Westby Telephone Company

The Westby Telephone Company was organized in 1902 and sold to Vernon Telephone Cooperative December 1961 making the new enterprise the largest telephone cooperative in Wisconsin.

1936 Westby Phone Book

The Westby Telephone Company was organized with George Byer as its first manager and Mrs. Byer the first operator. The firm began operations serving about 50 telephones, but this figure climbed to nearly 1,200 at the time of its sale.  Gerald Rusdal became the manager in 1948, and continued with the new owners as commercial supervisor.

C.O. Veldey, president of Westby Telephone company was named to the board of directors of Vernon Telephone Cooperative along with Hjalmer Theige of rural Westby

Vernon Telephone Cooperative, formerly headquartered at Viroqua, returned to Westby, where it was originally housed, and occupied the lower floor of where it had been located upstairs as the Westby Telephone Company. It was organized in 1951, largely through the efforts of the late N.F. Leifer, former manager of the Vernon Electric Cooperative. Construction of the current building was started in the fall of 1962.