North State had its beginning in 1895 when a group of High Point businessmen established the High Point Telephone Exchange, in High Point, North Carolina, having only 60 crank-type telephones in service. Four years later in 1899, Mr. J. F. Hayden, who had pioneered the very firsttelephone system in Thomasville, joined with Mr. T. J. Finch and purchased the High Point Telephone Exchange and, thereafter, expanded and improved the system rapidly.
