The Telephone Comes to Saginaw and Marian Kasper’s Sausage Stuffing
Last week’s history of Saginaw’s AT&T building inspired us to search for the early history of telephone service in Saginaw.
We did not have to look far, a July 12, 1931, feature section in The Saginaw Sunday News, celebrating the completion of the new telephone building, included the following:
“Details of the origin and early history of telephone service in Saginaw are somewhat uncertain. A few newspaper clippings, and a copy of the city’s first telephone directory, bearing the date August 1, 1879 and stating that the Saginaw office was located in the ‘Bliss Block,’ are available, however.”
The article continues, describing an early telephone installed to connect the offices of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad only a year or two after the telephone was patented in 1876. The article continues:
“The first central office was opened July 17, 1879, in the Bliss block, later known as the Mason building, located at Washington and Genesee avenues [located on the southeast corner, this remains standing] Fifty subscribers had been secured and the lines from their telephones terminated on a crude and bulky switchboard along housetops and through trees. Reaching the Bliss block, the wires centered on a large frame attached to the roof from where they led down and into the building through a window.”
After recounting the mechanics of grounding the system, the article continues:
“Transmission, at its best, was far inferior to that enjoyed today by means of modern copper wire circuits, aided by equipment that ensures almost perfect voice transmission.
“But those were days of pioneering and telephony was destined to take many steps forward before it even approached the telephone service of today [remember is this 1931]. Old-timers who recall talking over the early telephone lines compare the noises heard in the receivers with the sound of grease simmering in a pan. Individual lines were unknown, and one served many telephones.
The first company that furnished service in Saginaw and Bay City was the Saginaw Valley Telephone company, and conducted its business as a sub-license company of the Telephone Company of Detroit, the ancestor of the present Michigan Telephone company.” (The Saginaw Sunday News, July 12, 1931.)
The article continues describing the company’s original licensing arrangement and notes that Saginaw’s first telephone directory, issued August 1, 1879, contained the names of 55 subscribers, and six months later, a new director, which had grown to 80 names, was issued. By 1881, the Saginaw Evening News included the following announcement:
“The EVENING NEWS office is connected with the Telephone Exchange, and patrons and friends are invited to make use of this convenience to furnish such news items as may be desired, or to communicate with the [job?] office in connection.” (Saginaw Evening News, May 2, 1881.)
By 1887, there were over 500 telephones in the community, and by the early 1890s, the company outgrew their quarters in the Bliss Block – however, that is another story and another recipe.
The Recipe –Marian Kasper’s Sausage Stuffing
The Recipe is from Great Cooking From the Great Lakes, a cookbook published in 1992 by the Great Lakes Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America. This publication was the source of last week’s recipe. Marian Kasper, the source of this week’s recipe, started her career with Michigan Bell Telephone in Company in 1944. Her obituary supplies the details of her career:
“Marian Lucille (Leuenberger) Kasper of Saginaw, Michigan “Beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and friend passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 1, 2026. She was 98 years young. Marian Lucille Leuenberger was born on March 26, 1927, in Saginaw, Michigan, the daughter of the late Lawrence and Frieda (Krenz) Leuenberger. She was a lifelong resident of Saginaw and graduated from Arthur Hill High School in 1944. In her senior year she began working at Michigan Bell Telephone Company as a co-op student and retired from Ameritech on January 1, 1989. She began her working career as a first level supervisor rising to the rank of District Manager, a milestone and achievement for a woman at that time. She was instrumental in converting all customer billing records from handwritten form to punched cards, eventually converting the punched card billing system to a computer drive input. During her career, she held the position of District Manager for Michigan’s customer records, billing, and collection operations, and served as advisor to the Saginaw Community Relations Team. She was a life member of the AT&T Pioneers and the Wildfire Service Club.” (For Marian Kasper’s full obituary.)
8 ounces lean pork sausage
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
8 ounces dry bread crumbs
1 ½ teaspoon rubbed marjoram
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup (about) hot milk
Brown sausage in skillet, stirring until crumbly. Cook celery and onion in sausage drippings in skillet. Mix sausage, celery mixture, bread crumbs, marjoram, salt and pepper in bowl. Stir in just enough milk to hold stuffing together. Stuff turkey. Roast using turkey package instructions. Yield: 10 cups.
Marian Kasper, Saginaw
CTK ADAPTION:
As production time did not allow for turkey baking, the CTK staff resorted to cooking a sample batch of Marian Lucille Kasper’s stuffing in a baking dish. We placed the prepared mixture in a buttered baking dish and saturated it with chicken broth (we used 1+ cup for ½ batch of the of the recipe). Before we covered the dish, we poured melted butter over the top of the stuffing. We cooked it about one hour in a 350 degree over.)
If you decide to cook in-bird, please refer to USDA safe poultry handing guidelines.
CTK NOTES:
As we mixed the ingredients, we found that we were short of liquid. We added about another ¾ cup of chicken broth. We would suggest doubling the amount of milk to about 2 cups. However, the amount of liquid needed will depend on the dryness of the bread crumbs used. The ones we used were exceptionally dry.
Even cooked outside the turkey, we found the resulting stuffing quite good, and it may well appear on this CTK team member’s table.
*We considered making our own bread crumbs: https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/bread-crumbs/
