The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-01-01
|A1HER o. The
HELLO GIRLS
|.okuks First Telephone System
W., Put ii Because cy. Dolbear
Needed ! Job and Had One
Made for Hin.
|ERE FOR FORTY YEARS
4 Has Become Known and Liked by
everybody Belonging t. keokuk
During His Long Resi-
dence Here.

Forty years ago, about midnight
n night, Cyrus Dolbear came tol
Nv 40 thoroughly that he has hardly
een out of town since. He was
JARED in the university town Of Dele
are. Ohio. and came here after so
urn over in Illinois.
Everybody In town knows Cy. Doll
Bar though only the directory man
Ia his company auditor know wheth-
his name is Cyrus or Silas. He
egan his labors here in the Wabash
railroad Office, as a starter, and in
dentally as the first job open to an
kcountant and office man.
'-The first telephone exchange in
eokuk was put in to give me a job"
bid Mr.. Dolbear to some friends last
yenlng.
His brother, w. H. Dolbear, the
comment telegraph man. was then
Western Union manager here and of
burse sinterested in Cy., Even that
hi back the elder brother showed
kgns of the managerial ability which
|as made him so successful since, and
81 conceived the idea that the new
eli telephone company needed to en-
er Keokuk and hire Cy. And so 1t
i'd Cy Dolbear helped erect the first
switchboard ever in Keolsuk, and
bree later ones as the system grew
nd inventions advanced the art OF
telephony.
Becomes Business Landmark.
With some intervals of i'll health, he
Remained in the telephone company
Service as long as w Fl. Dolbear was
ere and managed the local exchange,
he followed his brother to Des
foines but remained there only two
months, succumhing to that Keokuk
bomesickness familiar to everybody
who ever lived here and really be
onged
He returned here to the Western
fUnion telegraph office as cashier and
and has been sitting there
bust behind the counter at a roll-toI
desk with a telephone at his right
hand and a pile OF papers covered Will
figures at his left hand and in front o.
him so long that II he were to leave
that office would be as strange as i
the instruments all became noiseless
or the messenger boys were girls
Is Charged With Efficiency.
He can tell the rate to cashville
Mo. without stopping the addition o
q column of figures, either, day rate
night rate, day letter, night letter o
press rate.
dc can take message addressed L
jacob Hnggentubbler, in the country
and in an astonishlingly short time b
Sreading it to the addressee over tn
elerhcne line out in Cedar townhsil
Lee county, over in st. Mary's town
Fhip, Hancock county. Illinois, o
Flown back OF Satuzza, Missouri.
He can tell woman how to tel
the same thing in ten words, instea
~ hihStccAs WutIS lie IS DdlduClIlS III
cash. He can tell whether man wit
collect message to send Is honest 0
trying to beat the company at
single glance up from his repor
blank No. Z He can take messag
BY telephone and get it on the wiz
right every time.
Sees World Through Young Specs.
He. can do everything the publ
wants done, except get telegram d,
livered at I4awrenceville, Illinois, b.
fore the sender gets there by train
land that is because his control c
things is limited to that desk of hi.
and does not extend to the Chicago
Danyille and other offices.
Two important things about G.
polbear must not be omitted from an
sketch of him. One is that he serve
as city wcigher for a term when h
needed fresh air.
And the other is his specs. The