Elston Tele 1908 – 1913 Original Oak Board Unused - used to Mount Telegraph Key

Description

Elston Tele Mfg Co 1908 – 1913 Original Oak Board Unused - Can be used to Mount Telegraph Key or Re-purpose and Use for Crafts - They are
3 1/8" x 6 1/8".
These are stock photos, the one(s) you receive may not be exactly like this one but they are pretty much all the same.  They are being sold one at a time.
It seems that these were brought to me from out of the basement of Elston Telephone Manufacturing Company, Muscoda, WI in around 1979. Like scores of small operators, telephones were in sheds and basements and a descendant of Henry's told me that he made them in his basement. Other makers farmed the wood out to a local cabinet shop. Small cities hosted many small “campuses” who farmed things out and assembled the parts “in house”. Stores were like this also; foundries were everywhere; likewise with wood working shops. So it wasn't too difficult to buy the parts from neutral suppliers and local cabinet shops. Henry may have had wood working machinery. I have only imagination. There's some information about him and “The Elston Telephone Manufacturing Co” (as said on his nameplates) in the Telephone History Scrapbook, more information can be found also in Tom Iverson's “Telephones of Wisconsin”. Like most telephone manufactures, their hay-day was from the late 1890s until around 1917. One of Elston's special specialties was a certain type of lightening arrestor. He mounted it onto these boards. After around 1913, routed edge designs became simpler, such as a single s-shaped design. This board has more complicated routed edge like prior to 1914. The type of oak is typical of early 1900s and the gloss varnish is as seen on early 1900s wood. Boards like this were made for many purposes, mostly for mounting things upon. I've used them for covering holes in old furniture items.
Elston Telephone Mfg Co began making telephones in 1893. Henry's dad: Asaph Clayton Vanderwater Heny Elston had moved from N.Y. To Muscoda WI just as my great great grandparents did in the early 1850s to Arlington WI.   Asa's son Henry B. 1874 was in business in the middle 1890s, making phones in Muscoda, Spring Green and Middleton WI. Henry's grandson told me of this on April 28, 2021. Henry was into a lot of things; made boats and airplanes. He pulled a glider behind a car, had 5 farms, did electric plants and ran the Plattesville, WI Phone Company in the 1940s. Henry Jr.'s grandson had the privileged of working with this grandpa while growing up in Muscoda and became an M.D., retiring in the earlier 2000s. In the 1980s or 1990s he brought to me a few items that came from ACVH's Mfg operations including 3” x 6” varnished old oak boards that had at one time gadgets mounted on them. Ten were wrapped in paper string tied shut. Although the paper is very aged, and string was the method prior to the 1950s, the guess was that they were made prior to the mid 1940s. The varnish is like I had seen on old wood as a youngster in the 1940s. The edges are routed typically to the earlier decades of the 1900s. To date these accurately is not likely; but believing that Henry gave up manufacturing during the 1920s helps the imagination date of mid 1920s to 1939. I likely had a small number of unmarked Elstons. One was with a nameplate and Dr. Elston bought it. It still hangs in his house 4-28-21. It is one of not likely more than two that I had and sold. They were not unique; and not like the Vote Bergers who had oval shaped characteristics. The parts were the same as Julies Andres and Faar's. Who made these parts: J.A. or Faar?
Many questions go unanswered. In the winter of 1973 – 74, Paul McFadden and family stopped by and sold us a load of about 17 hit-miss variety of old oak phones. There were about 10 old J.A. 2-boxers. Every one had differences; no two were identical. This was a confusing experience. I had heard that Henry, and a fellow from Rio WI had put these phones together in the basement of their homes, and had the nameplates made which claimed them to be manufactures. Dr. Elston said his grandpa's home was on the Wisconsin River, a wonderful spot for picturesque life experiences.
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