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PROUDLY RECOGNIZING AND HEARTILY CONGRATULATING THE POND BRANCH TELEPHONE COMPANY, NOW PBT TELECOM, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF ITS MODEST BEGINNINGS IN LEXINGTON COUNTY AND ITS ONE HUNDRED-YEAR HISTORY OF PERSONAL SERVICE TO ITS LOCAL CUSTOMERS, COMMUNITIES, AND EMPLOYEES.
Whereas, in 1903, James Luther Smith, a resident of the Pond Branch Community near Gilbert in Lexington County, installed a telephone in his house, his father's house, and his sister's house. When others in the community asked him to install telephones in their homes, Pond Branch Telephone Company, now called PBT Telecom, was born; and
Whereas, before electric power was available, the water wheel powered the growing telephone network, and by 1929, Pond Branch Telephone Company had about sixty subscribers in Gilbert, Pelion, and Swansea; and
Whereas, J. Luther Smith died in that year and his youngest son, Ernest and his new wife, "Miss Pearl", took over the operation of the telephone company. "Mr. Ernest" worked diligently to expand the system to nearby communities; and
Whereas, from the company's beginning until 1964, telephone calls were completed using manually operated switchboards that were located on the back porch of the Smiths' home. "Miss Pearl" operated the manual switchboards from 1903 to 1964 on a continual basis except during Sunday morning when they attended church; and
Whereas, the most dramatic changes in the company's early history occurred in the early '60s when Pond Branch Telephone Company evolved from being the last telephone company in the State with a manual telephone switching system to the first company with virtually all buried telephone plant. In addition, the company incorporated in 1961 and in 1962, the company received a REA Loan that enabled it to replace the switchboard with then state-of the-art telephone offices and rebuild the old pole line that had been built with open wire and juniper poles from the swamp; and
Whereas, in 1975, Pond Branch Telephone Company became the first company in the State to completely eliminate its party lines and move to one hundred percent private line service; and
Whereas, many milestones have occurred since then, with the introduction of Internet service to all customers in 1995 and the introduction of DSL to virtually all customers in 2003; and
Whereas, today, the PBT family of Companies, PBT Telecom, Inc. -- local service; PBT Communications, Inc. -- CLEC, long distance, DSL services; and PBT Cable Services, Inc. -- cable TV service, provide services to over twenty thousand customers in Aiken, Calhoun, Edgefield, Lexington, Orangeburg, and Saluda counties and over a six hundred fifty square mile service area. The economic impact of PBT on the local community is significant: property taxes paid to the six-county service area by PBT totals over six hundred thousand dollars annually; and
Whereas, each year the company gives scholarships to deserving students in each of the area's high schools to enable them to further their education. The majority of the nearly one hundred employees lives in the local area, and the company is owned by local people. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:
That the members of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina hereby proudly recognize and heartily congratulate the Pond Branch Telephone Company, now PBT Telecom, on the anniversary of its modest beginnings in Lexington County and its one hundred-year history of personal service to its local customers, communities, and employees.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to PBT Telecom.
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