Sometime after 1867, when telegraphic services had first become available in Central Otago, a telegraph line had been connected between Teviot station, a sheep station, and the telegraph office at Roxburgh. This was a great success. However, during 1876-77, there was a nationwide demand for qualified men to operate telegraph lines. As it became harder to staff the service, it became impossible to keep the telegraphic line between the Teviot station and the Roxburgh Post Office working[1]. This is when Thomas Coop's thoughts turned to telephony.
The telephone line was most likely put in place by Thomas Coop during 1877 with the connection becoming operational in late 1877/early 1878. The date 1877 was mentioned by the Postmaster-General of New Zealand while in Roxburgh opening the new Post Office in 1914, as reported in the Mt Benger Mail of 8 April 1914[5].
There are at least two stories about where Thomas obtained the set of telephones he used to connect Teviot station and the Roxburgh Post Office:
One version is that J.K. Logan (who had previously taught Thomas everything he knew about telegraphy) obtained two telephones from Charles Henry of Dunedin, one of the most successful of the early experimental phone manufacturers in New Zealand. According to this story, Logan took the phones to Roxburgh and suggested to Thomas that telephony was the answer to his problems. Thomas then connected the phones, one at Teviot station and one at Roxburgh Post Office using the existing telegraph line[7]. However, evidence suggests that Charles Henry first built a pair of telephones in late January 1878 from a drawing he found in a Scientific American magazine[8]. This was after, or at about the same time that, Thomas' line became operational. If Thomas worked on the installation of the telephone line during 1877 and operationalised it in late 1877/early 1878, as suggested elsewhere, he must have had access to the telephones before January 1878.
The more likely version of events, and the one past down in the family as oral history, is that, while overseas in 1876, John Cargill co-owner of Teviot station, met Alexander Graham Bell. Hearing of the isolation of Teviot Station, Bell gave Cargill two telephones which Cargill brought home to Teviot station with him. After Cargill discussed this with Thomas Coop, Thomas lay the line between the Post Office and Teviot station homestead. This was sometime during 1877. While some accounts say that Cargill and Bell met in Britain[9], or more precisely, London, where Bell was demonstrating his newly-invented telephone to Queen Victoria[10], other accounts, including that of Thomas Coop's daughters, Sarah and Annie (see below), say that Cargill met Bell in the United States of America while on his way home to New Zealand from Britain.
Thomas’ daughter, Sarah Jane [Coop] Sheehy (1874 - 1959) was interviewed by Kevin Cree for an article in 1957 for The Weekly News (Auckland)[11]. She told him how Thomas ran a wire along the telegraph poles from Roxburgh towards Dunedin to a point on the riverbank opposite the Teviot homestead. A line of poles was then erected across the river and across the flat to the homestead enabling a connection between Roxburgh Post Office and Teviot Station six miles away. Sarah would have been about 4 years old at the time so this aspect of the story she presumably recalls from what her father had told her.
Sarah also told Kevin Cree how her father was the first to speak to Teviot Station by telephone, followed by her Mother and herself:
'When all was connected up Coop and his family were in Roxburgh and a girl named Jessie at the other end of the wire at Teviot. There was a big crowd in the Roxburgh office for this was a momentous occasion, but there would be a breathless hush as Coop took up the 'phone and spoke into the mouthpiece, which was also an earpiece. "Oh! is that you Jessie?" he asked and then transferred the piece to his ear for her reply. His wife spoke next and then he said to his young daughter, our Mrs Sheehy, "Here Sarah, you speak".
As Mrs Sheehy recalled this early experience she said: "I could hear quite plainly, just as good as this," tapped the hearing aid'.
A similar story is told by Thomas’ daughter Annie Coop (1877 - 1978) in response to an inquiry by a Mr Sell. Unfortunately, the letter is undated and unsigned. However, she refers to her sister, Sarah as 'Mrs Sheehy (now deceased)'. Sarah died in 1959. Annie died in 1978. So, the letter was written sometime between 1959 and 1978 and, most probably in the early 1960's because, on another page of the letter (not shown here), she refers to her sister's article in The Weekly News of 1957 as being '6 or more years ago'.
Annie was a baby at the time of these events so her account is very much based on what she heard from her father and on the recollections of her sister, Sarah. Annie's letter was given to me by my mother-in-law, Shirley Noeline [Coop] Chapman (1927 - 2018). It appears to be a draft of a letter to be sent rather than the final version of a letter actually sent. Much of the draft letter is about other aspects of Thomas' life. An extract (the first page) of Annie’s letter, in Annie’s handwriting, is below:
'Dear Mr Sell
I received a letter from my niece Mrs Pollock enclosing yours to her asking for details of the installation by my father of the first telephone to be used in New Zealand.
