Brown County Biographies From "The Annals of Brown County", Grant Harrington, 1903
C. H. Munsell.
C. H. Munsell, the General Manager
of the Northeast Kansas Telephone
Co., was born in West Mansfield,
Logan County, Ohio August 9, 1855.
When he was twelve years old the
family moved to Cameron, Mo., and
here he grew to manhood. He was
in business in Cameron from 1886 to
1889 when he moved to Belleville,
Kansas where he was in business until 1893. Becoming interested in the
telephone business he procured franchises for a number of Missouri
towns Cameron being among them
and began to devote his time to this
line of work. In the fall of 1895 he
came to Hiawatha and being favorably impressed with its surroundings, educational features and other
advantages decided to move here.
He applied for and secured a telephone franchise and at once commenced work upon an exchange.
The demand for telephone connection had not been felt yet. Mr. Munsell was a pioneer in the field and he
found many discouragements in his
way, but he pushed resolutely ahead
and soon had things in good working order.
The exchange opened for business
Jan. 1, 1896 with about sixty
subscrlbers. Its growth was rapid.
Connection was secured with all the
neighboring towns and new subscribers were constantly added. Mr.
Munsell built the first toll line in this
part of the country operated Independent of the Bell company. There
were many obstacles in the way, but
by the energy and hustle that characterized him he overcame them and
put the business onto a profitable
basis. Hiawatha offered splendid
advantages as the central office for
an extended telephone system and so
the business was merged into the
Northeast Kansas Telephone Company Feb. 14, 1900, a corporation
with a capital stock of $60,000 with
Mr. Munsell as General Manager.
The business of this corporation
now covers Brown and Doniphan
Counties completely and reaches into
Atchison County and over into Richardson County, Nebraska. It has
nine exchanges and offices in
twenty-eight towns and connections
with all of the surrounding Kansas,
Missouri, and Nebraska towns. The
business is all handled from Hiawatha
and the exchange at this place is one
that in completeness, up to date equipments and other facilities
would reflect credit on any city in the country.
Mr. Munsell was married at Cameron, Mo. Nov. 7, 1877 to Miss
Ida B. Cllne. They have eight
children: Lula May, wife of Marcy
L. Baker, of Horton, Pearl, Clyde E.,
Frank E , Clyde H. Gladys, Teresa,
and Dana. Mr. Munsell is an Odd
Fellow, a K. P. and a Woodman.
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This website created Jan. 11, 2012 by Sheryl McClure. � 2011 Kansas History and Heritage Project
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