The history of telephones in Brainerd goes back nearly 90 years but the first 25 were not very productive.

The first franchise was granted by the city council in 1882 to Lyle, Mohler and Carver. It was supposed to be a 10-year agreement, but apparently the three man effort was not successful.

During the next year, 1883, a franchise for nine years was granted to the Brainerd Telephone and Telegraph Company and the previous franchise was repealed.

There had been some telephone service in Brainerd even before 1882 but those efforts had been short-lived. A Dr. Cheney had an exchange over his drug store for a short time but after he sold the exchange to a Dr. Paquin, the business apparently ended.

The first successful telephone exchange was started by C. N. Parker in 1895, when he was granted a franchise. He sold to Charles A. Walker, his manager, in 1900 and Walker sold to Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. in 1906, thus beginning a modern era.

Northwestern Bell, however, has been in Brainerd since 1898 when the company was granted the right to place poles on streets for long-distance service through Parker's exchange.

A new development entered the telephone industry here in 1915 when a second franchise, this one with a dial service, was granted by the city to the Minnesota Telephone Co. The franchise was assigned to Minnesota Tri-State Telephone Company in 1916 and sold to North-western Bell in 1918.

Since then, telephone service in Brainerd has been the sole responsibility of that company.

Rural telephone service in this area got its start in 1902 when the city granted a franchise to the Mule Lacs Telephone Company to maintain telephone communication between Brainerd and the southeastern part of the county.

Western Union Telegraph Company was granted permission here in 1896 to erect poles within the city.