Audio Description: Telecommunication of Rural America by Dan McWilliams
Press play and discover Dan McWilliams painting Telecommunication of Rural America. Hear a detailed description of the artwork, descriptions of the colors and forms in the painting, and how the artist made the work. (Close captions available on video.)
Telecommunication of Rural America, Dan McWilliams, 2008, Oil
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Telecommunication of Rural America by Dan McWilliams is a 10’ x 6’ mural painted in oils in 2008. It is located inside the Le Ru Telephone Company in Stella, Missouri.
McWilliams weaves the history of communication in Stella with the history of the community. A variety of scenes spanning over 100 years of the community’s history are depicted and fade into each other across the mural.
Starting in the upper left corner of the mural, an Osage hunting party is camped along Indian Creek where Stella would someday be founded. A blue sky disappears behind dense green trees. In front of the tree line and along the creek bank are several brown tepees. The Osage people historically lived in permanent villages, but like many other closely related plains tribes they would use tepees during hunting season. Several canoes can be seen in the creek's waters. In front of the water is a group of Osage on the right communicating with three white settlers on the left. Three of the Osage in the back hold lances decorated with feathers while an older man, seen central in the group, wears a traditional red, Roach-style headdress. The white men are dressed in coonskin caps and buckskin jackets with fringe on the sleeves. The two on the right have full brown beards and the one farthest right offers up a rifle in both hands as a gesture of communicating a trade. After Missouri became a state in 1821, settlers from the East began moving westward, attracted by the fertile soil and rich natural resources. As a result, the Indigenous people, who once inhabited this land, were forced to leave and resettle in Indian Territory by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
To the right of this scene, a stagecoach in shadow comes over a hillside pulled by six horses. At that time, the only means of communication for the white settlers with the outside world was by mail that had to travel by stagecoach, steamboat, and rail.
Looking below the Osage encampment, men have gathered watching a horse lunge forward in a high speed run, the brim of the rider’s brown hat is blown back from the speed. This represents the arrival of the Pony Express which started in April, 1860. As western expansion grew across the United States, a letter could take months to go from the east to the west coast. The Pony Express used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California, which cut the time for a letter to go from the east to the west to 10 days.
Moving to the right of the shadowed stage coach, there is a portrait of Stella Eagle. She is shown from the shoulders up wearing a dark purple dress with a pleated front adorned with a jeweled brooch across the collar. Her face is in ¾ profile to the left and she wears a purple bow hair ribbon in her short brown hair. Early settler Moses Eagle arrived in the area with his family in 1844. It was upon his homestead that the town’s first post office was established. He named the community after his granddaughter Stella Eagle.
Below Stella Eagle and the stage coach, a large crowd, dressed in Edwardian style clothing, is gathered at the park during one of the many Fourth of July celebrations held in the community. An American flag hangs central over the crowd and a tented booth is set up on the left. In front of the crowd, a white wooden footbridge crosses over a stream of blue water; this bridge connected the park to the town. The park is located on the banks of Indian Creek on land that was part of the original Eagle family homestead. It is in this peaceful park that generations of local families gathered for celebrations and to exchange news.
Moving to the left and down, two men, dressed in dark suits and vests, sit leaning over tables with telegraph equipment in front of them. They work to send and receive messages through telegraphs - another advance in communication that helps connect settlers in areas like Stella to the rest of the world. In the background of the pair are faint brush marks that make the wires and wood poles of the telegraph line. In October of 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph constructed by the Western Union Telegraph Company between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California connected the existing telegraph network in the eastern United States to the west coast. Small communities like Stella now had almost instantaneous communication with the rest of the nation.
Moving down the mural’s lower left corner, we see Alexander Graham Bell, the man credited with inventing the telephone, from mid-chest up, sitting profile facing the mural’s right. His hair, muttonchop beard, and mustache are all brown and he is dressed in a black coat and tie paired with a white shirt. In his hands he is holding an early, liquid transmitter telephone with a black trumpet shaped mouthpiece held up to his mouth, its body attached by metal mechanisms to a dark base. A wire runs from the back of the device to a wood pole that rises up behind the telegraph operators. This shows the advancement of communication once again. The use of phones spread quickly through the United States reaching Stella in 1899.
