Texas Almanac, 1958-1959 Page: 303
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Texas Telephone Industry
There were 269 telephone companies oper-
ating in Texas on January 1, 1957, with
2,656,206 Individual telephones. The number
of telephones in the state has more than
doubled since the- end of World War II in
1945 when there were 973,611.
The largest telephone company in Texas is
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, which
was operating 296 exchanges with 2,239,348
telephones on January 1, 1957.
Major telephone companies outside the Bell
System In Texas were as follows, as of Jan-
uary 1, 1957: General Telephone Company of
City Buses--Streetcars
Forty-two Texas cities had mass trans-
rtaton systems in 197, according to Mass
rtaon's Directory, Chicago. Vehicles
consist of 3,094 motor buses 80 trolley
coaches and 17 streetcars. Thfy operated
over 4,368 route miles. (Information on route
miles was not reported from four small cities.)
The only extensive streetcar system in Texas
converted to buses n 1957. This was at Dal-
las where a three-way system of buses, trolley
coaches and streetcars had operated. El Paso
with a dual, bus-streetcar system was operat-
ing 17 atreetears over 3 miles at the close
of 956.
Data below are from Mass Transportation's
Directory:Route
City- Vehicles. Miles
Abilee, buses ................. 20 60
Amariuo, buses ................ 70 154
Austin, buses..................84 259.7
Beaum t, buses .............. 0 82
D buses .............. 5 19
Brownwood: buaes .........:...7 45
Brya, buses .................. 1 40
Corl oChrti, buses ............70 186.3
Dallas, buses ............... 450 544.9
Trolley coaches ......" ..... 80 58.6
Total vehles and miles 530) 603.5
el Rio, buses ................. ... 5 9
Denton. buses ................. 12 1.6
E Pabuses .............. 67 126.4
Streetcars ............... 7 3
Total vehicles, miles . ........84 129.4
Fort Worth, buses . ......... 299 227.4
GaInesvlle buses ............. 10.5
Galveston, buses............. 57 49.3
tHarlilm buses ..............46 214
Houston buses . 696 348
.-ngvebues ................5 20
Laedo, buses ................. 8 25.4
LAP buas ............. 18 74
afkin, mses ................2 201
, buses ............. a 42
McKinne, buses ............. 2
Nacog eloces buses..............5 21.
Odessa, bues. 7 30
Orange, buses ................. 8 38.2
Paris, buses................ 12 20
ar abusesss .............1 4
Seuin;,-buses .................. 5 45
ictoia. buses ................ 8 25
Waco, buses ................ 44 91
Wichta' Fals, buses ........... 17 62
Total ...... ...............3,91 4,868
*Informaton not available.
.t9P vI lndrterc~e~rlc s. serving Harlngenthe Southwest, San Angelo, operating in 216
towns with 190,834 telephones; Southwestern
States Telephone Company, Brownwood, op-
erating. in 74 towns with 74,378 telephones;
Gulf States Telephone Company, Tyler, oper-
ating in 30 towns with 20,909 telephones;
Texas Telephone & Telegraph Company, Cor-
sienana, operating In 45 towns with 8,440
telephones; Lufkin Telephone Company, Luf-
kin, operating in three towns with 7,803
telephones; Palestine Telephone Company,.
Palestine, operating In four towns with 5,888
telephones; Mid-Texas Telephone Company,
Killeen, operating In four towns with 4,853
telephones; Kerrville Telephone Company,
Kerrville, operating in two towns with 3,753
telephones; Pecos and Northwestern Tele.
phone Company, Pecos, operating In four
.towns with 3,569 telephones; Conroe Tele-
phone Company, Conroe, operating in two
towns with 3,216 telephones; North Plains
Telephone Company, ,Dumas, operating in
four towns with 3,108 telephones; San Maroes
Telephone Company, San:-'Marcos, operating
in one town with 3,001 telephones, and the
Hull, Telephone Company, Houston, operating
in six towns with 1,151 telephones. In addi-
tion, Mountain States Telephone . Telegraph
Company, a Bell System Company, operates
In four Texas towns in-El Paso County with
68,950 telephones.
In 1955:the first direct distance dialing of
calls was started In Texas, Operator long-
distance dialing-a system that-allows the
operator in one city to dial the called long-
distance number directly-nereased in Texas
during 1957. Operators in more than 105
Texas cities were able to dial directly to tele-
phones in nearly 4000 cities throughout the
nation, thus increasing the speed of long-
distance service. - ,
In 1957 Texas ranked seventh in the nation
in total number of telephones and these tele-
phoneswere being used to place well over
13,5000 local calls per day, plus over 300,500
long-distance Calls.
Number of telephones In principal Texas
cities as of January 1, 1957, were:
Houston .......431,441 Wichita Falls .. 37,041
Dallas.. ......345253 Port-Arthur ... 32,283
Fort Worth ....188840 Ablene ..... 32,188
San Antonio ...179,205 Galveston .... 30370
Austin ........ 73,842 Tyler .......25,903
El Paso ...... 68,047 San Angelo ....1517
Amarilo . : 51,64 (Texas only). 1,525
Beaument ..... 47;523 Texarkana
Lubbock ..... 6,646 (Texas and
Waco ........45057 Arkansas) .. 19,09
Col. A. H. Belo; publisher of The Galveston
News and later The Dallas News brought
the first telephone to: Texas ron_ March 18,
1878; when he had a line installed from the
editorial offices of the Galveston paper to his.
home: Colonel Belo. had seen the telephone
In 1876 at Philadelphia where Alexander
Graham Bell had his new invention on dis-
play.
The first telephone exchange In Texas was
-also built at )Galveston an=d began operating
on, Aug:. 2, 1879 Ths-exehang e was pur-
chased by the-Southwetern Telephone and
Telegraph Company in 1881 and by 188 there
were 330 telephones in use there. ,
Texas' first longdlstane telephone llne was
built between Galveston and Houston in 883.
X805
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Texas Almanac, 1958-1959, book, 1957; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117139/m1/305/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.