This is  drawing of The Commercial Building, Seneca, Kansas. Located in the 500 block on the south side of Main Street.  This picture came from 1888 Nemaha County Plat Book.  The left side of this building  also shows as a Post Office in the 1908 Nemaha County Plat and have been told it was  moved in 1917 to the north side of the street in the 500 bock to where the "Soul Provide" is today in 2004.    I have not come  across the name G H Rohenkohl as of yet in any of the old newspaper  files. 

The telephone office was in this building on the second floor likely in the 1907  There was  likely only one telephone operator  and when  you wanted to make a call and she would connect you to your party. This was when we had telephones you had to crank to get the Telephone Operator, we referred to the operator as "Central"  Someone would say "ring up central and get the time" and  would crank the phone and when she (centeral was always a lady) answered, all you had to say was "time please" and then she would give you the time and  you would know if your  clock was right. I knew one person who thought that we had Central Time here because of that.  When you wanted to make a call you  give her the number and she would ring up the party and after a  short time might say "Your party doesn't answer,  shall I ring them again."  You never got a   busy signal and never had to listen to music, or had to listen to a recording giving a list of buttons  you  could  push   or  was told to push the pound button and then enter you account number and social security number and date of birth. Some of us really liked that way better.

 If you knew the operator you would visit with her if she were not too busy. If it were a small town she might know where this person was or when they might be back, and this  was allowed because they had not invented this privacy law yet. 

There is a story of this  person that called Central ever day about ten to twelve and would ask for the time. Finally one day the operator asked why he called ever day at this time for the time and he  said "It's my job to blow the  12 o'clock  town whistle", and then he asked,  "And how is it you set your clock?" and she replied "From your whistle, and I am certainly glad to hear you check to see you time is correct each day.

 Should you have information  please email it to me at Kenstall@senec-ks.com