Hervey Richardson Interview, 1977
Hervey Richardson · Digital Well (University of Minnesota Morris) · 1977
Hervey Richardson was born in 1901, went to Macalester College, and a retailing school in New York City. He started farming in 1924. He sold his farm in 1963 and moved to Morris. In 1965 he became the city assessor. He was also involved in DFL politics starting in the 1930s. He was an active member in many cooperatives in the Stevens County area. In this interview, Hervey Richardson discusses his role with the Federated Telephone Cooperative in Chokio. He talks about the phone and other general information such as switching and line repair. He discusses the reason the 24 mutual phone companies in the area combined to form Federated Telephone Cooperative. He talks about the early development of Federated and its dealings with the Bell system. He also talks about Federated's dealings with the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).