Then & Now: A History of Rice County, Faribault & Communities

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Faribault Opera House, burned in 1928
The Tri-State Telephone and Telegraph Company also
provided service in Northfield but the exact date that
service was established is not known. However they
did operate at least one long distance station in
Northfield in 1904.
In 1905 the Rice Rural Telephone Company was
formed to operate in Faribault in competition with the
Northwestern Company.
Competing telephone companies did not
interconnect with each other. As a result, for a
customer to have complete telephone service it was
necessary to have service from both companies. This
meant two telephones sometimes side by side on the
wall, two directories and, of course, two telephone
bills.
Territory Divides
The problem of competition was solved in 1918. At
the urging of the public and Railroad and Warehouse
Commission, the Tri-State and the Northwestern
Company agreed to divide the territory they served.
The Northwestern Company was to serve Minneapolis
and the Northern portion of the state and the Tri-State
Company, St. Paul and southern Minnesota.
On January 1, 1921 the Northwestern Telephone
Exchange Company was merged with Iowa Telephone
Company and the Nebraska Telephone Company to
form Northwestern Bell Telephone Company. In 1942,
the Tri-State Company was merged with Northwestern
Bell.
From the two telephones installed in Faribault in
1878, the number of customers served by Northwestern
Bell in Rice County has increased to more than 12,000,
and the number of telephones in use to over 23,000.
In addition to Northwestern Bell, there are four
other independent telephone companies that provide
telephone service in Rice County. They serve the
communities of Kenyon, Lonsdale, Montgomery, and
Morristown.
Telephone war erupts
All was not quiet in the late 1870's and the early
1810's in Faribault after the new talking miracle - the
telephone - came to this community. In fact, there
was a Telephone War. The Faribault Republican of
August 8, 1883, had this to say:
''A small degree of excitement has existed during
the past week on account of conflict between certain
members of the City Common Council and the
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company. As was stated
last week the council had refused to grant a petition to
allow the erection of telephone poles on Main Street,
although they were willing to allow the use of all other
streets.
"The objection to using Main Street was that in
case of fire the wires would be in the way and would
hinder the use of ladders and other fire apparatus. As
most of the patrons of the telephone exchange are on
Main Street, the company was desirous of placing the
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