Eastex Telephone Cooperative, Inc.

In the late 1940's, the residents of rural Rusk County and adjoining counties were unable to obtain telephone service from any existing telephone company. Several companies had been contacted and they all gave the same story, "It's just not feasible."

In November 1949, Congress passed an Amendment to the Rural Electrification Act providing that loans could be made to existing telephone companies and newly established telephone cooperatives. In January 1950, work was started toward the establishing of a cooperative in Rusk County. After several months of hard work, the loan was granted by Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and on June 2, 1950, an organizational meeting was held. Later that month, a Charter was granted to THE EASTEX TELEPHONE COOPERATIVE, INC. This charter was one of the first granted. There were only fourteen (14) people present at the organizational meeting and seven (7) of them were selected to serve on the Board of Directors. Since there was no telephone cooperative in existence, there was no pattern to follow and since this was also a new venture for rural electrification , there were no experienced men with REA to guide us; so our only means of survival was by trial and error. On December 10, 1951, the permanent headquarters of the Cooperative was established in Henderson (this being the trade center for rural Rusk County). On December 27, 1952, the Laneville and Goodsprings Exchanges were put into operation with 204 subscribers.

Mt. Enterprise, Pine Hill and Minden were all magneto. Minden had only one station located at the switchboard in the post office. (Minden's other stations had been wiped out in an ice storm the year before Eastex took over.) These three exchanges were cutover to dial in December 1953 with 231 main stations.

Negotiations for the Elysian Fields exchange continued over a period of two years because REA and the owner could not agree on the value of the system and the Cooperative had no funds available to bridge the gap in the acquisition cost. When the purchase finally went through, Eastex split the Elysian Fields exchange area into two exchanges, thus making the exchange of DeBerry. Eastex also built Oak Hill, the third exchange, from the ground up.

Waskom, a dial exchange, was acquired by Eastex in 1956 after a long period of negotiation. (The owner decided to sell because of illness.) Other systems wanted the modern little exchange that was serving 351 subscribers, but the owner decided in favor of Eastex because he wanted to make certain that his rural people would get major consideration for service. And they did!

In 1954, the people in the rural area around Livingston, 100 miles south of Henderson, were trying to obtain telephone service. After being unable to receive the service they needed, the organizers finally asked Eastex to absorb them. It did--- establishing three exchanges in that area. In the meantime, Eastex was busy building another exchange in an area where there wasn't a single telephone. This exchange is called Hudson and is located near the town of Rusk, the county seat of Cherokee County.

In the late 50's, Eastex acquired the Maydelle, Chester and Goodrich exchanges. The owner of Chester was so tired of being in the telephone business that he sold the exchange immediately. For ten months, while dial facilities were being installed, the Cooperative sent one of its men to the area to operate the switchboard from a trailer.

In July 1961, the exchange of Coldspring was established. Coldspring, the county seat of San Jacinto County, had only 19 telephones on a switcher line operated out of Shepherd, a community 19 miles distant. At cutover, Eastex provided service for about 250 main stations.

In 1963, the Cooperative established service in the Huxley community about 18 miles east of Center, Texas. The exchange of Oakhurst was cutover in February 1960. The Blanchard exchange was cutover in March 1960, and the Ruby exchange was cutover in April 1960. In April 1971, the exchanges of Segno and Onalaska were cutover. Evergreen was placed in service in October 1971.

Today, Eastex Telephone has grown to twenty-one (21) exchanges with all digital switching equipment, 200 miles of fiber optic and 4,000 route miles of buried cable. Eastex provides only one-party telephone service to over 30,000 subscribers in eleven counties. The counties served are Rusk, Panola, Cherokee, Shelby, Harrison, Hardin, Liberty, Tyler, San Jacinto, Polk and Walker.

The Cooperative has a staff of 137 full-time employees, and seven Board of Directors. The directors are M. P. Laurent, Jr., President - Goodrich Exchange, Kenneth Gladden, Vice-President - Goodsprings Exchange, Randy N. Ross, Mt. Enterprise Exchange, David Roach - Maydelle Exchange, Billy Barton, Secretary/Treasurer - Oak Hill Exchange, Frank Langley, Director - Elysian Fields Exchange, and M. J. Amlin - Onalaska Exchange. The General Manager is Allen "Knot" Dorman. The main business office is located in Henderson, Texas with branch offices located in Livingston and Waskom, Texas.

The directors and employees are proud of what has been accomplished, and that Eastex was one of the first telephone cooperatives to be established. Eastex is one of the largest telephone cooperative in the state of Texas, a truly enviable growth record for a cooperative which began with only 204 subscribers in the Laneville and Goodsprings exchanges.