Richland's Farmer-Owned Phone Line Struggles for Capital
With a rapidly growing subscriber list, the community-owned Richland Telephone Company faces a shortfall in its expansion funds.
The story, cleaned up
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The local telephone service has now been afforded to the people of the Richland and Fruitvale districts by the Richland Telephone company for about one year. The service extends for about ten miles up and down the Columbia and Yakima rivers, with the central station at Richland. The company is owned by stockholders who are nearly all farmers who live in the district. Unlooked-for contingencies, such as repairs and extending the service to an area not originally figured on, have made it necessary for the stockholders to pay a balance of $4.00 per share to put the company out of debt. The company now serves over one hundred subscribers and a directory will be furnished to all subscribers in a short time.
“The company is owned by stockholders who are nearly all farmers who live in the district.”
This story captures the grassroots infrastructure development of the early 20th century, where rural farmers were forced to build their own vital communications technology. Today’s debates over rural broadband access in Washington State are a direct continuation of this struggle for connectivity in underserviced regions.
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