What I can tell you is only from memory of what he told me many years ago.
Mt Orchiston[?], if I remember rightly, was the telegraph engineer of that day & his reports would most likely contain more details than I am able to supply.
It appears that the owner of Teviot Station returningto from a visit to England via the United States met Mr Graham Bell the inventor, who presented him with two telephones. These he brought home with him and my father who was postmaster at Roxburgh installed one in the post office & the other as far as I know at Teviot Station. That was in the year 1878, and my sister Mrs Sheehy (now deceased) could recall remember being lifted up as a small child of 4 to speak into the receiver ... '.
Much earlier than her interview with Keith Cree in 1957, Sarah Jane [Coop] Sheehy had publicly stated the family position that it was her understanding that it was her father Thomas' telephone installation between Roxburgh and Teviot Station, using phones acquired by John Cargill, that enabled the first practical use of the telephone in New Zealand. This was in the form of a letter to the Editor of the Otago Daily Times on 29 April 1927 (published on 2 May 1927). This letter was in response to 'S.N.M' who had replied to an earlier letter that she had had published.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find either Sarah's earlier letter (in which it seems she may have been responding to an even earlier letter by 'S.N.M' and inquiring whether others knew whether there had been an earlier telephone installation for commercial purposes than the Roxburgh-Teviot line installed by her father, Thomas) or the letter(s) sent by 'S.N.M' (which appears to have indicated that the first telephone installed for practical purposes was installed in Dunedin and that a Mr Muir was the first to install a telephone, although not necessarily for commercial purposes).
Sarah's letter to the Editor in response to 'S.N.M', dated 29 April 1927 (published 2 May 1927)[12] is below. Note that Sarah's dates are likely a year out '1878 or early 1879'. Evidence points to 1877 or early 1878]:
'THE FIRST TELEPHONE IN NEW ZEALAND
I am sorry that "S.N.M" has adopted the tone he has done in replying to my letter, I was asking for information only, and the remarks made by him with reference to Mr J.K. Logan, seem to me to be uncalled for. Mr Logan was a gentleman in every sense of the word. Whether Mr Muir was a donkey or only a mere man is beside the question. Would it not have been better if "S.N.M' had omitted the camouflage and stated when Mr Muir's telephone was installed, even though it was not used for commercial purposes ...
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| Image of early telephone (a later model than that installed by Thomas Coop). Photo: ©Al Thomas (parch-mint.com) CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 |
Thomas Coop (1838 - 1924) had been appointed Postmaster at Roxburgh in the September of 1873. You can read more about Thomas' life in Roxburgh here.
Teviot station, then owned by John Cargill[2] and his son-in-law E. R. Anderson, was situated about 6 miles/10km from the Roxburgh Post Office[3][4]. While there has been some debate over the years, the evidence suggests that the telephone line installed by Thomas Coop between Teviot station and Roxburgh Post Office was the first real operational telephone line in New Zealand. That is, the first telephone line in New Zealand set up with the practical purpose of enabling commercial activity and ensuring ongoing communication.
According to the article, the Postmaster-General had recently been talking with Thomas Coop in Wellington so it is likely the date 1877 came from Thomas himself:
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Extract from the article: 'Postmaster-General at Roxburgh Officially opened A Successful Function' Mt Benger Mail, 8 April 1914, Page 3 via PapersPast |
'Just before leaving Wellington Mr Coop had asked him [the Postmaster-General] to remember him to his old friends in Roxburgh.--(Applause.) Mr Coop had told him that Mr J.K. Logan who was their Inspector of Telegraphs in Otago, and later Chief Telegraph Engineer for the dominion, had shown him an interesting relic in the shape of a rough sort of telephone which Mr Coop believed was the very one used to connect with Teviot, and was first used for commercial purpose in the dominion. That was in 1877'.
The existence of the line was reported in the Tuapeka Times on 23 February 1878[6]:
'Messrs Cargill and Anderson have a telephone connecting their lower station with the Roxburgh telegraph office'.
There are at least two stories about where Thomas obtained the set of telephones he used to connect Teviot station and the Roxburgh Post Office:
One version is that J.K. Logan (who had previously taught Thomas everything he knew about telegraphy) obtained two telephones from Charles Henry of Dunedin, one of the most successful of the early experimental phone manufacturers in New Zealand. According to this story, Logan took the phones to Roxburgh and suggested to Thomas that telephony was the answer to his problems. Thomas then connected the phones, one at Teviot station and one at Roxburgh Post Office using the existing telegraph line[7]. However, evidence suggests that Charles Henry first built a pair of telephones in late January 1878 from a drawing he found in a Scientific American magazine[8]. This was after, or at about the same time that, Thomas' line became operational. If Thomas worked on the installation of the telephone line during 1877 and operationalised it in late 1877/early 1878, as suggested elsewhere, he must have had access to the telephones before January 1878.
