Texas Almanac, 1949-1950 Page: 311
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TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH 311
Employment-Customers.
The operating payroll of the major private
electric power companies of Texas In 1948
amounted to 528, 749.332.
The following brief review of statistics will
show how rapidly the power industry has ex-
panded in the last eighteen years. In 1930
the total generating capacity of Texas plants
of private electric companies was only 889,537
kilowatts, as compared to 1,779.152 kilowatts
in 1948. approximately double the total capac-
ity of 1930. The total number of customers in
1930 was about 744.000, as compared with
some 1,410,512 customers in 1948, an increase
of 89.5 per cent over 1930 figures. The total
kilowatt-hour sales of electricity by the
twelve major electric power companies in
1930 amounted to 2.911.567.000 and in 1948 to
7,286,132,0004. an increase of more than 184
per cent, or about two and one-half times as
much.
As the number of kilowatt-hours sold in-
creased, the cost to the customer has de-
creased accordingly. In 1940 these twelve
companies sold a total of 3.100.000,000 kilo-
watt hours at an average price of 22 mills. In
1948 the 7.286.132,000 kilowatt hours sold at
an average price of 18.4 mills4.
Rural Electrification-REA Co-operatives.
Rural electrification had its beginning in
Texas coincident with the construction of the
first transmission lines by Texas Power &
Light Company in 1913. These lines made it
possible to supply dependable electric power
in rural areas. In 1927, officials of the elec-
tric power companies, working with farmers.,
businessmen and representatives of Texas
A&M Colleges, Texas Technological College
and the University of Texas, formed the Tex-
as Committee on the Relation of Electricity to
Agriculture. This committee has, since its in-
ception, conducted surveys, investigations
and research to speed up farm electrification
and still carries on this work today.
In 1936 organization of rural electrification
co-operatives began under the Rural Electrifi-
cation Administration. In 1949 there were
iseventy.seven REA co-operatives owning and
operating systems in Texas, serving 237,426
people. These seventy-seven rural electric co-
operatives had more than 94,000 miles of dis-
tribution lines, and delivered more than
413,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity to
their members during the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1949. The Texas Power Reserve
Electric Co-operative, Inc., 515 West Fifth
Street, Austin. is the central organization of
the seventy-seven Texas rural electric co-
operatives.
Texas Telephone System
On Jan. 1, 1949, there were 345 telephone
companies operating in Texas, with 1,034
telephone exchanges and 1,511,602 telephones.
The first telephone line in Texas extended
from the editorial rooms of the Galveston
News to the home of Col. A. H. Belo, pub-
lisher of the Galveston News and later its
successor, The Dallas News. This line was in-
stalled on March 18. 1878. Colonel Belo had
attended the centennial celebration in Phila-
delphia in 1876 and had seen the fascinating
exhibit of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
He returned to Galveston determined to in-
stall a telephone at the earliest moment pos-
sible.
The first exchange was opened in Galves-
ton Aug. 21, 1879. and the first long-distance
IaElectncal World, Statistical Issue, Jan. 29.
1949. p. 109.
2McGrw Hill Central Station Directory, 1948.
iStatistics of Electric Utilities in the United
States. Federal Power Commission, 1947 Report.
"Power and Light in Texas, 1948. by J. M.
Harris. Austin.
*Texas Power Reserve Electric Cooperat'e inc.
Austin. Texasline was built between Galveston and Hous-
ton in 1883.
Through the years the industry has grown
rapidly. Today the largest telephone operating
system in the state is the Southwestern Bell
Telephone Company, which at the beginning
of 1949 had 246 exchanges and 1.235,255 tele-
phones. Other companies operated 788 ex-
changes with 276,347 telephones.
The principal telephone companies outside
the Bell System are as follows: Southwestern
Associated Telephone Company, Dallas. oper-
ating in 156 towns with 53.667 telephones:
Southwestern States Telephone Company.
Brownwood. operating in 95 towns with 36,663
telephones; Texas Telephone Company, Sher-
man, operating in 20 towns with 18,200 tele-
phones; Three States Telephone Company.
Corsicana, operating in 45 towns with 6,499
telephones; Two States Telephone Company.
Texarkana, operating in four towns with
14,881 telephones; Palestine Telephone Com-
pany, Palestine. with 3,384 telephones;
Greenville Telephone Company. Greenville.
with 5,183 telephones; United Telephone Com-
pany, Llano, operating In 10 towns with
5.605 telephones; San Angelo Telephone Com-
pany, San Angelo, operating in 19 towns with
16,795 telephones; Home Telephone & Elec-
tric Company, Baird. operating in 10 towns
with 1,278 telephones; Gulf States Telephone
Company. Tyler, operating in 26 towns with
13.763 telephones; Lufkin Telephone Com-
pany. Lufkin, with 4.310 telephones; Del Rio
& Winter Garden Telephone Company. Del
Rio, operating in 22 towns with 6,781 tele-
phones. The Mountain States Telephone Com-
pany operates in El Paso with 34,738 tele-
phones in that city.
Telephones by Cities.
Below is the number of telephones con-
nected in principal cities as of Jan. 1. 1949:
City- Number. City- Number
Houston .......227,753 Amarillo ...... 27,013
Dallas .........196,225 Galveston . .. 26,242
San Antonio... 106,437 Waco ........24,709
Fort Worth.....103.590 Wichita Falls.. 21.417
Austin ........ 46.167 Port Arthur... 20,927
El Paso........ 34,738 Lubbock ... 18.042
Corpus Christi.. 33,221 Abilene ..... 14,777
Beaumont .... 29,918 Tyler ........ 13.132
Telegraph Communications
Following was prepared for the Texas l-
manac by Charles H. Dillon, Division Valua-
tion and Tax Engineer, Western Union.
The only telegraph company remaining in
Texas, since the merger with the Postal Tele-
graph and Cable Company on Oct. 3. 1943, is
the Western Union Telegraph Company. It
employed 2,802 people early in 1949 who op-
erated 1.828 offices in the state. providing
national and international telegraph connec-
tions with 29,708 offices.
Since 1866 it has been operating in Texas
after merging with the telegraph companies
operating in the state at that time. The state
has chartered more than twenty-five telegraph
companies to operate in Texas.
An improvement program was under way
early in 1949 by which it was planned that
seventeen central locations in the United
States would be directly connected with each
other by directional radio beams of extremely
high frequency and capable of carrying many
telegraph circuits. Local offices in each of
these areas will be connected to the central
points. Dallas is the fourth largest telegraph
office in the United States In number of mes-
sages handled.
The first telegraph line between distant
points was that between Washington and
Baltimore, built at the expense of the Fed-
eral Government and opened for business on
May 24. 1844. The first commercial telegraph
line was opened between New York ane
Philadelphia on Jan. 20. 1846.
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Texas Almanac, 1949-1950, book, 1949; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117167/m1/313/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.