A Telephonic Link for the Fruit Belt
After the project stalled, a new effort is underway to connect the fruit country south of the Oregon line to Walla Walla.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A new telephone line is being constructed between Freewater and the State Line. This new line will take in Freewater and the large scope of fruit country lying south of the Oregon line. At the present time, it is not known exactly how many subscribers there will be on the system, but a rough estimation would place them at somewhere in the neighborhood of 50. When A. I. Peck, who is endeavoring to secure a line from Walla Walla to the state line, makes a success of his endeavors, a complete telephonic connection will be had with Freewater and this city. The work of organizing a telephone line between this city and the state line was taken up by farmers of that section some time last year, the foremost among the workers being George Reynolds. But for some reason, the project was dropped and nothing had been done until A. I. Peck took it up. The line which extends into the Cottonwood country is being rapidly extended, and recently there have been several phones put in by well-known farmers, among those being W. B. Copeland, K. A. Reser, Sam Drumheller, and Mackin Brothers.
“The work of organizing a telephone line between this city and the state line was taken up by farmers of that section some time last year.”
The infrastructure race to connect rural, agricultural producers to markets is a historical constant in the Walla Walla Valley. Just as A.I. Peck sought to bridge the 'fruit country' to the city, current debates over broadband access in rural Washington reflect this same drive to integrate remote corners of the economy into the modern grid.
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