The more likely version of events, and the one past down in the family as oral history, is that, while overseas in 1876, John Cargill co-owner of Teviot station, met Alexander Graham Bell. Hearing of the isolation of Teviot Station, Bell gave Cargill two telephones which Cargill brought home to Teviot station with him. After Cargill discussed this with Thomas Coop, Thomas lay the line between the Post Office and Teviot station homestead. This was sometime during 1877. While some accounts say that Cargill and Bell met in Britain[9], or more precisely, London, where Bell was demonstrating his newly-invented telephone to Queen Victoria[10], other accounts, including that of Thomas Coop's daughters, Sarah and Annie (see below), say that Cargill met Bell in the United States of America while on his way home to New Zealand from Britain.
Thomas’ daughter, Sarah Jane [Coop] Sheehy (1874 - 1959) was interviewed by Kevin Cree for an article in 1957 for The Weekly News (Auckland)[11]. She told him how Thomas ran a wire along the telegraph poles from Roxburgh towards Dunedin to a point on the riverbank opposite the Teviot homestead. A line of poles was then erected across the river and across the flat to the homestead enabling a connection between Roxburgh Post Office and Teviot Station six miles away. Sarah would have been about 4 years old at the time so this aspect of the story she presumably recalls from what her father had told her.
Sarah also told Kevin Cree how her father was the first to speak to Teviot Station by telephone, followed by her Mother and herself:
 |
| Extract from Keith Cree's article 'Her father Swan to New Zealand' The Weekly News May 1957 Copy held by Author |
'When all was connected up Coop and his family were in Roxburgh and a girl named Jessie at the other end of the wire at Teviot. There was a big crowd in the Roxburgh office for this was a momentous occasion, but there would be a breathless hush as Coop took up the 'phone and spoke into the mouthpiece, which was also an earpiece. "Oh! is that you Jessie?" he asked and then transferred the piece to his ear for her reply. His wife spoke next and then he said to his young daughter, our Mrs Sheehy, "Here Sarah, you speak".
As Mrs Sheehy recalled this early experience she said: "I could hear quite plainly, just as good as this," tapped the hearing aid'.
A similar story is told by Thomas’ daughter Annie Coop (1877 - 1978) in response to an inquiry by a Mr Sell. Unfortunately, the letter is undated and unsigned. However, she refers to her sister, Sarah as 'Mrs Sheehy (now deceased)'. Sarah died in 1959. Annie died in 1978. So, the letter was written sometime between 1959 and 1978 and, most probably in the early 1960's because, on another page of the letter (not shown here), she refers to her sister's article in The Weekly News of 1957 as being '6 or more years ago'.
Annie was a baby at the time of these events so her account is very much based on what she heard from her father and on the recollections of her sister, Sarah. Annie's letter was given to me by my mother-in-law, Shirley Noeline [Coop] Chapman (1927 - 2018). It appears to be a draft of a letter to be sent rather than the final version of a letter actually sent. Much of the draft letter is about other aspects of Thomas' life. An extract (the first page) of Annie’s letter, in Annie’s handwriting, is below:
'Dear Mr Sell
I received a letter from my niece Mrs Pollock enclosing yours to her asking for details of the installation by my father of the first telephone to be used in New Zealand.
What I can tell you is only from memory of what he told me many years ago.
Mt Orchiston[?], if I remember rightly, was the telegraph engineer of that day & his reports would most likely contain more details than I am able to supply.
It appears that the owner of Teviot Station returning
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find either Sarah's earlier letter (in which it seems she may have been responding to an even earlier letter by 'S.N.M' and inquiring whether others knew whether there had been an earlier telephone installation for commercial purposes than the Roxburgh-Teviot line installed by her father, Thomas) or the letter(s) sent by 'S.N.M' (which appears to have indicated that the first telephone installed for practical purposes was installed in Dunedin and that a Mr Muir was the first to install a telephone, although not necessarily for commercial purposes).
