was awakened. Nonplused, he said someone would be at the Bergland CDO in one hour to furnish a tube, so be there. At 2:00 a.m. the switchboard was humming again. It is doubtful that many people realized it had ever been out.

Watton cutover was approaching fast, so Allan Eskel and Eino Maki were hired to set poles. By January 30, 1961, the snow was too deep to continue and that part of construction was put off until summer. Attempting to get as many customers connected as possible before the cutover, which was scheduled for 2:00 a.m. February 5, Bill Maki, Gerald Niemi, and Godell worked long days installing phones. Despite the bitter cold day on February 4, the three men logged twenty hours. At 1:00 a.m. Sunday, February 5, 1961, everybody assembled at the Watton office to warm up and join the ITT installation crew, preparing for cutover. 

Precisely at 2:00 a.m. a switch was thrown, the switchboard started to hum, a linefinder went up almost immediately, the associated first selector pulsed ten times. The first call was long distance. Checking the cable record, the installer found the caller's line circuit was assigned to Robert Rajala. A second call was placed almost simultaneously, traced to Arthur Sallis, and the world found out that Watton had phone service.

On the afternoon of Sunday, February 5, a program was held at the Covington Town Hall, commemorating the event. Dignitaries from Bell, ITT, and businessmen from adjoining communities joined Midway's crew, directors, stockholders, and subscribers to celebrate the milestone. 

The first directory for Watton was done by Matt Thompson, Principal at Watton School. The directory had one hundred seventy seven listings; cost to Midway was $12.00, and contained no advertising. 

Bill Maki, Gerald Niemi, and Godell continued adding lines and phones in both exchanges. Gerald left the company, and Clifford Maki of Watton replaced him. On December 7, 1961, construction for the winter ceased. The last installation was made at Lake Thirteen, south of Sidnaw, and Bill and Clifford were both laid off for the winter. 

The first commercially printed directory was published in 1962 by a newspaper in Ironwood. The cost of printing was financed with sale of Yellow Page ads.

Modernization continued by ordering a new switchboard for ITT for Trout Creek exchange. Robert Tolonen of Alston was hired to construct a new larger building to contain the equipment. Jim Pierce and crew of Systems Installation arrived and had the board in readiness for cutover on April 4, 1964.

Michigan Bell's personnel were not happy with Midway's plan for cutover. They wanted a flash cut, which would have required a second phone completely wired to each home from the new Central Office. Then, by shutting the old switchboard off and cutting in the new one, all phones would have been converted in a second. Instead, nineteen local people were trained to go to the homes, removed the old phone and replace it with a new instrument as the change in the Central Office equipment required different types of phones, plus each party on a party line utilized a ringer of different frequency. The reason for the different frequencies was that only the called party's phone would ring on a call into the party line. 

It was surprising how well the local volunteers performed. On Sunday afternoon, the complete changeover was accomplished and the company had an inventory of used phones to get rid of. 

Understandably, the operators had a difficult time placing a call into the exchange during cutover; was a subscriber still a three-digit number or was he on the new seven digit?

In April 1964 Bill Maki, who had participated in every phase of the company's construction and had witnessed a dream become reality, received a call for employment at the Republic Mine. Bill still could be called on during his days off and stood by while the manager was not available for troubleshooting. 

For the next several years, no steady help was hired. The company always had local people willing to assist whatever the job. Among those who worked on and off were dependable like Nels Tahtinen, Richard Autio, and Ken and Dick Maki. Ed Tibbits, the Trout Creek blacksmith, designed and manufactured from scraps a long-reach tandem trailer to haul poles; also constructed a framework in front of the tractor to raise poles with, a Pilgrim hat shaped spool to unwind wire from, and was always ready to repair whatever broke. During this time, Ryan Frank Lewis, Wilbert Franti, Jerry Aalto, Duane Anderson and Stanley Rajala took their turn in aiding the construction of Midway. 

