The Company Story

Long ago, in Troy Township in Northern Ashland County, Ohio, William Thudium's mother wanted to be able to talk to her mother that lived down the road. Thus began Mr. Thudium's efforts to form a means of communication for his mother, grandmother and others in Troy Township. He and a few other interested persons met in the school house on February 13, 1903. The purpose of the meeting was to organize a company to build and operate a telephone line. On February 16, 1903 a motion was made and seconded to name this company The Nova Telephone Company. Cash in the amount of eighteen dollars was paid into the Treasury for the purpose of purchasing supplies.

At meetings thereafter various decisions were made such as purchasing Kellogg Bridging Phones, 205 pounds of wire at $2.65 per hundred and 1119 pounds at $2.75 per hundred. Insulators, knobs, spikes, etc. were also purchased. Rules and regulations were established and they read as follows:

New subscribers shall furnish their own phone, wire, insulators, poles, etc., and do all work on their line. New subscribers shall be charged three dollars a year rent for use of the company's line.

A rebate shall be allowed from rent to cover actual cost of wire and insulators, after the company has paid for the wire and insulators by rebate system, the line shall become the property of the company.

From this beginning, the new company developed its communications system and on March 5, 1907, The Nova Telephone Company became incorporated under the laws of The State of Ohio. Thirty residents bought a share of stock and A.R. Richards was elected President and in 1909 William Thudium became the President.

During this time, whenever a new switchboard operator was hired, the switchboard was put on a horse-drawn wagon and moved to the home of the new operator. The company eventually purchased a house, installed the switchboard, and allowed the operator to live in the house.

Subscribers continued to own their own telephone lines until the 1950's when the company gradually began acquiring the lines in preparation for a cut-over to dial equipment. A merger with the Sullivan Telephone Company in 1956 continued the growth and in 1957 all lines were taken over by the company and magneto equipment was abandoned in favor of the dial facilities.

The next major construction project was begun in the early 1980's. Land was purchased, a new facility for housing the digital switching equipment was built and underground cable was put in throughout the area. The cut-over of this new system occurred in January, 1984. The business office continued to be in the company house in Nova until December, 1991 when the staff moved into its current office, an addition built onto the switch building located one mile east of town.

The Nova Telephone Company in recent years installed a "softswitch", offered DSL, and now continues to make even more improvements to the system and strives to provide reliable telephone service to customers subscribing to nearly 1400 access lines.