Like many another country doctor, Dr. Leander C. Bryan of Rutledge, Tenn. (pop. 518) had fumed & fussed for years over poor telephone service. Things came to a head in 1936 when the dilapidated telephone system was threatened with a complete shutdown. Nobody else wanted to buy the decrepit concern, with only 36 subscribers, so Dr. Bryan took it over himself for $600 in order to keep in touch with his widely scattered patients.
Many of the company's poles had rotted and fallen; much of its wire had corroded and snapped. Dr. Bryan hired a young lineman to put in new poles...
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