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In 1883 the first telephone wire in this vicinity, was put in when the Gilroy brothers ran a wire from the Gilroy Store to the Gilroy farm north of Lost Nation. Four years later, a line known as the Comstock Line was run from Lost Nation to Toronto as a party line for James Gilroy, Dr. Skelley and Charles Comstock.
Early in the 1900's, Albert Daniel headed a drive for the organization of a company. The Lost Nation Telephone Company was incorporated under the Laws of the State of Iowa on June 25, 1902, with Capital Stock in for $5,000. Each Certificate bore a face value of $25 which has remained unchanged. Twenty-one shares were issued on August 13, 1902, the first of which was purchased by Henry Keil and bears the signature of Albert Daniel, President and Lewis Rutenbeck, Secretary. A total of 53 shares were sold the first year. Other members of the Board of Directors were: Tim Appleton, Treasurer, R.E. Cressey and W.C. Hohn. R.M. Gable was the first switchboard operator, in his store, located where Lynn Smith’s shop now stands. One and a half years later the switchboard was moved to the new Comstock Building, above the present Post Office.
Round the clock switchboard service started in Lost Nation on January 15, 1912. The daytime operator received $30 per month and the night operator received $20 per month and night calls. Penalty charged on overdue assessments was one cent per day for each dollar and part of a month was charged as a full month.
In 1914 Lost Nation was the first town of its size, west of the Mississippi River, to install underground cables within the town limits.
In 1919, the assessment for all farmers’ lines switching through the switchboard was raised from $3 to $6 per year.
At the February 1924 regular meeting of the Board of Directors, it was voted to have directories printed "to call parties by number".
The Lost Nation Telephone Company installed a switchboard in the town of Baldwin for customers wishing to be served by this company.
In January 1928, the Board of Directors voted to have Bell Telephone Company transmit toll calls on a trial basis. The Tri City Independent Telephone Company served the area up to this time.
At the Annual Meeting of 1946, it was decided to sell shares to raise the necessary funds to finance a new underground cable system and it was installed.
A new outside plant was installed in 1947. Seven miles of the line in what is now the southeast corner of the present service area were purchased from the Farmers and Businessmen Telephone Company of Wheatland.
Notice of a special meeting of stockholders was sent July 21, 1952, to adopt a substitute Article of Incorporation increasing the capital stock to $30,000 for a total of 1200 non-profit shares, with par value of $25 per share. The same year, the Keystone Telephone Company, an independent company serving the northwest part of the township, was dissolved and this company replaced those lines.
Stockholders voted to install a new dial system at the annual meeting in the year of 1958.
A merger of the Lost Nation Telephone Company and the Elwood Co-op Telephone Association was effective in 1959. The Board of Directors increased from five to seven members and the new dial system was installed. A building was erected for the dial switchboard in Elwood and an office building with equipment room and garage was built in Lost Nation. Patrons of the Lost Nation-Elwood Telephone Company have free exchange with Calamus, Wheatland and Oxford Junction. Direct distance dialing was installed in 1964. An automatic number identification for these trunks was added in 1967.
Past Board of Directors members included:
| B.R. Cornish |
Ivan Busch |
| F.S. Peckosh | Rolland Penningroth |
| Elmer Schepers | Ward Hollingsworth |
| Ed Luett | Frank Myatt |
In 1981, all cable was buried in the system. In April of 1982 a new digital central office was installed.
In September of 1982, the company started an Operations and Management agreement with the Bernard Telephone Company of Bernard, Iowa. This was terminated in September 1993.
In July of 1983 the first general use computer was installed to handle customer billing and bookkeeping. In December of 1988 this system was updated with a networked system with several personal computers.
L.N. Satellite Comm. Co., a subsidiary company, was started in January 1984 to serve the town of Lost Nation with cable television. All lines were buried at this time with a total of 118 subscribers initially signing up. Cable television was taken to Elwood the summer of 1994 and to Oxford Junction and Oxford Mills in February 1998. L.N. Satellite currently serves approximately 280 customers.
In 1990, the company participated in starting a telemarketing center in Lost Nation. It started with 16 work stations and 4 employees. After E I Telemarketing expanded to Lowden, Iowa in August 1996 and the two centers combined currently has 72 workstations with 100 employees.
Link Communications, a new long distance company owned by Lost Nation-Elwood Telephone Company, was formed in March 1996 to provide our customers with low, stable rates and allow them to receive one bill for their local and long distance services. Link offers a competitive rate with 6 second incremental billing.
In January 1996, the residents of Oxford Junction petitioned Lost Nation-Elwood Telephone Company to provide them with local phone service, which was currently being provided to them by GTE. After many months of planning, construction was begun the summer of 1997 with a small central office building built in Oxford Junction housing a remote switch off the Lost Nation DMS-10 switch. The construction in the rural area is a fiber-copper plant. A total of 22 and a half miles of fiber was installed. The first subscribers were cut over November 17, 1997 with a high percentage of the subscribers switching over to our CLEC company.