Back at the top of the mural and to the right of Stella Eagle, is the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store set against a bright blue sky. It is a white, rectangular, two-story building with wood siding, a gabled roof, and a narrow parapet. On the second floor of the building, there are two windows on the front and three windows on the side. The lower story is a storefront. On the long, left side of the building, dark red letters read “Lentz and Carter General Merchandise.” The front of the building has a recessed entryway with large windows on either side. An awning covers the raised porch of the building with two steps leading down to a dirt road in front. In front of the store, a man sits in a wagon pulled by a single horse. Above are multiple wires connected to tall wood poles with black birds landing and roosting on the wires. In addition to being an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the store was the location where locals would congregate for social gatherings and share news. One important meeting that took place inside the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store was on August 31, 1899 when the first telephone in the village was installed there.
Moving down, a man with greying black hair stands profile in front of a brown wooden, wall telephone. He wears a red-brown, short-sleeved shirt and glasses. He holds the handset to his left ear, blocked from the viewer, and is leaning forward speaking into the attached mouthpiece. This image is layered over the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store. Over the mouthpiece, an attached box has two round, brass gongs attached on the front’s top. Below the black, cylinder-shaped mouthpiece is a second box with a sloped lid. Around the man, a curious crowd has gathered. Behind him is a man in blue overalls and a white long sleeved shirt and to the left a young boy in a short sleeved green shirt. Both have brown hair and curious expressions on their faces. Directly below the man placing the call are two young girls, faces upturned. They wear white and have long black hair. The girl on the left has braided pigtails tied with blue bows while the girl on the right has a single braid down her back tied with a red bow. To the right of the girls stands another figure, back to the viewer, with short black hair wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt and blue overalls.
Moving right, we see three telephone poles silhouetted against a clear, blue sky laden with lines stretching between them. A lineman is working on the far right pole high above the ground.
To the right of the July 4th gathering, is a woman sitting at a table with a red and white checked table cloth speaking into a 1920’s model candlestick-style telephone. Her hair, grey at the sides, is swept back from her face as she looks to the right. She wears glasses and a long-sleeve white blouse. She holds the phone on the table with her left hand angling its round, cone-shaped mouthpiece in front of her mouth, while her right hand holds the cylinder-style handset up to her right ear. The phone has a round base with a cylinder rising vertically from it. A cord from the base connects the handset to the device. This was the first type of phone to reach ordinary homes and businesses and was common from the late 1890s to the 1930s. By this era, phone service was growing in Stella, as it reached businesses and homes.
At the bottom center of the mural, to the right of Alexander Graham Bell, is a house with white wood siding. A central door and windows on either side are topped by white and black striped awnings. The home is surrounded by trees and has a lush green lawn. In the doorway stands a figure in a blue, short-sleeved shirt and purple pants. Down the door’s two steps and along the connecting sidewalk, a brown dog sits and a child rides a tricycle towards the house. At the end of the sidewalk, a man and woman with a second child stand near the street. To their right is Stella’s first public phone booth. It is a bright red rectangular structure with a pyramid shaped roof and glass windows on three sides of the top half of the booth. This house is the Millikin family home where the Le-Ru Telephone Company, owned by the Leon and Ruth Millikin, was housed in a back room from 1962-1969. While automated switching was becoming more common, small rural areas like Stella still relied on switchboards.
To the right of the Millikin house is a tall, brown, vertical panel containing an array of round metal jacks, plugs, and switches which make up the switchboard. Seated in a black chair in front of the panel is an older woman. Her hands are resting on the desk between her and the plugs and a pencil is poised in her right hand. She wears glasses and a bright blue, short-sleeved shirt over a white top. Resting over her short, curly, dark hair is a black headset, its microphone extending down in front of her mouth from a curved arm connected to the ear piece over her left ear. This is switchboard operator Zella Mae Raulston who worked for the local phone company for 24 years. When the caller wanted to place a call they picked up their phone and waited for her to answer and connect them to the person they requested to call. Behind Raulston is Leon Millikin sharing the desk. He is standing dressed in black trousers and a white shirt with the right sleeve turned up at the cuff. He holds the receiver of a 1960s rotary dial, beige-colored, desk phone in his right hand up to his left ear. He’s facing the viewer but his gaze is toward the mural’s left. To the right of Leon is his wife Ruth with a big smile. She has short, wavy, dark hair and wears glasses, dangly earrings, and a dark blouse. While Leon acted as lineman, brush cutter, repairman, and supervisor for the company, Ruth filled the roles from switchboard operator to bookkeeper while raising their four young children. The Le-Ru Telephone Company got its name by using the first two letters in Leon and Ruth's name to form Le-Ru.
