Looking Back March 28
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
100 Years Ago
From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, April 9, 1919.)
(Citation) Headquarters 42nd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, France, from Major General, USA commanding 42nd Division, August 13, 1918.
To the officers and men of the Rainbow Division: A year has elapsed since the formation of your organization. It is therefore fitting to consider what you have accomplished as a combat division and what you should prepare to accomplish in the future. Your first elements entered the trenches in Lorraine on February 21. You served on the front line there for 110 days. You were the first American Division to hold a divisional sector and when you left the sector June 21st you had served longer continuously as a division in the trenches than any other American division. Although you entered the trenches without experience in actual warfare, you so conducted yourselves as to win the respect and affection of the French Veterans with which you fought. Under gas and bombardment, in raids, in patrols, in the heat of hand to hand combat and in the long dull hours of trench routine so trying to a soldiers’ spirit, you bore yourselves in a manner worthy of the traditions of your country. You were withdrawn from Lorraine and moved immediately to the Champagne front where during critical days from July 14 to July 18 you had the honor of being the only Americans to fight in General Gouraud’s Army which so gloriously obeyed his order,” We Stand or Die,” and by its iron defense, crushed the German assault and made possible the offensive of July 18 to the west of Reims.
For your services in Lorraine, your division was formally commended in General Orders by the French Corps under which you served. For your service in Champagne your assembled officers received the personal thanks of General Gouraud himself. For your service in Ourcq, your division was officially complimented in a letter from the commanding general, 1st Army Corps, of July 29, 1918. To your success, all thanks and all services contributed and I desire to express to every man in the command my appreciation of his devotion and his courageous efforts. However, our position places a burden of responsibility upon us which we must strive to bear steadily forward without faultering. To our comrades who have fallen, we owe the scared obligation of maintaining the reputation which they died to establish. The influence of our performance on our allies can not be over estimated, for we were one of the first divisions sent from our country to France to show the world that Americans can fight. Hard battles and long campaigns lie before us. Only by ceaseless vigilance and tireless preparation can we fit ourselves for them. I urge you, therefore, to approach the future with confidence, but above all with firm determination that so far as it is in your power, will spare no effort whether in training or combat to maintain the record of your division and the honor of our country.
Charles T. Menoher
Major General
USA Commanding
42nd Division
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, April 13, 1944.)
The board of directors of the Rideta Electric Co-operative met with congressman, Karl LeCompte at John A. Beards office Saturday morning with regard to the applications for allotment of materials to construct rural electric lines.
Men and women are urgently needed to perform vital war work at the Sioux Ordiance Depot, Sidney, NE, it was announced today by the director, Eighth US Civil Service Region, St.Paul, MN., munitions handlers, storekeepers, carpenters, checkers, stenographer clerks and typist are needed. Salaries are good and transportation by rail is paid by the War Department. If persons are selected wish to drive their own cars, they will be reimbursed on a mileage basis.
Oliver Bechtel of Osceola came this week to Mount Ayr and will serve temporarily as manager of the grocery department of the United Food Market. Robert Hudson, who has efficiently served as manager for nine years, went today to Des Moines to report at the Navy recruiting station for active service.
March 20, Marjorie Doll and Lieut. Otto Tennant were united in marriage…Naomi Johnston and Pvt. William C. Branstetter were married on Easter Sunday…April 2, Lilla Irene Day became the bride of Lowell E. Huntsman.
Births: April 3, a daughter, Janet Sue, to Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Gaule…April 12, a son, Gary Lee, to Mr. and Mrs. Victor Shields…April 11, a son Raymond Glen, to Mr. and Mrs. Glen W. Curry…April 10, a daughter, Linda Louise, to Mr. and Mrs. Delmar Miller and April 6, a daughter, Barbara AnNyce, to Pfc. and Mrs. John Seevers.
Obituaries in this edition were: Olive Jennessee Jenks Overholtzer, Joseph Campbell and Lucy Frances Hickman Keating.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, Apil 10, 1969.)
Plans this week for establishment of an auction house in Ringgold County. G & H Auction Company formed by two Mount Ayr men has rented the Gene Carr building in Mount Ayr, the former Chevrolet garage on South Taylor Street and will set up an auction house. Both day and night sales are planned for farm machinery, automobiles, furniture and antiques.
To Pave Diagonal-Clearfield road in early May…Paving of the road between Diagonal and Clearfield will begin shortly after the first of May, according to Paul C. Hixson, Ringgold County Engineer.
The contract for the construction of the pavement was let on January 7, 1969, for a total of $285,367. Work to be done includes paving with Portland cement concrete 22 feet wide and 7” deep from the High & Dry corner into Diagonal and a slab 22 feet wide and 6” deep from Hwy. 25 to the High & Dry corner. Also included is construction of a 4 1/2 foot shoulder on each side.
December 23, 1968, Han Chin Hui of Uijongbu, So. Korea and Specialist Five Dan Barker of the US Army were united in marriage at the American Embassy in Seoul South Korea.
Births: March 17, a son, John Patrick, to Mr. and Mrs. Bill Maben…April 1, a daughter, Diane Lynette, to Mr.and Mrs. Richard Tyson.
Obituaries in this edition were: Leanna Kimball Miller, Dennis Bloom and Harry Bisbey.
Twenty Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, April 14, 1994.)
Solutions sought for overcrowding…More students to teach while the number of rooms open to regular instruction keeps shrinking because of technology and special education needs is causing overcrowding of facilities in the Mount Ayr Community schools.
Visitors at the Hospitality House at Silver Dollar City will see a huge mural painted by a Diagonal resident, Larry Kilgore.
Oct. 16, 1993, Sara Lynn Ludvigson of Story City and Douglas Charles Kelley were united in marriage…Feb. 12, 1994, Caryl Ann Schafer and Brian Fine were united in marriage.
Births: April 6, a daughter, Megan, to Mr. and Mrs. Mike Doubleday.
Obituaries: Earl Theaman “Shorty” Reynolds, Daisy Schrum Emmery, Evelyn Mathel VanHook Greene and William L. Chaney.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday,
March 26, 2009.)
Assessment notices will show hikes in ag land value…Ringgold County Assessor, Neil Morgan, has recently sent assessment notices to many tax payers. Taxpayers will only receive a notice if the value has been changed from the previous years assessment. Highlights of changes include assessments of agricultural land up 62 percent county wide, at the same time agricultural buildings are down dramatically in most cases.
Births: Matt and Renae Still are the proud parents of a baby daughter, Kynlee Diane, born on March 17.
Obituaries in this edition were: Donald Ray Hopkins, Phillip William Larson, Larry H. Knight Sr., Dolores M. Mewes, Cela Walters Rauch and Edith Mary Simmons Wertz.