June 1897 marked a momentous time in the history of Lower Peach Tree

The old Mobile Cotton Exchange building in 1906.

June 1897 marked a momentous time in the history of Lower Peach Tree.

The June 23 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era that year carried the momentous news that Lower Peach Tree was “now connected with the outside world. The Lower Peach Tree and Pine Hill Telephone line was opened for business yesterday (June 17).”

The board of directors for this telephone and telegraph exchange included K.A. Mayer, President; R.O. Hicks, Treasurer; S.P. Stabler, Secretary; L.D. Bryant, E.A. Culpepper, Dr. E.D. King and M.I. Stabler, board members.

The first telegraph message received over this new line read as follows: Mobile, Ala., June 17^th, 1897. To K.A. Mayer, Lower Peach Tree: The Mobile Cotton Exchange hails telegraphic connection with Lower Peach Tree, linked to Mobile by commercial ties for many years. (Signed) B. Kahn, President.”

This was big news at the time in that it came 21 years after Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for a method of transmitting speech by telegraphy, what would later be known as the telephone. Prior to this invention’s arrival at Lower Peach Tree, the fastest way to communicate between that part of Wilcox County and Mobile would have been by mail or messenger. The arrival of the telephone at Lower Peach Tree would have had a significant impact, especially when it came to business.

Lower Peach Tree was a major point of cotton production in the 1800s and a direct link between that location and the Mobile Cotton Exchange would have been profitable. Sources say that the Mobile Cotton Exchange was in operation between 1871 and 1942, and it was the third oldest cotton exchange in the country behind those in New Orleans and New York. The primary mission of the Mobile Cotton Exchange was to maintain control over cotton sales, storage and shipping out of Mobile Bay for the benefit of cotton brokers and merchants like those in Wilcox County.

The board of directors of the new telephone exchange in Wilcox County included some of the most prominent men in Wilcox County at the time. K.A. Mayer was a prominent businessman and was widely known in Masonic circles. In fact, K.A. Mayer Lodge No. 703 still bears his name today in downtown Pine Hill.

Dr. E.D. King was also a member of one of the most prominent families in the Black Belt Region. He was the grandson of War of 1812 general, Edwin Davis King, who was also a first cousin to Vice President William Rufus King. His grandfather was also one of the founders of Howard College, which we now know as Samford University, in Birmingham.

The president of the Mobile Cotton Exchange in 1897 was Bernard Kahn, who was the brother of Moses Kahn. Bernard and Moses were born in Bavaria, and Moses came to the United States in 1846. He lived in Camden for a number of years before eventually moving to Mobile, where his brother ended up being president of the cotton exchange.

In the end, it would be interesting to know what these men would think of today’s modern communications system. No doubt they would be amazed by the internet and cellular phones, which make their early telephone and telegraph systems seem almost prehistoric. With that in mind, one can only wonder what people 125 years from now will think about our technology today.