Moving to the right of Ruth, are the four, adult Millikin children who grew up thinking that having a phone company in the back room of their home was normal. The three brothers are lined up while their sister stands in front of them in the center. Working from left to right, Bob is dressed in a black suit, white shirt, and a blue, black, and white patterned tie. Rick dressed in a white shirt with his hands on his little sister Vickie's shoulders. Jim in a black suit with white shirt and dark tie. All three sons wear glasses on their faces. Vickie is dressed in a v-neck, purple blouse. By the time this mural was painted, the siblings were co-partner owners of Le-Ru Telephone Company. Under their leadership, Le-Ru Telephone Company and Stella entered the modern communication age.
Below the four siblings is a long-time Le-Ru Telephone Company employee Carolyn Dyer sitting at a desk with a 1990s bulky, CRT-style, desktop computer monitor and keyboard on her left. She’s dressed in a long-sleeve, dark blue outfit with a smile on her face. She wears glasses and has short, curled, dark hair. Le-Ru Telephone Company brought the internet to the homes in their rural area. Just below Dyer in the lower right hand corner of the mural, and in large scale proportions, is a Motorola Razr, flip-style, cell phone. Its sleek design and bright screen represent just how far telecommunications had come in the tiny village of Stella.
Last in the upper right hand corner, the mural comes full circle as the sparkling, blue waters of Indian Creek cut through the lush, green trees along its banks that still cradle the little village of Stella.
McWilliams weaves the history of communication in Stella with the history of the community. A variety of scenes spanning over 100 years of the community’s history are depicted and fade into each other across the mural.
Starting in the upper left corner of the mural, an Osage hunting party is camped along Indian Creek where Stella would someday be founded. A blue sky disappears behind dense green trees. In front of the tree line and along the creek bank are several brown tepees. The Osage people historically lived in permanent villages, but like many other closely related plains tribes they would use tepees during hunting season. Several canoes can be seen in the creek's waters. In front of the water is a group of Osage on the right communicating with three white settlers on the left. Three of the Osage in the back hold lances decorated with feathers while an older man, seen central in the group, wears a traditional red, Roach-style headdress. The white men are dressed in coonskin caps and buckskin jackets with fringe on the sleeves. The two on the right have full brown beards and the one farthest right offers up a rifle in both hands as a gesture of communicating a trade. After Missouri became a state in 1821, settlers from the East began moving westward, attracted by the fertile soil and rich natural resources. As a result, the Indigenous people, who once inhabited this land, were forced to leave and resettle in Indian Territory by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
To the right of this scene, a stagecoach in shadow comes over a hillside pulled by six horses. At that time, the only means of communication for the white settlers with the outside world was by mail that had to travel by stagecoach, steamboat, and rail.
Looking below the Osage encampment, men have gathered watching a horse lunge forward in a high speed run, the brim of the rider’s brown hat is blown back from the speed. This represents the arrival of the Pony Express which started in April, 1860. As western expansion grew across the United States, a letter could take months to go from the east to the west coast. The Pony Express used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California, which cut the time for a letter to go from the east to the west to 10 days.
Moving to the right of the shadowed stage coach, there is a portrait of Stella Eagle. She is shown from the shoulders up wearing a dark purple dress with a pleated front adorned with a jeweled brooch across the collar. Her face is in ¾ profile to the left and she wears a purple bow hair ribbon in her short brown hair. Early settler Moses Eagle arrived in the area with his family in 1844. It was upon his homestead that the town’s first post office was established. He named the community after his granddaughter Stella Eagle.
Below Stella Eagle and the stage coach, a large crowd, dressed in Edwardian style clothing, is gathered at the park during one of the many Fourth of July celebrations held in the community. An American flag hangs central over the crowd and a tented booth is set up on the left. In front of the crowd, a white wooden footbridge crosses over a stream of blue water; this bridge connected the park to the town. The park is located on the banks of Indian Creek on land that was part of the original Eagle family homestead. It is in this peaceful park that generations of local families gathered for celebrations and to exchange news.
Moving to the left and down, two men, dressed in dark suits and vests, sit leaning over tables with telegraph equipment in front of them. They work to send and receive messages through telegraphs - another advance in communication that helps connect settlers in areas like Stella to the rest of the world. In the background of the pair are faint brush marks that make the wires and wood poles of the telegraph line. In October of 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph constructed by the Western Union Telegraph Company between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California connected the existing telegraph network in the eastern United States to the west coast. Small communities like Stella now had almost instantaneous communication with the rest of the nation.