Sarah's letter to the Editor in response to 'S.N.M', dated 29 April 1927 (published 2 May 1927)[12] is below. Note that Sarah's dates are likely a year out '1878 or early 1879'. Evidence points to 1877 or early 1878]:
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| Sarah's letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times 2 May 1927 (Extract 1) |
TO THE EDITOR
SIR,-I have read with interest what "S.N.M" has to say in reply to my letter in your issue of April 20, but I cannot see that he has thrown any further light on the subject or made good the claim that the first telephone used in New Zealand for practical purposes was installed in Dunedin. I gave as nearly as possible the time that a telephone was installed and used for commercial purposes at Teviot station. This telephone was connected with the Telegraph Office at Roxburgh, the distance between the two stations being approximately seven miles. The vital point was that a telephone was installed at Teviot station by my father, Mr Thomas Coop, either late in the year 1878 or early in 1879, and I had always understood that this was the first telephone not only in New Zealand, but in the world, that had been put to practical use , and I asked any reader who knew of one having been in use at an earlier date to be so kind as to give the date or year of its installation ...
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| Sarah's letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times 2 May 1927 (Extract 2) |
I am sorry that "S.N.M" has adopted the tone he has done in replying to my letter, I was asking for information only, and the remarks made by him with reference to Mr J.K. Logan, seem to me to be uncalled for. Mr Logan was a gentleman in every sense of the word. Whether Mr Muir was a donkey or only a mere man is beside the question. Would it not have been better if "S.N.M' had omitted the camouflage and stated when Mr Muir's telephone was installed, even though it was not used for commercial purposes ...
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| Sarah's letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times 2 May 1927 (Extract 3) |
Apparently "S.N.M" missed the gist of my argument, when I tried to show that a gentleman like Mr Cargill was a very likely man to grasp the opportunity of obtaining a telephone as he recognised the vast possibilities there were in the invention. My statement that the Teviot homestead was up-to-date, etc., was for the purpose of demonstrating that "S.N.M" was in error in stating that it was not likely that the first telephone would be installed in what he termed the backblocks.
I am pleased to find "S.N.M" quoting the vast holdings of Northern Australia to refute my claim that Teviot woolsheds were considred the largest in the Australasian colonies at the time of which I was writing. While I have never visited that part of the world, let me inform "S.N.M" that an uncle of mine, Henry Coop, owned a vast tract of that country (400 miles), ...
I am pleased to find "S.N.M" quoting the vast holdings of Northern Australia to refute my claim that Teviot woolsheds were considred the largest in the Australasian colonies at the time of which I was writing. While I have never visited that part of the world, let me inform "S.N.M" that an uncle of mine, Henry Coop, owned a vast tract of that country (400 miles), ...
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| Sarah's letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times 2 May 1927 (Extract 4) |
bought from Sir W. J. Clarke and when this uncle was on a visit to our home at Roxburgh, as a man with considerable experience in this line, he considered the Teviot woolsheds to be the largest in the colonies, I would qualify this claim by saying I alluded to one-storey buildings only. The stone walls of these sheds are still standing. It may also be interesting to know that the arched roof of these sheds was originally built for some large railway station in Melbourne, but owing to some faulty work either in design or otherwise the roof was not accepted, and the contractors sold it to Mr Cargill, who shipped it to New Zealand and carted it on to Teviot station. When erected it had holding capacity under one roof for 7000 sheep ...
"S.N.M" surprises me in asking for names of some gentlemen connected with the telegraph service so that he might gauge this qualification to say whether the Teviot station telephone was the first erected and used for commercial purposes or not. I do not see why Mr Muir should be considered specially capable of gauging this qualification any more than why "S.N.M" said that Teviot station was in the backblocks and that therefore there was good and sufficient reason for holding that the first telephone was not installed there.
As stated in my previous letter, I am a daughter of the late Thomas Coop, who erected the telephone at Teviot station. - I am, etc., S.J. SHEEHY Miller's Flat, April 29'
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| Sarah's letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times 2 May 1927 (Extract 5) |
"S.N.M" surprises me in asking for names of some gentlemen connected with the telegraph service so that he might gauge this qualification to say whether the Teviot station telephone was the first erected and used for commercial purposes or not. I do not see why Mr Muir should be considered specially capable of gauging this qualification any more than why "S.N.M" said that Teviot station was in the backblocks and that therefore there was good and sufficient reason for holding that the first telephone was not installed there.
As stated in my previous letter, I am a daughter of the late Thomas Coop, who erected the telephone at Teviot station. - I am, etc., S.J. SHEEHY Miller's Flat, April 29'
So, can Thomas Coop be credited with establishing the first telephone connection in New Zealand for the practical purpose of enabling commercial activity and ensuring ongoing communication? The evidence would suggest that he can and that he was able to do so, probably sometime in late 1877/early 1878, using a set of telephones provided to him by John Cargill who, while travelling overseas, had been given them by Alexander Graham Bell.
