Elizabeth Benn was born in South Dakota and married Roland Morgan in Idaho. Together they had four children and moved to the Corbett area in the late teens of the 1900's. All of the children attended the Corbett schools, the youngest graduating high school in 1936. Elizabeth (known as "Mrs. Morgan" to most) spent 20 years as the telephone operator for the Columbia Telephone Company in Corbett until her retirement in 1957. Mrs. Morgan was the lone switchboard operator and "central" to a system that served 300 people. There were a profound number of duties involved at the little telephone office located next to Settlemier's grocery store, now known as the Corbett Market. The wires set up to carry messages back and forth were known as "party lines" with folks having to "share" the lines. There was a momentous change in Corbett in February 1957 when the Columbia Telephone Company replaced the old system with a dial system. Mrs. Morgan was happily able to retire. It was in July 1945 that Vern Lucas died and Raymond and Wilma Smith took over the operation of the Columbia Telephone Company. They later purchased the company from Laura Lucas. Raymond experimented with several different types of overhead lines, due to the severe east wind causing problems. Eventually underground cable was used. Using a government sponsored program, Leroy hired Basil Lampert in 1957 so that he could help manage the increasing growth of the business while Raymond logged and created the revenue to continue keeping the telephone company afloat financially. Basil spent 17 years with the phone company. In 1972, Columbia Telephone merged with Cascade Utilities, Inc. During the time Leroy and Wilma oversaw the telephone company, the number of customers rose from 138 to over 1,100. This information was found in "Living East of the Sandy, Volume 1" by Clarence Mershon.
Elizabeth Benn was born in South Dakota and married Roland Morgan in Idaho. Together they had four children and moved to the Corbett area in the late teens of the 1900's. All of the children attended the Corbett schools, the youngest graduating high school in 1936. Elizabeth (known as "Mrs. Morgan" to most) spent 20 years as the telephone operator for the Columbia Telephone Company in Corbett until her retirement in 1957. Mrs. Morgan was the lone switchboard operator and "central" to a system that served 300 people. There were a profound number of duties involved at the little telephone office located next to Settlemier's grocery store, now known as the Corbett Market. The wires set up to carry messages back and forth were known as "party lines" with folks having to "share" the lines. There was a momentous change in Corbett in February 1957 when the Columbia Telephone Company replaced the old system with a dial system. Mrs. Morgan was happily able to retire. It was in July 1945 that Vern Lucas died and Raymond and Wilma Smith took over the operation of the Columbia Telephone Company. They later purchased the company from Laura Lucas. Raymond experimented with several different types of overhead lines, due to the severe east wind causing problems. Eventually underground cable was used. Using a government sponsored program, Leroy hired Basil Lampert in 1957 so that he could help manage the increasing growth of the business while Raymond logged and created the revenue to continue keeping the telephone company afloat financially. Basil spent 17 years with the phone company. In 1972, Columbia Telephone merged with Cascade Utilities, Inc. During the time Leroy and Wilma oversaw the telephone company, the number of customers rose from 138 to over 1,100. This information was found in "Living East of the Sandy, Volume 1" by Clarence Mershon.