John Yellott Rust

The Handbook of Texas says the San Angelo Telephone Company was established in 1899 by John, Jerry and Lew Rust, and that the telegraph had come to the area earlier with Fort Concho. The company was sold to Southwestern Bell in 1946, which sold it to the General Telephone Company of the Southwest in 1953. By 1989 San Angelo was one of GTE's regional headquarters, with about 2,400 employees. The Handbook's Tom Green County entry lists the E. H. Danner Museum of Telephony among San Angelo's places of historical interest.

What the plaque says

President and general manager, for more than 50 years, of San Angelo Telephone Company (first office near this site). Born to a prominent family at Leesburg, Virginia, Rust was educated there and in Maryland. He went to work at 16 digging post holes for a telegraph company and at 17 became construction foreman on a telegraph line from New York City to Buffalo. At the age of 19 he moved to Hamilton, Texas, and spent 12 years there as a farmer and rancher. In 1892, joined by two younger brothers, he moved his outfit to West Texas. On a cattle-buying trip in 1898, he first saw San Angelo and recognized its potential for growth. Soon he bought the local hand-operated telephone business and began running toll lines to nearby towns. In the early days he and his brothers dug the holes, placed the poles, and strung the telephone wire. On occasion, they even handled the downtown switchboard. Under Rust's leadership the company extended 100 toll lines to 10 counties, serving 19 exchanges in this area. When he retired in 1948 it was the second largest Independent telephone firm in Texas. A civic leader, Rust served the city as alderman after it incorporated in 1904. He died in San Angelo on October 7, 1952. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — steps away
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 0.4 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 0.6 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.
• Concho River Walk — 0.6 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.

More markers nearby

• Tom Green, Confederate General — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of San Angelo — steps away
• Original Tom Green County — steps away
• Charles B. Metcalfe — steps away