1

In 1923, Joseph Davis was surprised to receive a call from an official of the Bell Telephone Company in Montreal who told him that Bell had decided to sell the Eganville exchange and that the Rankin Telephone Company seemed to be the logical system to take it over. The little company had no spare capital but decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss. It accpted Bell's offer to sell the exchange with its 70 telephones for $3,800.00. The decision was a good one because Eganville was a much larger town than Rankin, with a greater potential for develpment. In addition, ten small "service station" systems in the Eganville area were provided with switching by the Eganville exchange, which represented another source of revenue. When a similar offer was made in 1929 with respect to the Bell exchange at Douglas with it 35 phones and four service systems, it also was accepted at once.

2

Chanonhouse Drug Store building left of clocktower - Housed the first swithchboard in Eganville, ON
After 1911 Eganville fire about 1913
Bell Canada Switchboard, J. Chanonhouse, Bonnechere Street, Eganville, Ontario, Canada


Credits:
The Eganville Leader
Bell Canada

3

In the meantime, Leslie Davis had married in 1926 and his father retired and sold Leslie his interest in the partnership. In 1942, the name of the company was changed to Davis Telephone Company, did not accurately indicate the scope of the system's operation which now stretched from Pembroke through Eganville to Renfrew.