This group of gentlemen took a moment to pose for this image ;-)

I do not know if they worked for a local independent phone company (but that is somewhat likely, given the large number of small phone companies that existed in Indiana and neighboring states)...or if they were Bell System employees.

At any rate, this is a fine example of communications architecture and the people who built systems like this (then state-of-the-art) from just about a century ago.