BRYAN COUNTY HISTORY: Connecting to the world
Bryan County Genealogy Library
Alexander Graham Bell gifted the world with the invention of the telephone at about the same time many communities in Native American Territory were becoming “civilized” enough to need one. By 1886 there was a commercial telephone line from Tahlequah to Fort Gibson to Muskogee. A few years later Guthrie and Oklahoma City constructed small exchanges. 1897 saw Arkansas Valley Telephone company connecting towns throughout the state. In 1902 it became the Pioneer Telephone Company, and in 1905 joined the Bell System. By 1912 the Pioneer company had 115 exchanges in Oklahoma, with 114,975 miles of aerial wire and 19,480 miles of underground wire.