Ella Brock Joins the Telephone Office

Ella Brock's arrival at Shamokin's telephone office was remembered as a change in the way its work was shared. K. C. Raup's 1926 retirement profile said she was appointed about three years after his January 1880 work setting up the exchange. The News-Dispatch's 1964 telephone history also placed her hiring in 1883.

The two later accounts described Brock as the office's early female operator, using the period expression hello girl. The 1964 feature said she assisted Raup in handling an increasing number of calls. Raup had previously combined operating with troubleshooting and company business; the retirement profile recalled that Brock's appointment let him give more of his time to the business side.

The next year, according to the 1964 account, a Williams switchboard entered service. Brock's remembered arrival belongs to that changing office, where more calls and new equipment required people to make connections. Neither account supplies an exact appointment day or her own recollection, but both preserve her name and the year she began this work.