After his retirement from the U.S. Forest Service, Anton Maki was available and willing to help either on construction, troubleshooting, or dismantling old lines. He and Lydia would often be called upon to go and check the alarms at the Trout Creek CDO (Central Dial Office).

Another highlight for the company was ANI (Automatic Number Intercept) identifier for the Watton CDO, which was cut into service October 13, 1968. This enables subscribers to direct-dial long distance calls, which was a welcome feature to the company's Finnish speaking subscribers who were not too keen on talking to an operator. 

Midway received a letter from MPSC requesting the company to consider serving an unassigned area south of the company's service area. There were groups of people at Robinson, Hardin, Silk, Paint, Tamarack, and Golden Lakes seeking service. The area was canvassed, surveyed, and an application was made to serve it. On April 17, 1969, MPSC issued a certificate granting the Golden Lake Area to Midway. 

The board of directors decided that the new exchange would be served entirely by buried cable to cut down on maintenance.  The CDO was located at the corner of Beechwood Road and Forest Highway #16, the farthest north where commercial power was available. The company was fortunate to be able to purchase land from Arthur Lindahl in that area.  Robinson Lake was fourteen miles to the north, and Golden Lake service extends four miles to the south. An accurate measurement was required for the ordering of cable, pedestals, and load coils, etc. Bob Ray and Godell, utilizing a 200' steel tape took turns in running with one end of the tape while the other followed in the car, holding the other end, stopping at the mark, marking the distance in a notebook, and then quickly continuing on. Stakes were placed at 6600-foot intervals to mark the location of pedestals to house load coils. 

Meanwhile a used Leich all-relay switchboard was purchased from the Ontonagon County Telephone Company for $1.00. SACE INC of Texas was contacted to install the board in a CDO building constructed by Arthur Ketola and Sons of Watton. 

On October 21, 1969, Bob Tolonen and a crew of six local men started laying the cable, beginning at Robison Lake. The weather was unusually nice, enabling the crew to reach U.S. Highway 2 on December 13. Dial service to the new exchange was cut into to service on January 18, 1970. The poor quality of the installation of the new switchboard and the length of time it took to install led to lengthy negotiations with SACE INC on the charges they levied for the installation. The company gained a 40% reduction in the cost but the money saved was of little consolation later as the switchboard proved to be a thorn in our side, requiring almost constant care. Eight years later, on April 22, 1978, a new ITT office was cut in and the entire Midway crew offered a prayer of thanks. The remains of the old Leich board were laid to rest in the dump.

During this period, Midway employed Francis and Robert Lepola, Ron Maki, Reuben Collins, Nels Tahtinen and Bill Kuusisto.

The summer of 1970 was a busy one. Lines were extended in the Golden Lake area. Bob Thompson of Sidnaw became an employee of the company on May 5, 1970. Ron Maki, Ralph Godell, and Gerald Aalto rounded out the temporary crew.

Bob was laid off for three months the winter of '70 - '71 but since then has worked full time, becoming right-hand man, experienced in all phases of telephone plant, including carrier equipment, for which he attended several training courses.

1971 and 1972 were quite routine. Steven Godell and Edwin Salli become extras. At the end of 1971, Lydia Maki, tired of the extra work and the bother of having her house used for an office, retired. The company was fortunate to obtain the service of Alda White, who began on January 3, 1972. Alda, an excellent typist, with a strong background in accounting, took charge and had proved to be an asset to the company.

Although the company has had very few vandalism problems, a service outage of several customers west of Trout Creek on March 26, 1974 revealed that several spans of copper wire were missing. Carl Lespi whose residence was close to the line had noticed strange men looking over the line the previous day. Michigan State Troopers requested Mr. Lespi to call them if he noticed any more activity. Sure enough, the thieves returned on the same night and were apprehended. They ended up in jail and Midway was reimbursed for its loss. Mr. Lespi's attitude is typical of our customers toward Midway and its property. 

