In 1910, Schoenfabriek van Bommel applied to the municipality to obtain a telephone connection. At that time, Moergestel was not yet connected to the national telephone network. Connecting a village and installing cables and masts was a major operation. The municipality wanted to make sure that this type of modern hassle was really necessary. Widow J.P., who was running the shoemaking business at the time, thus wrote a letter to the mayor insisting on the connection and explaining which cities she would need to call. She expected to call Tilburg, Waalwijk, Amsterdam and even Copenhagen and Cologne.

(Image below: A letterhead from 1914 mentions the new phone number of Schoenfabriek van Bommel for the first time: Phone number 1.)

After considerable lobbying, the shoe factory Van Bommel was connected to the national network a few months later. Van Bommel was the first in the village to have a telephone connection and therefore received the easy-to-remember telephone number: 1. It was not until the 1950s that this number was updated and given more digits. The post box number, which Van Bommel was the first in the village to receive as well, always remained ‘Postbus 1’.

(Image above: The letter from 1910 in which Widow J.P. asks the mayor to connect Moergestel and the shoe factory to the national telephone network.)

(Image above: Telephone directory from 1915. In Moergestel, there are 5 addresses with a connection. Van Bommel has telephone number 1.)