Execulink Telecom Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered in Woodstock, Ontario. Execulink Telecom was founded in 1904 as The Burgessville Telephone Company. After a number of mergers and renamings, Execulink is now one of the largest telecommunications providers in Ontario. Execulink provides telecommunications services including data, internet, television, mobility and advanced voice features. These services are now available to all levels of industry, including 50,000 business, enterprise, government, and residential customers.
Early history
The Burgessville Telephone Company was founded in 1904 by Dr. Service, a local medical practitioner. The first line connected the doctor's office to Wm. Kirkpatrick's general store in Holbrook, two miles down the road. Prior to this, there was only one phone in Burgessville – a Bell long-distance outlet. The doctor believed that a local system would be of great benefit to the community, so he began circulating the idea among his neighbours. Initially, the idea was greeted with less than overwhelming approval. In spite of these doubts, a small group of enthusiasts offered to help him get started; one man donated poles from his wood lot, another volunteered to cut and haul them to the village, and others helped dig post-holes and string wire.
The initial construction was organized by Thomas Orum. From Kirkpatrick's in Holbrook it connected a line to the New Lawson Cheese Factory, another two miles west of Holbrook. With the line up and running, the doctor was literally swamped with requests for this new and exciting service. All that was necessary to be connected was to build a personal spur-line to connect to the original circuit and purchase a phone. "The farmers quite often would dig the holes and even furnish the poles if they had them, so it did not cost much to build a line." The first central switchboard was installed with six lines in 1905 in Burgessville. In a short time 200 phones were in operation. The decision was made to incorporate a limited company. Those with a phone were given stock in the company and agreed to pay eight dollars a year for maintenance of the system.
Rivalry among the independent companies, Bell and even between themselves was intense, often resulting in agitation for government ownership of the telephone business. While a 1905 parliamentary committee failed to produce any recommendations, the ensuing publicity did change Bell's attitude to some degree. Instead of a reluctance to connect with the independents, Bell began encouraging and completing toll traffic agreements with them. In 1910 the Telephone Act brought all independent systems under regulation of the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board.
As the Burgessville business grew, so did the need for larger premises. So in 1907 the company bought the Temperance Hall, located 300 yards east of Burgessville's main concern. The building was moved just south of the Burgess residence and was used for an office, switchboard room and also included living quarters for the lineman while the back room was used as a storage and supply room.
In 1923 residents of the area signed a petition, requesting the Township Council establish a municipal telephone system as a public utility. That signaled the transformation of the Burgessville Telephone Company (with its 660 subscribers) into the North Norwich Municipal Telephone System.
North Norwich Municipal Telephone System
The 1923 petition heralded a new era in local communications. A debenture issue was sold to finance the $25,000 price paid to the Burgessville Company and its customers. Municipal systems like North Norwich were formed so the capital to finance increasingly sophisticated equipment could be raised by debentures, with each subscriber paying a portion of this levy and operating costs. The municipality owned the system in trust.
The 1930s saw many troubles for North Norwich. The Great Depression took a toll on the telephone company as it did with many other businesses and individuals. Unpaid accounts and the constant need to repair wires and poles led to financial worries. Then on January 1, 1932, the region found itself at the mercy of a natural foe - a massive ice storm. While the battered economy resulted in lost wages and a drop in customers and that icy winter's day in 1932 put subscribers through considerable hardships, the commissioners apparently could see the silver lining through the dark clouds. Reconstruction was the order of the day and before long the secretary-treasurer was reporting that the company financial situation was on the mend.
Thedford
Bell Telephone provided the first telephone service in the area including a small switchboard with 20 drops. Additional lines extended into Port Franks and along the sixth concession to Geo. Laird. A local telephone company serving a territory including Thedford, Arkona, Bosanquet, Warwick, McGillivary, West Williams and Adelaide Townships was started in 1908. Among its founders were Thomas Moloy, and Dr. Alfred James Grant, secretary, and a number of other businessmen who decided that a communications system was needed. Their first step was a trek to make inquiries in the nearby town of Forest about the formation of a company between the two towns. Although the request was refused, this select group set about forming their own company - called the Thedford, Arkona and East Lambton Telephone Company.
The company saw quick growth in the next few years. On November 27, 1909, an agreement was signed with J. Geo. Brown for a pay station to be installed in their store for the general public. Also that year, on March 18, the People's Telephone Company of Forest is reported to have approached the Thedford group to connect a trunk line between the two companies at Jericho. This was achieved by the end of 1909. The following year a report to the Treasury Department of Ontario, dated May 10, 1910, showed the company had paid up capital stock amounting to $31,900.