N.B. I have now moved by blogging efforts from this platform to We Are.xyz so that I can integrate building my family history archive with blogging. This post, or a similar version of it, can be found at: First Telephone Connection in New Zealand
In addition, a version of this article has been published in The New Zealand Genealogist - Vol 54 No 397, June 2023 pp. 61-63
Notes
[1] Nigel Fitzgerald 'Teviot Post Office Name was Quietly Dropped' Otago Daily Times 12 December 1874 Copy held by Author.[2] John Cargill was born in 1821. He sailed with his family to Otago, New Zealand in 1847/1848 on the ship John Wickliffe. In New Zealand, he operated various sheep stations in Otago. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1853-1858 and 1866-1870. He later moved to British Columbia in Canada. He died there on 2 January 1898 and is buried in the Armstrong Pioneer Cemetery just north of Vernon, British Columbia - Article 'John Cargill (Politician)' Wikipedia [Website] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cargill_%28politician%29
[3] Author Unknown 'Ringing success Centenary of the telephone' Bay of Plenty Times? March 1976 Clipping held by Author.
[4] Article 'Post-Master General at Roxburgh Post Office Officially Opened. A Successful Function' Mt Benger Mail, 8 April 1914, Page 3 via PapersPast [Website]. Accessed 22 April 2022: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MTBM19140408.2.8
[5] Article 'Post-Master General at Roxburgh Post Office Officially Opened ... See Endnote 3.
[6] 'Local Intelligence' Tuapeka Times,Volume XI, Issue 750, 23 February 1878, Page 2 via PapersPast [Website]: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TT18780223.2.6
[7] Nigel Fitzgerald 'Teviot Post Office Name was Quietly Dropped' Otago Daily Times 12 December 1974. Copy held by Author.
[8] Author Unknown 'Ringing success Centenary of the telephone' Bay of Plenty Times? March 1976 Clipping held by Author.
[9] Don Donovan 'Teviot Station: Peek into Otago history through great stone walls' NZ Herald [Website]. Accessed 22 April 2022: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/teviot-station-peek-into-otago-history-through-great-stone-walls/MCPKPUAAKSVTL2XTHCVQ46FVMM/
[10] Author 'Unknown Old Stones, First Phones (Central Otago)' via Geocaching [Website]. Accessed 22 April 2022: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2V913_old-stones-first-phones-central-otago?guid=fc4f2fd3-7fbf-4127-b3d0-8c9972ce023d
[11] Keith Cree 'Her father Swam to New Zealand' Article in The Weekly News (Auckland) May 1957 Copy held by Author.
[12] Sarah Sheehy - Letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times, Issue 20087, 2 May 1927, Page 3 Accessed 5 December 2022 via PapersPast [Website]:
[3] Author Unknown 'Ringing success Centenary of the telephone' Bay of Plenty Times? March 1976 Clipping held by Author.
[4] Article 'Post-Master General at Roxburgh Post Office Officially Opened. A Successful Function' Mt Benger Mail, 8 April 1914, Page 3 via PapersPast [Website]. Accessed 22 April 2022: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MTBM19140408.2.8
[5] Article 'Post-Master General at Roxburgh Post Office Officially Opened ... See Endnote 3.
[6] 'Local Intelligence' Tuapeka Times,Volume XI, Issue 750, 23 February 1878, Page 2 via PapersPast [Website]: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TT18780223.2.6
[7] Nigel Fitzgerald 'Teviot Post Office Name was Quietly Dropped' Otago Daily Times 12 December 1974. Copy held by Author.
[8] Author Unknown 'Ringing success Centenary of the telephone' Bay of Plenty Times? March 1976 Clipping held by Author.
[9] Don Donovan 'Teviot Station: Peek into Otago history through great stone walls' NZ Herald [Website]. Accessed 22 April 2022: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/teviot-station-peek-into-otago-history-through-great-stone-walls/MCPKPUAAKSVTL2XTHCVQ46FVMM/
[10] Author 'Unknown Old Stones, First Phones (Central Otago)' via Geocaching [Website]. Accessed 22 April 2022: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2V913_old-stones-first-phones-central-otago?guid=fc4f2fd3-7fbf-4127-b3d0-8c9972ce023d
[11] Keith Cree 'Her father Swam to New Zealand' Article in The Weekly News (Auckland) May 1957 Copy held by Author.
[12] Sarah Sheehy - Letter to the Editor Otago Daily Times, Issue 20087, 2 May 1927, Page 3 Accessed 5 December 2022 via PapersPast [Website]:
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