Telephone

Telephone is at the intersection of Farm roads 273 and 2029, twelve miles northeast of Bonham in northeastern Fannin County. While settlers had moved into the vicinity as early as the 1870s, the community was not established until around 1886. It was named for the fact that the only telephone in the area was in the local general store owned by Pete Hindman. Apparently postal authorities had repeatedly refused Hindman's applications for a post office in his store because the names he submitted for it were already being used by other Texas post offices. The merchant finally submitted the name Telephone. The name was accepted, and the post office was opened in 1886. By 1890 the community population had reached thirty, and it reached 100 on the eve of World War I