On This Day in Telephone History July 19TH 1883 The Erie Telegraph and Telephone Company established offices in Austin Texas. In the spring of 1883 eastern capitalists purchased Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone and changed the company’s name to the Erie Telegraph and Telephone Company. A little more than a month later there were 2,344 subscribers statewide: Galveston, the largest exchange, had 330 subscribers; San Antonio, 323; Dallas, 259; Fort Worth, 168; and Houston, 148.