The Thedford Company began negotiations with Bell and on August 14, 1914, the sale was completed.
At the January 26, 1916 annual meeting, it was reported that there had been an increase of 21 phones from the previous year. Shareholders and directors were credited with helping to construct new lines. That same year, Wm. Bell was hired on as the company's trouble man for one year.
During the 1917 annual meeting, the company's good fortunes were once at the fore. The capacity of all the main lines had increased to a degree where the company could accommodate new business. As a result, a line was constructed to Ipperwash Beach. It was a net growth of 11 telephones. A connection with the Parkhill Rural System had been established by trunk line; the reserve fund had increased to more than $1,000 and the usual six per cent dividend had been paid. All this had been accomplished without having to borrow any money.
In 1946 the company was sold to Dr. James A. Vance of Woodstock and Mr. E.T. Downs of Toronto. Shareholders in the original company were allowed to buy back shares in the new company which was renamed Hurontario Telephones Limited.
Dr James A Vance
Dr. Vance's association with telecommunications began in 1934 when he was asked to be an administrator of an estate which had a substantial interest in the old Princeton & Drumbo Telephone Company Limited; a company that provided telephone service to the Princeton, Drumbo and Township of East Oxford areas. His first taste of that industry came right at the bottom of the Great Depression when most rural telephone companies were in a poor state of repair and finances.
In 1946 these five companies were amalgamated to form the Oxford Telephone Company Limited. This company, through the dedicated efforts and guidance of its directors, developed good quality of service to all its subscribers. In 1946, Case asked Vance to take an interest in his company - Thedford, Arkona and East Lambton Telephone Company. At the time there were about four hundred subscribers and the company served the Thedford, Port Franks and the Ipperwash Beach area. Dr. Vance purchased controlling interest in the company and, with the help of telephone associate Mr. E.T. Downs of Toronto, proceeded to re-organize the company and reconstruct the plant and equipment.
Modernization
Throughout the 1950s, North Norwich continued to grow and change. The storm of February 1950 spelled trouble for the company, as the expenditures for that year had far exceeded revenues, and the reserve fund had also been used up. In auditor Donald McKee's financial report to the annual meeting it was revealed that five tons of wire had to be restored. In February 1951 subscribers (shareholders) met in Burgessville where they voted unanimously in favour of a recommendation that the North Norwich Township Council be asked to raise a $20,000 debenture to finance a construction scheme to begin in the spring.
By 1951 the Burgessville exchange had outgrown the old building so a new brick structure was built to house a new office, storage space and a workshop. A new switchboard was also installed when the building was complete. At this time the company also decided to upgrade the telephone system. It was to be changed gradually from a magneto to combination magneto and battery to totally common battery and dial system. Also included in the new building was an office, storage space and garage area for one truck. To accomplish the changes, the rates of subscribers connected with the Burgessville central were to be increased by $4.50 a year. Those served by the Bell central in Norwich, who had had a previous raise in rates, were to be increased another $3.50 a year.
During the early 1960s Bell had converted the Woodstock and Norwich exchanges to dial operation. As a result, North Norwich Municipal Telephones converted its phones to dial that switched into those two centres. In 1967 the Burgessville Exchange was cut over to dial and necessary improvements had been made to the service station lines at Woodstock and Norwich at a cost of $250,000. The Ontario Telephone Service Commission assisted the systems staff to plan the modernization program and loaned out one of its field engineers, Martin Prickaerts, during the time plant reconstruction was being carried out. He supervised the program and coordinated the work of the systems staff with that of outside contractors hired to complete certain phases of the program.
The 1970s
In the early 1970s, the commissioners decided to rebuild the outside equipment with underground cable, a type of construction considered to be much more efficient than the old open-wire method. The program was proceeding according to plan until a tornado struck on August 7, 1979. A tornado cut a path of destruction through the area served by the telephone system. More than 80 homes were destroyed and outside equipment including lines were completely demolished. More than 10 miles of lines had to be rebuilt in the wake of the devastation. Yet, much like the ice storm of 1932, the community-at-large forged ahead through hard work and perseverance. What could have been a disastrous conclusion to more than seven decades of technological triumph turned out to be a defining moment in the company's history on several levels - a snapshot in time that captured the region and its people at their very best.
The company immediately hired additional help and with a lot of hard work and overtime, the outside equipment and installation of phones was completed by August 29, a mere 22 days after the tornado. All reconstructed cables were buried underground, continuing with the original rebuilding plan. However most of the new telephones themselves had to be installed temporarily until the new homes could be built.