Telephone operators at the Summerville Telephone Company on the final day of operator-assisted telephone service in 1960. Direct dialing began the following day. (Photo courtesy of Ben Bridges/Chattooga Photo History)
For people living in Chattooga County today, flipping a light switch or making a telephone call is so ordinary that little thought is given to either one.
But a little more than a century ago, both represented technologies that were beginning to fundamentally change everyday life.
There was a time when darkness meant lighting an oil lamp, when many homes drew their water from wells, and when making a long-distance telephone call in Chattooga County meant traveling into Summerville and going inside a local store.
The arrival of electricity and the telephone didn’t happen everywhere at once. The technologies spread gradually through mills, businesses and towns before becoming commonplace in homes throughout the county.
And when it came to electricity, Trion was among the first places in Chattooga County to enter the electrical age.