Employees

	Steve Trimble, General Manager
	Pauline Schultz, Office Manager
	Deb Lenz, CSR/Accountant

Board of Directors

History

In 1900 Martin Hanson held the first telephone meetings in Palmer, Iowa, but it wasn’t until February 1904 that the towns of Pomeroy and Palmer joined together to organize the Pomeroy-Palmer Mutual Telephone Company. In February 1906 the Company was incorporated.

Chas. Swalin served as the president of the company from 1906 until 1935. Other men who helped form the company were A.G. Quinn as vice president; John O’Brien as secretary; Rudolph Beneke as treasurer; and Chas. Skooglund as the general Manager.
Shares were sold for $50.00. Each member had a right to get a phone to his house for the price of one share. The very first share was issued to Mr. N.A. Blomstrand on April 3, 1906.

The following rules were attached to the company’s By-laws:

1. In case of a call from central, all possible speed must be used to clear the line.
2. Before making a call, take down the receiver and see that the line is not in use.
3. Children should not be allowed to meddle with the phone.
4. When your signal is rung, you must take down the receiver and proceed with the conversation.
5. All conversations are limited to five minutes, except in a case of very pressing business.
6. All ordinary conversations must cease for business messages.
7. Anyone taking messages from the line when he or she is not called and circulating the same shall be suspended for a time from the use of the line.
8. By paying a fee of 10 cents, anyone not a member may have the use of this line and any other line with which the company has free exchange.
9. When a messenger is required, a fee of 10 cents and mileage will be allowed for this service. The messenger fee and toll must be collected by the party whose phone is used and must be turned over to the secretary on demand.
10. All conversations, including business, must cease on a call for a doctor.

Managers through the years have been: Chas. Skooglund (1906-1912); Peter Long (1913); W.H. Westphal (1914-1936); J. Howard Reeder (1937-1938); Rueben Blomberg (1939-1945); John Peterson (1946-1975); Gene Siefken (1975-2003); and Steve Trimble (2003-present).

One of the first operators was Miss Olive Babb. In 1909 operator service was available from 6 a.m.- 9 p.m. daily except on Sundays when it was 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.- 6:15 p.m. Miss Babb’s monthly salary was $32.00.

In March of 1932, after the bank closed with $784.54 of the Company’s money tied up, financial matters looked very bad. It was decided to continue on and hope for the best. With the help of a director’s personal loan, the company operated as usual through the tough years.

The company’s first central office was located across the street from the present office at 306 Main St. Improvements to the building were made through the years. In January 1919 the office was wired for electrical lights. In December of 1936, the old Farmers Savings Bank building was purchased from Dr. C.E. Stewert for $3,000 and the company’s office was moved into the upstairs rooms. The first floor was rented out for living quarters and then later to businesses which included a beauty shop, doctor’s office and the post office. Since then, the company’s office has remained at the same location but have moved down to the first level. Interior remodeling was completed in 1982 with the entire top floor removed. The last remodeling was done in 1992 to it’s current layout.

Between the years of 1949-1956 due to the fact that Bell and Iowa Continental Companies were switching to dial, it was voted to release the customers in the Pomeroy and Pocahontas area who chose to receive dial service. With the territory changing it was decided on January 9, 1957 to change the company’s name to Palmer Mutual Telephone Company with the business continuing on as usual.

In 1965 when a new automatic electric step-by-step switch costing $36,500 was installed, it made it necessary to replace all of the hand crank telephones with the new dial telephones. The new switch also eliminated jobs of our switchboard operators. Helen Malm was our chief operator for 26 years. During those years some of her assistants were Matilda Behrens, Eleanor Siefken, Lena Arends, Olga Johnson, Mildred Van Hoveln, and Helen Ricklefs. Helen Ricklefs continued on as bookkeeper until 1975 when she resigned, and Pauline Schultz was hired to take her place. In 1978 Deanna Buddin was hired for part time office work. She stayed on until 1986 at which time Debra Lenz was hired to take her place.

The 70’s brought many changes to the company. In 1971 long distance calling was made easier with the advent of direct distance dialing. A CAMA identifier was installed which enabled people to make long distance calls by dialing 1+ instead of going through the operator.

In 1975 John Peterson retired and Gene Siefken was promoted to general manager. Gene had been employed by the company since 1962 as a lineman.

In March 1975 a severe ice storm struck the area damaging rural lines and leaving many customers without service. Many hours were spent replacing poles and wire. As a result of this, the company applied for a loan to bury the outside plant. In 1977 a loan was granted by the Omaha Bank of Cooperatives for $305,000. In 1978 cable was buried, additional line equipment installed in the central office, and the subscribers were switched to single party service.

In 1987, Palmer, along with most other independent companies in the state, purchased shares of stock in Iowa Network Services, Inc. INS gave small independent companies the benefits that only the larger companies had. By using a central switch in Des Moines, we were able to offer our customers the long distance carrier of their choice. This is known as equal access.

Because of the growing need of communication services, it was decided to build and operate a CATV system in the town of Palmer. With the help of other telephone companies, the cables were buried , equipment installed and the system was put into service in September 1990.

As the technology advanced it was decided to replace the step-by-step switch that was installed in 1965. So in 1992 this switch was replaced with a new digital switch at a cost of around $200,000. This allowed the Palmer customers access to the newest features available.

1997 brought about the installation of fiber optic cable to replace the copper cable that was being used to access the long distance network. This allowed the company to share in the network costs for telephone and CATV with the neighboring independent companies.

As the Internet became popular Palmer began offering dial-up access to the Internet through NetINS a subsidiary of INS in 1996. Following this the company began offering high speed internet service (DSL) through a neighboring independent in 2001.

Currently Palmer Mutual Telephone Company has 290 telephone, 77 CATV, 47 dial-up internet, and 67 DSL customers. The company has three employees, two full time and one part time. Steve Trimble is the general manager; Pauline Schultz is the office manager: and Deb Lenz is the CSR/accountant. Members of the board of directors are Vern Metzger (President); Andy Lee Peterson (Vice president); Duane Aden; Michael Plantz; Steve Gutz; Eldon Peters; and Ron Behrens.

Read about Palmer Telephone's Centennial celebration