George Willard Coy (1836-1915) was a Civil War veteran who, after the war, was a manager of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph office in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1877 he applied for a Bell franchise; on January 28, 1878, he opened the District Telephone Company of New Haven, the first commercial telephone company in the world. In 1882 this company changed its name to the Southern New England Telephone Company and served telephone subscribers in Connecticut until 1998.