Title: Rural Telephone Company (Waupaca, Wis.) Records
Inclusive Dates: 1907-1925

Creator:

• Rural Telephone Company (Waupaca, Wis.)

Call Number: Stevens Point Mss E

Quantity: 0.6 c.f. (7 volumes)

Repository:

Housed at the Nelis R. Kampenga University Archives & Area Research Center, Learning Resources Center, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Stevens Point Library / Stevens Point Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Business records of a small telephone company. Cashbooks and ledgers show operating and maintenance costs, the number of subscribers, their locations, and the rates or tolls paid by each. Occasional drafts of letters by Lewis F. Shoemaker, secretary-treasurer of the company, and a few fragmentary minutes of directors' and stockholders' meetings are scattered through the volumes.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-stpt000e

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The Rural Telephone Company had its central offices in Waupaca, Wisconsin. The Company serviced that community and the adjacent rural areas, and maintained “tie-in” agreements with several other small telephone companies in other sections of Wisconsin. Lewis F. Shoemaker served as Secretary-Treasurer of the telephone company for the period of years covered by the collection; in addition, he also was Waupaca County Clerk at least from 1903 through 1934.

The cashbooks (volumes 1-3) contain the type of financial accounts usually found in this kind of record. The ledger (volume 4) gives such information as the cost of pole lines, wire lines,, and telephones, the maintenance costs of the lines capital stock, and annual earnings (from subscribers, toll charges, and the like).

The three subscribers' ledgers (volumes 5-7) are a chronological listing of the accounts held by the Telephone Company. For each year, the volumes show the name of the subscriber (arranged alphabetically), the subscribers' addresses, the date the telephone was installed (and/or removed), the rate owed per month, the quarterly rate, and any additional toll and line charges.

The single envelope attached to the inside of the front cover of volume 5 (placed there only for convenience) contains miscellaneous records, 1911-undated, found scattered throughout all the volumes of the collection. These records were divided into two groups. First are the papers of the company including rough drafts of directors' correspondence to the company's president, and penciled copies of the meetings of the directors for the periods, April 3-December 26, 1914. Also included are several undated notes of the minutes of directors and stockholders meetings and resolutions offered at these meetings. The second small group of miscellaneous records consists of papers including memoranda from the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin concerning rate applications and the filing of reports, and scattered correspondence from line subscribers to Secretary-Treasurer Lewis Shoemaker.

Acquisition Information

Source unknown.

Processing Information

Processed by DRB, February 5, 1963.

	Cashbooks
Volume   1	1911, July 1-1915, September 25
Volume   2	1915, September 27-1921, (April 20?)
Volume   3	1921, April 21-1925, November 14
Volume   4	Ledger, 1907, May 14-1924, December 31
	Subscribers' Ledgers
Volume   5	“Managers Records,” 1907-1916 Note: Envelope containing miscellaneous records pasted inside the front cover.
Volume   6	1917-1920
Volume   7	1921-1924