This Week in Odessa History

Odessa was late in getting electricity, not having illumination other than gas lights until August 1910.

Telephone service had come earlier, in June 1903, even before the town was incorporated when service was offered to 25 subscribers.

Among those, only three were residential subscribers, although all four saloons in town had telephones.

Connections with the outside world remained spotty until a long-distance circuit was extended to Odessa in 1910. However, one still could not make a call when the central switchboard operator decided to call it a day.

In October 1911, the Pacific Telephone an...