TELEPHONE OPERATOR

“Abbie” as she was known by her family and friends was born in Logan in 1886, the daughter of Sarah Jane Painter and Charles O. Card, he being the supervisor of the construction of the Logan Temple and the Logan Tabernacle and the founder of Cardston, Alberta, Canada.

Abbie and her family lived at 301 W. Center Street until 1913, at which point they moved around the corner to 47 N. 300 W. The beautiful home that now stands there was built on that land by Charles W. Nibley for his wife Julia Budge Nibley in 1915.

Abbie graduated from Brigham Young College in 1902 and was working in Logan as a telephone operator from at least 1909 to 1913. She later worked as a clerk in the Logan City offices until her illness and death in 1939 from cancer.

MANAGER

B. F. Riter was the first manager of the new Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company which operated out of a room above his drugstore. He continued as manager of the Logan exchange until the telephone company moved into its new building at 22 E. Center St. He was a successful businessman who owned and operated several Riter Drugstores in Utah and Idaho.

The son of Mormon pioneers from Pennsylvania, he was born 31 August 1859 in Salt Lake City. He married Maria Inez Corlette in October of 1859 in Logan and they were the parents of six children, only four of whom lived to adulthood.

He built the beautiful home now known as the Riter Mansion in 1898 and it still stands today.

B. F. Riter died 21 July 1925 in Logan.

OPERATOR

Bessie Pearl Maughan was born 17 September 1893 in Logan to Ragna Jemaima Johnson, an immigrant from Norway, and Heber Chase Maughan, son of Peter Maughan, the founder of Maughan’s Fort at Wellsville.

Bessie worked for a short time as a telephone operator in Logan from about 1911 to 1917 before becoming a teacher. In 1922 she moved to Beaver, Utah to teach at the Murdock Academy, formerly known as the Brigham Young Academy, Beaver Branch, which was the first High School south of Provo. While there, she met James V. Thompson and they were married 23 February 1924. Together, they raised a family of five sons, two of which died as infants.

Bessie lived to be 100 years old and died 3 November 1993 in Richland, Washington.

TELEPHONE OPERATOR

Born in Midlothian, Scotland, Euphemia, or “Famy” as she was known by her family, immigrated to the United States in 1875 aboard the ship Wyoming along with her mother and two older brothers Andrew and James.

Euphemia was one of the earliest telephone operators in Logan, working in the small upstairs office of the Riter Building when the telephone was run by small private franchises. Mr. Riter owned a drug store and his drug company received the numbers 1 & 2 on the switchboard.

Euphemia married John Paul Cardon 10 July 1894 and it is unlikely that she continued to work as a telephone operator after her marriage. She died in childbirth just six years later, along with her baby son. She was buried with him in her arms.

TELEPHONE OPERATOR

Florence was a telephone operator for Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company in 1907 at its new location at 22 E. Center Street. Both of her parents had emigrated from Germany in 1880 and settled in Logan, where she was born in 1886, the ninth of ten children born to her parents.

Florence continued to work in the telephone industry and in 1920 she was living in Salt Lake City in a boarding house while working as a stenographer for the telegraph company. At the age of 42, she married Frank McCain, a widowed father with two children. She never had any children of her own. She died 16 September 1959 at the age of 72 from a massive stroke.

MANAGER

The son of an English immigrant farmer, William Otis Ramshaw was born in Peoria, Illinois in 1871. In 1900, he came out west to Utah and went to work for the Bell Telephone Company. He married Eliza Ward in Provo, Utah on 23 December 1903 and by 1905 he was the manager of the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company office at its first location on 33 N. Main Street in Logan. He was still the manager of the Telephone Company in 1907 when it had moved to its new location at 22 E. Center Street but by 1910 he had moved and was the manager of the office in Ogden.

His farming roots must have called to him because in 1911 he moved to Salt Lake City and established the Ramshaw Hatcheries. For some time he was President of the Utah Hatchers and Breeders Association and was a lifelong member of the International Baby Chick Association. He continued as owner/operator of the hatchery until he retired in 1944. William Ramshaw died 16 September 1953 in Salt Lake City.