Moving down the mural’s lower left corner, we see Alexander Graham Bell, the man credited with inventing the telephone, from mid-chest up, sitting profile facing the mural’s right. His hair, muttonchop beard, and mustache are all brown and he is dressed in a black coat and tie paired with a white shirt. In his hands he is holding an early, liquid transmitter telephone with a black trumpet shaped mouthpiece held up to his mouth, its body attached by metal mechanisms to a dark base. A wire runs from the back of the device to a wood pole that rises up behind the telegraph operators. This shows the advancement of communication once again. The use of phones spread quickly through the United States reaching Stella in 1899.
Back at the top of the mural and to the right of Stella Eagle, is the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store set against a bright blue sky. It is a white, rectangular, two-story building with wood siding, a gabled roof, and a narrow parapet. On the second floor of the building, there are two windows on the front and three windows on the side. The lower story is a storefront. On the long, left side of the building, dark red letters read “Lentz and Carter General Merchandise.” The front of the building has a recessed entryway with large windows on either side. An awning covers the raised porch of the building with two steps leading down to a dirt road in front. In front of the store, a man sits in a wagon pulled by a single horse. Above are multiple wires connected to tall wood poles with black birds landing and roosting on the wires. In addition to being an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the store was the location where locals would congregate for social gatherings and share news. One important meeting that took place inside the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store was on August 31, 1899 when the first telephone in the village was installed there.
Moving down, a man with greying black hair stands profile in front of a brown wooden, wall telephone. He wears a red-brown, short-sleeved shirt and glasses. He holds the handset to his left ear, blocked from the viewer, and is leaning forward speaking into the attached mouthpiece. This image is layered over the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store. Over the mouthpiece, an attached box has two round, brass gongs attached on the front’s top. Below the black, cylinder-shaped mouthpiece is a second box with a sloped lid. Around the man, a curious crowd has gathered. Behind him is a man in blue overalls and a white long sleeved shirt and to the left a young boy in a short sleeved green shirt. Both have brown hair and curious expressions on their faces. Directly below the man placing the call are two young girls, faces upturned. They wear white and have long black hair. The girl on the left has braided pigtails tied with blue bows while the girl on the right has a single braid down her back tied with a red bow. To the right of the girls stands another figure, back to the viewer, with short black hair wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt and blue overalls.
Moving right, we see three telephone poles silhouetted against a clear, blue sky laden with lines stretching between them. A lineman is working on the far right pole high above the ground.
To the right of the July 4th gathering, is a woman sitting at a table with a red and white checked table cloth speaking into a 1920’s model candlestick-style telephone. Her hair, grey at the sides, is swept back from her face as she looks to the right. She wears glasses and a long-sleeve white blouse. She holds the phone on the table with her left hand angling its round, cone-shaped mouthpiece in front of her mouth, while her right hand holds the cylinder-style handset up to her right ear. The phone has a round base with a cylinder rising vertically from it. A cord from the base connects the handset to the device. This was the first type of phone to reach ordinary homes and businesses and was common from the late 1890s to the 1930s. By this era, phone service was growing in Stella, as it reached businesses and homes.
At the bottom center of the mural, to the right of Alexander Graham Bell, is a house with white wood siding. A central door and windows on either side are topped by white and black striped awnings. The home is surrounded by trees and has a lush green lawn. In the doorway stands a figure in a blue, short-sleeved shirt and purple pants. Down the door’s two steps and along the connecting sidewalk, a brown dog sits and a child rides a tricycle towards the house. At the end of the sidewalk, a man and woman with a second child stand near the street. To their right is Stella’s first public phone booth. It is a bright red rectangular structure with a pyramid shaped roof and glass windows on three sides of the top half of the booth. This house is the Millikin family home where the Le-Ru Telephone Company, owned by the Leon and Ruth Millikin, was housed in a back room from 1962-1969. While automated switching was becoming more common, small rural areas like Stella still relied on switchboards.
To the right of the Millikin house is a tall, brown, vertical panel containing an array of round metal jacks, plugs, and switches which make up the switchboard. Seated in a black chair in front of the panel is an older woman. Her hands are resting on the desk between her and the plugs and a pencil is poised in her right hand. She wears glasses and a bright blue, short-sleeved shirt over a white top. Resting over her short, curly, dark hair is a black headset, its microphone extending down in front of her mouth from a curved arm connected to the ear piece over her left ear. This is switchboard operator Zella Mae Raulston who worked for the local phone company for 24 years. When the caller wanted to place a call they picked up their phone and waited for her to answer and connect them to the person they requested to call. Behind Raulston is Leon Millikin sharing the desk. He is standing dressed in black trousers and a white shirt with the right sleeve turned up at the cuff. He holds the receiver of a 1960s rotary dial, beige-colored, desk phone in his right hand up to his left ear. He’s facing the viewer but his gaze is toward the mural’s left. To the right of Leon is his wife Ruth with a big smile. She has short, wavy, dark hair and wears glasses, dangly earrings, and a dark blouse. While Leon acted as lineman, brush cutter, repairman, and supervisor for the company, Ruth filled the roles from switchboard operator to bookkeeper while raising their four young children. The Le-Ru Telephone Company got its name by using the first two letters in Leon and Ruth's name to form Le-Ru.