In 1974, service was extended north of Trout Creek by utilizing buried cable, (the first in Trout Creek exchange). The company also buried cable from Trout Creek to Kenton and extended the Lake Thirteen lead in Sidnaw to Karl Johnssen's residence. The contractor again was Bob Tolonen, with Ray Knivila, Larry Borg, and Ralph Godell as temporary help.

The company has always had good help, loyal and trustworthy, but let's look at the manager's day book entry for may 3, 1974. Bob Thompson and Edwin Salli, supposed to be hanging cable south of Ottawa Lodge. Fishing instead on Jumbo River. Oh well, it must have been an ideal spring day with the steelhead running.

The year 1975 proved to be historic for Midway. Direct distance dialing was introduced in Trout Creek. Kaye Bowers, with an electrical engineering background, was hired. Service was extended to Calderwood and Stoney Creek areas. 

The additional growth was welcome but not without its problems. Watton and Trout Creek switchboards were running out of numbers. Golden Lake switchboard required constant maintenance. Customer dissatisfaction on party lines with no facilities to cut down on the number of parties on the line. Native cedar poles were rotting at the ground line and overhead lines required much maintenance. 

The board of directors decided to apply for REA loan to upgrade the entire system. This proved to be the best decision Midway had made. Under the leadership of the REA loan program, utilized training engineers, (G. J. Orphan & Assoc., in Midway's case), a complete survey of every road in the area was made. A plan was designed to upgrade the physical plant to an adequate maintenance-free system. The end result of the major renovation is evident to every user of Midway's service, from one-party service to the ability to direct-dial international calls. The satisfaction of moving from the crowded business office into the new spacious quarters, with indoor plumbing, is probably best expressed by an employee's remark, "I thought we'd died and gone to heaven".

The most welcome result to the employees is the drop in maintenance problems. Lightening storms and high winds used to result in hours of repair and replacing fuses by the bushel. But the most heartening act is that the subscriber is not without service, especially at a time when he might need it most.

It all began on September 30, 1976 when U.S. Congressman Phillip Ruppe's office called, announcing approval of the $1,490,000 REA loan for Midway. Then the activity started; contracts let out, engineering, building locations. At Watton, work was started with Sulo Mackie locating source of water for the well by water witching with an iron bar.

Money from REA would not be released until MPSC approval was obtained. For some reason MPSC was slow on this approval, creating a major problem for Midway. Construction had begun and contractors were entitled to money for supplies purchased. Finally, with the aid of Vern Marquardt of Commercial National Bank of L'anse, a loan of $375,000 was arranged with the American National Bank of St. Paul, Minnesota. First National Bank of Iron Mountain loaned an additional $42,000.

Slowly, with the help of Divine Providence, all complex matters were solved, loan authority received, and on January 16, 1978, Midway received its first check from REA for the sum of $791,000. This was a bank holiday, but the next day the happy chore of wiring money to pay all obligations was accomplished. 

We understand that the loaning officer of American National was questioned by bank auditors as to the wisdom of loaning that huge sum of money to an unknown company in another state, with no collateral. His job was saved by the fact that Midway's loan repayment check was on his desk, including $12,000 interest.

The REA loan included money for equipment such as cable plow, loader, backhoe, giving the company capability to bury all the smaller diameter cables needed for extending lines, and burying drops to homes. A warehouse-garage was built to house equipment and the inventory of cable and supplies.

Midway has attracted the attention of news media, its story being aired on the evening news by WLUC TV of Marquette, and stories in the L'anse Sentinel, a weekly, and in the Daily Mining Gazette of Houghton. Midway Telephone Company is now a subsidiary of Hiawatha Communications Incorporated.

More employee changes have occurred. Today our staff consists of Sally Allen, General Manager of Sales/Service, Lisa Sikkila, Customer Service Representative, Jim Leppala, Communication Technician, & Steve Rajala, Communication Technician. 

That is where we stand today. Midway Telephone Company, a company of which we can be proud of.

    The Organization of Midway Telephone Company