Heading: (Arizona - Tombstone)
Author: Bowker, G.H.
Title: Letter from The Arizona Telephone Co. to the Tombstone Mayor and Council requesting the right to build a telephone system in Tombstone
Place Published: Tombstone, AZ
Publisher:
Date Published: July 5, 1881
Description:

Two pages, manuscript fair copy in ink, on rectos of two sheets of lined legal paper 31x19.5 cm. (12¼x7¾"). Signed (perhaps secretarially) the G.J. Bowker, Supt.

The Arizona Telephone Co, with a capital of $25,000, and "an exclusive contract with the Pacific Bell Telephone Co. of San Francisco, for the Territory of Arizona, to use the instruments which said Co. control for telephone purposes," petitions "for the right to erect & maintain through the pubic streets of Tombstone such poles & wire as may be necessary to establish Telephonic Communication between any & all parties desiring the same." Charles H. Lord, an early merchant and postmaster, founded and was president of the Arizona Telephone Co., which was established in March of 1881. It was in March that, apparently, the first lines were strung in Tombstone, though, as evidenced by this petition, it was not until four months later that legal cover was sought.  Lines connected houses and business within the town but there was no wider network connectivity, nor would there be until the turn of the century.

Some darkening to margins, very good or better.