On October 27, 1950, a group of representatives from Grant,
Hamilton, Haskell, Morton and Stevens Counties in Kansas met in
Ulysses at the offices of the local electric cooperative. The
meeting was the culmination of numerous conferences and
get-togethers of citizens interested both in improving existing
telephone service and in bringing service to unserved areas.
The group decided to take the necessary steps to determine if
interest existed in the formation of a telephone cooperative.
If sufficient support was present, an engineering study would be
conducted and then a loan requested from the Rural Electrification
Administration. Earl B. Williams of Grant County was elected
Chairman of the Board of Directors, John Persinger of Stevens County
was named Vice-Chairman and Glen York of Johnson was designated
Secretary-Treasurer. The remainder of the Board was made up of
Laurence Hennigh, Grant County; Jack Holdren, Hamilton County;
Howard Preedy, Haskell County; and Glen Sipes of Morton County.
The name adopted for the organization was the Pioneer Telephone
Cooperative, with the principal place of business being Ulysses,
Kansas. At the next month's meeting the organization's name
was changed to the Pioneer Telephone Association, Inc., in order to
comply with the statutes of the State of Kansas.
While there was much enthusiasm and support for the
formation of a telephone cooperative to improve and extend telephone
service, not everyone share this view. In February, 1951, H.L.
Fry, the editor of a Ford County newspaper, opined that "it's our
guess that we'll end up with a socialistic telephone exchange
presided over by the manager who will do nothing but warm a chair".
In January of 1951, an option was executed to purchase
the telephone properties of the Border Telephone Company, located in
Hamilton and Stanton counties and in the communities of Coolidge,
Johnson, Manter and Syracuse. At the same time, an option to
purchase the Moscow, Richfield and Rolla exchanges was presented to
Ralph Winsted and an offer was made to buy the F&M Telephone
Company, which served Ulysses and Grant County. All purchases
were contingent upon obtaining Kansas Corporation Commission
approval and procuring an REA loan.
In February of 1951, W.C. Rhodes, the Manager of the
Pioneer Cooperative Association, the local electric cooperative, was
appointed as Manager of Pioneer Telephone, to serve with no pay.
At the same time, Frank Horton and Company of Lamar, Missouri, was
appointed Association engineer. One month later, Ralph Winsted
was hired by the electric cooperative to serve as Assistant Manager,
charged with monitoring the affairs of Pioneer Telephone.
In June of 1951, REA approved a loan in the amount of
$1,089,000. The news of this loan was not received with
enthusiasm in all circles. In its June 21, 1951 edition, The
Ulysses News editorialized that the announcement of this "loan of
tax payer's money...was full of that black goo they have been
putting on Ulysses streets." Meanwhile, an option to purchase
the Satanta Telephone Company was executed in September, 1951.
A hearing before the Kansas Corporation Commission on
Pioneer's application for authority to establish a rural telephone
cooperative was held on October 29 and 30, 1951. Among the
witnesses testifying in favor of Pioneer's application were thirteen
area farmers. Appearing in opposition were city officials from
Syracuse and Ulysses, most notably Howard Maxwell, Ulysses City
Attorney. The primary objections were the prices to be paid
for the telephone exchanges to be acquired and the payment of equity
fees by subscribers residing within the city limits of the
communities to be served. The hearing was recessed
indefinitely pending the submission of a report by an independent
engineering firm commissioned by the KCC.
The Ulysses News continued its editorial attacks when
on November 1, 1951, the Kansas Corporation Commission staff was
quoted as stating that "never in some 40 years experience had" the
staff "been presented with an application that appeared so
impractical."
Near the end of 1951, the option to purchase the Border
Telephone Company expired and the owners of Border declined to renew
it.
At the re-convened Kansas Corporation Commission
hearing on February 18, 1952, testimony was given indicating that 99
business persons and farmers had pledged more than $72,000 in equity
required for the acquisition of an REA loan. The only witness
appearing in opposition at the rehearing was Hart Dey, editor of The
Ulysses News. Dey "protested rate hikes he said would
accompany the consolidation" of Johnson, Manter, Moscow, Richfield,
Rolla and Ulysses. In a February 21, 1952 editorial he again
expressed his opposition to a "socialistic utility service".
In his words, his testimony was a "check rein...provided for a
little while on the road toward socialism of all industry and
business in this country." He went on to state that he was
attempting to make a "last ditch effort to get the subject of rates
on the record in order to save telephone users...substantial amounts
of their monthly bills."
In June, 1952, the Kansas Corporation Commission denied
Pioneer's application for a certificate of convenience and necessity
to operate as a telephone utility. The commission stated that
the evidence indicates "that the financial impact of its (Pioneer's)
proposals must, by necessity, fall upon the...vast majority who now
have reasonably sufficient and good telephone service at fair and
reasonable rates."
