Updated April 21, 2011
KNOTTS ISLAND TELEPHONE CO.
October 19, 2010. from Natalie Twiddy.
Comment: Gary Montalbine - This is Harold Capps phone bill. I wonder what was considered long distance. Anybody have more information about phone service on KI?
October 20, 2010. Comment - Melinda Lukei: I remember as a child, if we wanted to get in touch with my grandmother we called Jones' store and Herman would send word to her. I was born in 1937 but I don't remember when phone service was in the homes. I do know that calling Jones' store was not a long distance phone call. Kermit Land's Pungo station must have been the switchboard. My guess is the phone lines were run when the electricity lines were run, ca 1944-47 time frame.
October 28, 2010. Comment - Joe Lewark: Cliff Johnson from Long Island owned a hunting lodge near the Williams Lodge. He owned the phone company. Probably bought out the original owners. The switchboard was manned by Garland Waterfield and his sister, Reefie, in their home on Mackay Island Rd. Both were blind. Izola Bonney said that her mother, Ada Waterfield, was the next to operate the switchboard from her home. Later by Jane Brumley's mother in her home near the Methodist Church. It was later sold to Kermit Land in Pungo. Wherever possible the wires were attached to trees with a short angled standoff with a glass insulator attached. The phones had a crank you used to call the switchboard. They then placed your call.
October 23, 2010. INCORPORATION OF K. I. TELEPHONE CO. From Nancy Bonney Stamper.
October 25, 2010. Comment - Melinda Lukei: "Thank You" Nancy for sharing the gas boat and telephone documents. Your great grandfather Ferdinand Bonney is in both documents while my grandfather Paul Campbell Jones was in the one with the telephone. I am also the great-granddaughter to Ferdinand Bonney. I had no idea about either of these documents. Too bad we didn't inherit those shares from 1918.
April 21, 2011 Comment - Judy Fentress Jarman: I have to add a little comment in reference to this business about the K.I. phone system...........we were all on "party" lines and it was not uncommon for folks to "listen" in on your conversations. You could usually tell when someone would pick up the phone, and instead of hanging up, when they could tell the line was in use, they would continue listening! Folks would say "someone has picked up the phone" but that would not stop them from listening in on your conversation. You would usually know who it was, but that was how it was with the K.I. phone system!! We were just thankful that we had a phone!! We were teenagers then, and were probably talking to our boyfriends, so we really didn't appreciate folks listening in on our conversations!!