Annals of the Beaver River

  “Hello, is this Ed Pitts?”   “Yes, it is. Who’s calling.”   “This is Joe Reeder. I have a camp near the Stillwater Reservoir. Does the name Reeder or Richardson mean anything to you?”   “I can’t say for sure. Richardson rings a bell but I’m not sure I can place Reeder.”   “Thought so. I’m calling because I read your book on the Beaver River and I’m surprised that you didn’t mention my camp. I believe it’s probably the oldest continuously occupied camp in the whole Beaver River area.”   “Really? I’m sorry, Joe. I remember now that Terry Perkins once told me I should investigate the history of your camp, but I never got around to it. To be honest, I had the impression that it was just a typical hunting camp. I’d be very happy to look into the history of your camp and, with your permission, write about it on my blog.”   “Why don’t you come up to visit? I’m at camp right now. I’ll be here through the first week of November.”   A week later, with my wife Merry at the wheel of our VW Golf,

So far as I can tell, the first documented telephone service in the Beaver River country started in 1891 when William Morrison, a Lowville druggist, financed a telephone line to connect the Smith’s Lake Hotel that he owned at today’s Lake Lila with his store in Lowville. This allowed guests arriving in Lowville by train to alert the hotel and allowed the hotel to order supplies from town. Even given the significant cost, the phone line must have been a welcome improvement. Since the railroad through Beaver River did not yet been exist, a trip to town took at least two arduous days by boat and wagon. Morrison’s telephone connection functioned like an intercom. The wire was only able to connect two telephones. Such systems were popular despite this limitation. They were commonly used to connect businesses to one another, or to connect a person’s business to their home. The signal could carry over long distances making it practical in many applications. The draw-back was that every pair o