Moving to the right of Ruth, are the four, adult Millikin children who grew up thinking that having a phone company in the back room of their home was normal. The three brothers are lined up while their sister stands in front of them in the center. Working from left to right, Bob is dressed in a black suit, white shirt, and a blue, black, and white patterned tie. Rick dressed in a white shirt with his hands on his little sister Vickie's shoulders. Jim in a black suit with white shirt and dark tie. All three sons wear glasses on their faces. Vickie is dressed in a v-neck, purple blouse. By the time this mural was painted, the siblings were co-partner owners of Le-Ru Telephone Company. Under their leadership, Le-Ru Telephone Company and Stella entered the modern communication age.
Below the four siblings is a long-time Le-Ru Telephone Company employee Carolyn Dyer sitting at a desk with a 1990s bulky, CRT-style, desktop computer monitor and keyboard on her left. She’s dressed in a long-sleeve, dark blue outfit with a smile on her face. She wears glasses and has short, curled, dark hair. Le-Ru Telephone Company brought the internet to the homes in their rural area. Just below Dyer in the lower right hand corner of the mural, and in large scale proportions, is a Motorola Razr, flip-style, cell phone. Its sleek design and bright screen represent just how far telecommunications had come in the tiny village of Stella.
Last in the upper right hand corner, the mural comes full circle as the sparkling, blue waters of Indian Creek cut through the lush, green trees along its banks that still cradle the little village of Stella.
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Mural Location
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Le-Ru Telephone Company
555 Carter Street Stella, MO 64867 Monday - Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm |
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Additional Content
Historic Stella Photos
Lentz-Carter building History
Constructed in 1890, the Lentz-Carter building is the oldest building standing in Stella, a small town in the southwestem comer of Missouri. It is located at the south end of Ozark Sfreet, close to Indian Creek, which meanders south of the property. The building sits on a limestone foundation on the comer lot on the north edge of the property. The south edge was intentionally
left vacant for displaying farm machinery.
J.G. Lentz and James Carter opened the building in 1890 to provide the community with general goods and wares and as a market for the local farmers. In addition to serving as an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store was also important as a location for social gatherings. Like most general stores of its time, locals would congregate in or outside the shop to share the news of the day. The Lentz-Carter building was also utilized as a meeting hall by the community and by organizations. For instance, its upper floor served as a Masonic lodge for over sixty years. It was such an important meeting place in southeastern Newton County that the first telephone in Stella was installed in the building.
According to the August 31,1899 Newton County News, "The hustling little town of Stella is jubilant over the completion of her telephone line to Neosho. It is a great convenience... Jas. Carter informs us that great care will be necessary to prevent injury to the instrument which has been placed in the Lentz-Carter building." Having served the community for over fifty years the Lentz-Carter General Merchandise Store closed its doors in 1940. Shortly after ( in the 1940s), the building was reused as a dry goods and shoe store on the lower floor while the Masonic Lodge continued to utilize the upper floor for thirty or more years.
left vacant for displaying farm machinery.
J.G. Lentz and James Carter opened the building in 1890 to provide the community with general goods and wares and as a market for the local farmers. In addition to serving as an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store was also important as a location for social gatherings. Like most general stores of its time, locals would congregate in or outside the shop to share the news of the day. The Lentz-Carter building was also utilized as a meeting hall by the community and by organizations. For instance, its upper floor served as a Masonic lodge for over sixty years. It was such an important meeting place in southeastern Newton County that the first telephone in Stella was installed in the building.
According to the August 31,1899 Newton County News, "The hustling little town of Stella is jubilant over the completion of her telephone line to Neosho. It is a great convenience... Jas. Carter informs us that great care will be necessary to prevent injury to the instrument which has been placed in the Lentz-Carter building." Having served the community for over fifty years the Lentz-Carter General Merchandise Store closed its doors in 1940. Shortly after ( in the 1940s), the building was reused as a dry goods and shoe store on the lower floor while the Masonic Lodge continued to utilize the upper floor for thirty or more years.
The above black and white photos show the Lentz-Carter Building in 2007-2008 prior to it's restoration.
Here is the Lentz-Carter Building in 2025.