First Telephone Exchange
Fort Stockton, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Pecos County commissioners authorized E. W. Bennett (1858-1933) to establish Ft. Stockton's First Telephone service in May 1909. The switchboard, operated by Bennett's daughter, Zetta, was located in a room attached to this adobe house, where the Bennetts lived. The wires connected with Ft. Stockton's 200 phone subscribers with Ozona, where Bennett's sons, John and Will, ran the family's telephone exchange. Lines were later strung to other towns, completing this vital communication link. The Ft. Stockton Exchange became part of Southwestern Bell Telephone System in 1928.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the county authorized E. W. Bennett to string Fort Stockton's first telephone lines in 1909, it knit a remote West Texas town into the wider world of instant communication. The switchboard sat in a room off the Bennett family's adobe home, worked by his daughter Zetta, and connected some 200 local subscribers to Ozona and beyond. The little exchange grew into a regional network and was absorbed by Southwestern Bell in 1928.
Why it matters
It marks the moment a frontier community joined the telephone age, part of the sweeping communications revolution that bound rural America together in the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · E. W. Bennett
- · Zetta Bennett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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