In 1878, Highland Park (Illinois) resident Professor Elisha Gray invented the telephone in his garage-workshop on Hazel Avenue of that City.

Mr. Gray subsequently co-founded the Western Electric Company, and directly competed with Thomas Edison and Edison's various electric and telephonic companies.

Two years later, in 1878, an experiment was performed, to show the value of Mr. Gray's invention, by placing telephone calls on Mr. Gray's apparatus, between Western Union offices in Indianapolis, Indiana, and various locations in the area of Chicago, Illinois, including the house of one Mr. C. H. Summers (a Western Union electrician), at his home in Highwood, Illinois.

The experiment was to take place on Sunday, March 3, 1878, and although the weather turned rainy and windy threatening to destroy the experiments, it was decided to continue with them.

Needless to say, the telephone call placed between Indianapolis and Highwood was a success, bad weather and all, and voices and music could clearly be heard, over the astonishing distance of 220 miles!

The following Thursday, on March 7, 1878, The Indianapolis News reported on the successful trials:

And the rest, as they say, is "history."

On Wednesday, October 3, 1894 (eighteen and a half years later), The City Council of Highwood (still called The Village of Fort Sheridan) authorized the installation of telephonic wires and poles within the City Limits.

That ordinance can be read on this site, by clicking anywhere on this sentence.

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