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CONTACT:
Dean Dixon
Historical Resources Assistant
(941) 749-1800 ext. 4070
June 2002 Article
Introduction: The Manatee
County Historical Records Library is a wealth of information
about our local past. Documents from as early as the 1850's
describe the life and times of Manatee County residents
and weave many an interesting tale. Each month, we will
post a new story for you based on documents in our library.
We invite all of you to come to the library, located
at 1405 4th Avenue West, to see these documents for
yourself and to touch, feel and experience our heritage.
How One Boy Connected Bradenton to the
Outside World
Click here to
read Jack Leffingwell's Article of Incorporation
Imagine it is the first day of middle school. The teacher
asks a fourteen year-old boy, "What did you do this
summer?" The boy stands up and replies, "I set
up my own company and made myself president. I ran 40 miles
of telegraph cable from Manatee to Tampa. My life was threatened
by a huge national company and finally, I made a way for
my hometown to communicate with the outside world."
As unreal as that sounds, in 1897, fourteen year-old Jack
Leffingwell spent his summer doing exactly that.
In 1897, Jack's father, J.B. Leffingwell, had taken some
surplus copper wire from the Civil War he had inherited
from his father and created the first telephone system in
Bradenton. At first it was just a line from his drugstore
to his home, but before long it had turned into the Gulf
Coast Telephone Company with fifty customers. But it was
just a countywide service and the only way to communicate
with the world outside the county was still by letter. Some
in the Gulf Coast Telephone Company thought that it was
possible to connect to the phone lines in Tampa to provide
long distance service to Bradenton and they encouraged young
Jack Leffingwell to undertake the task.
Fourteen year-old Jack had been given $800 by an uncle to
start an orchard. He instead decided to use the money to
connect Bradenton's telephones to Tampa. Jack's plan was
to get a small crew and string wire from Bradenton to Tampa
and install a long distance phone at Tibbetts Brothers Restaurant
on Franklin and Lafayette Streets in Tampa.
Jack chose Alec Richardson as his side-kick to help run
the line. Alec Richardson was a laid off worker from the
railroad who found work in the employ of J.B. Leffingwell,
doing numerous and varied jobs. When the new phone system
was built, he proved himself an able lineman and became
the first African-American man to work in the phone industry
in this area of Florida. Jack and Alec began stringing line
through forty miles of Florida countryside along Western
Union telegraph poles.
After working hard all summer and getting the lines installed,
Jack and Ollie Stuart, one of the investors in the expanding
phone company, took the steamer "Manatee" to Tampa
to install the long distance telephone in the Tibbetts Brothers
restaurant. But, it wasn't going to be as simple as that.
They were met at the dock by the Hillsborough County Sheriff,
who informed them that they would not be allowed install
the phone. Jack was told that Southern Bell Telephone company
would sooner see them hung than to allow them to hang their
phone in Tampa. Young Jack was devastated. By his account,
he cried "copious tears." His $800 was gone and
he had put in all that work for nothing. But his fortunes
were not as bleak as he thought. They went to the Western
Union Office to tell them about the problem. One of the
Western Union employees had an idea. He wired the home office
in Atlanta to ask them to recognize the new line as a telegraph
line. Permission was granted and Jack left Tampa with all
the equipment he needed to start a brand new telegraph company.
Jack and Alec set up the new equipment and sent and received
the first signals from Tampa. The only hitch was that no
one knew the telegraphers code so they still could not communicate
but that was a temporary problem. Jack became president
of his new company, the Gulf Coast Telegraph Company, and
Western Union sent a telegraph operator to Bradenton to
operate the new station. Through the wonders of modern technology
Bradenton was, for the first time, connected to the outside
world, just in time for young Jack to get back to school.
As this area grew, many people chose to incorporate when
they started their businesses, like young Jack Leffingwell.
The Historical Records Library houses the records of incorporation,
which provide a wonderful story of how Bradenton has grown
over the years.
By Dean Dixon, Historical Resources Assistant, Manatee County
Clerk of Circuit Courts.
Resources: "The People Machine" by Dennis
Cooper
"The Singing River" by Joe Warner
Bradenton Herald article by Jack Leffingwell, November 9,
1947.
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