W. C. Rhodes resigned as Manager in August of 1952.
In September, Joseph B. Chilen, former Grant County Extension Agent
before being called to service in the Korean War, was appointed
Coordinator of Pioneer. In December, 1953, he was named
Pioneer's Manager. At about this time, a nineteen person
Citizens Telephone Study Committee was formed in Ulysses to
investigate the possibility of obtaining adequate rural telephone
service in Grant County. At a town meeting in Ulysses on
January 7, 1953, by majority vote, the citizens of Ulysses endorsed
the concept of the Pioneer Telephone Association attempting to
purchase the local telephone system and converting it to dial.
At its January meeting, the Board called on the governing body of
the City of Ulysses to go on record as not opposing the plan of the
Pioneer Telephone Association, Inc. to purchase and operate the
Ulysses telephone system.
A Kansas Corporation Commission hearing was held on
October 19, 1953, to consider Pioneer's application to purchase the
Ulysses exchange from the F&M Telephone Company, the Moscow and
Rolla exchanges from the Winsted Telephone Company and to be allowed
to operate as a telephone utility. After a three year
struggle, the Kansas Corporation Commission relented and Pioneer
became an operating telephone company. By mid-year of 1954,
construction on the new dial system had begun.
By late 1955, Pioneer had purchased the Johnson, Manter, and
Satanta exchanges, pending Kansas Corporation Commission approval. The
Ryus exchange was created from parts of the Ulysses and Satanta exchanges.
Plans were also made to serve some Baca County, Colorado residents from the
Manter exchange and to provide service for the newly created Big Bow exchange. At
12:01 A.M. on June 3, 1956, Pioneer cut the Ulysses exchange to
dial.
The purchase of the Syracuse exchange, from the Border
Telephone Company was approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission
on October 7, 1959. The Coolidge exchange was formed from the
eastern portion of the Syracuse exchange.
The Deerfield exchange was purchased in March of 1960.
In April, 1960, Pioneer became the first cooperative telephone
company in Kansas to acquire a Bell exchange when it purchased the
Lakin exchange from Southwestern Bell.
In May of 1964, Pioneer began automated billing using
IBM billing equipment. In 1971, billing was converted to a
computer based system.
In February of 1969, Suburban Dial, Inc., which
consisted of the Colwich and Bentley exchanges near Wichita, was
merged into Pioneer Telephone. On July 1, 1969, Colwich and
Bentley were traded to Southwestern Bell for the Hugoton Exchange.
In addition, Pioneer acquired all AT&T and Southwestern Bell toll
facilities within Pioneer's exchange boundaries. This was the
first instance in which REA funds were used for the acquisition of
toll plant.
At the March 22, 1975 Annual Meeting, Pioneer committed
to providing single party service to all its subscribers. In
1978 the first digital central office was installed. By 1984
all Pioneer's subscribers were being provided with digital switching
service. As of early 1990, all Pioneer's toll plant was
digital.
In June of 1986, Pioneer began providing interLATA toll
service via a fiber optic cable that terminates in AT&T's Dodge City
Junction building. AT&T's point-of-presence for all Pioneer's
exchanges is in the Ulysses access tandem switch. AT&T leases
capacity from Pioneer on this fiber optic cable. This was the
first arrangement of this type in Kansas.
On April 1, 1987, longtime General Manager Joseph B.
Chilen retired and was replaced by Richard K. Veach. Mr.
Chilen was well known, both in Kansas and nationwide, as an industry
leader, serving as President and a Board member of the State
Independent Telephone Association of Kansas as well as on various
National Telephone Cooperative Association committees. He was
instrumental in establishing the telephone technology program at the
Northwest Kansas Vocational Technical School at Goodland, Kansas and
served on that institution's advisory committee for many years.
In January of 1990, Pioneer activated a two-way
interactive instructional video network that tied together the
schools in Deerfield, Elkhart, Hugoton, Lakin, Moscow, Rolla,
Satanta, Sublette and Ulysses. It was the first system of its
type to be installed in Kansas and the first fully digital two-way
interactive switched system in service in the United States.
In 1995 Pioneer
became an Internet Service Provider (ISP), introducing educational
Internet networking services for the schools located in its service
area. Soon thereafter, dial-up Internet access was also made
available commercially to Pioneer's telephone customers. By
1999, Pioneer was delivering high-speed Internet access using
broadband technologies in both Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) over
telco plant, and data over cable modems via the CATV system.
Pioneer entered into the multichannel video arena in
1998, acquiring the cable television franchises in local
communities, and eventually merging those disparate systems into a
single, universal headend system served from Ulysses via an
area-wide fiber optical network. Today the Ulysses headend
serves more than 240 channels of programming to twenty-two
communities across western Kansas.
Had the organizers of Pioneer Telephone been the type
of people who were easily discouraged, there is little doubt that
the people residing in Pioneer's service area would not enjoy the
high quality service and low rates they do today. Any one of
the many hurdles that the organizers overcame would have have
defeated a less determined group. These far sighted
individuals spent countless hours of their time and personal funds
in a quest to obtain quality telephone service for southwestern
Kansans. These "Pioneers" most assuredly succeeded and Pioneer
Telephone's Board and employees continue to operate today with the
spirit and commitment that characterized its early years. |
