In 1931 Mrs. F. H. Briggs, agent and chief operator, who was to retire in 1946 with thirty years' service, led agency offices in sales for the year with $2490. William Hitchcock, who retired in 1938, was a veteran of thirty-four years' local service. Another veteran telephone operator was Edith Fleming Blackmer, who had been in the office forty years at the time of her death in 1960.

In 1932 Dorset received its own exchange, which made business easier for the Manchester office, but it was not until February 1953 that area service was extended to include Manchester and Dorset. This eliminated toll calls between the two towns. Within a month, calls were up seventy per cent.

Electricity plays such an important part in community life today that it is difficult to envision a time when current was not available for daily use. Yet one has to go back only some sixty years.

The first mention of an electric plant in Manchester seems to be one installed in Reuben Colvin's and Houghton's gristmill on the West Branch in Factory Point. No records are available as to the date or extent of installation, but it may have been in 1896.

On June 14, 1900 the Manchester Journal reported that an electrical engineer was installing an electric light plant for Edward S. Isham at ``Ormsby Hill.'' This was working by the end of August and giving satisfactory service.

In November 1900 surveying was done under John Marsden on the east mountains to ascertain if it would be possible to get sufficient water and fall to operate an electric power plant. Nothing came of it, perhaps due to lack of opportunity for water storage.