Here, from the Hobart Gazette of March 9, 1900, is a "list of the telephones in use at the Hobart Exchange." I'm not sure what that means, but since some of these are, for example, someone's residence, perhaps it's all the private telephones in town. Oh, and look: you can call such distant, exotic places as Ainsworth and Deep River for an additional charge.
(Click on image to enlarge.) (Sorry about the image quality, but that's how the Lake County Public Library microfilm printers print.)
Here's the sort of telephone you might have been calling on in 1900:
(From Northwest History Express.)
Twenty-nine years later, about half of all American households had telephones. That didn't necessarily mean their own line. In the Hobart News of June 27, 1929, Northwestern Indiana Telephone Company felt it wise to publish these rules for rural telephone subscribers, which probably included the population of Ainsworth and the farms surrounding it.
(Click on image to enlarge)
They forgot to say, "Don't listen in on other people's conversations!" That unspoken rule was sometimes violated, I am told.
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