Looking Back by Lora Stull
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One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, August 27, 1919.)
Last Friday afternoon the people of Mount Ayr were all in the streets to see the aeroplane which was flying over the city on its way to Ellston where it went to take people for a pleasure ride at the Ellston annual homecoming. The people of Mount Ayr succeeded in having Mr. Charles Morrison return for a demonstration in Mount Ayr on Saturday and the aviator agreed to take people for a ride of fifteen minutes or longer for the sum of $15. The plane used by Morrison Taxi Service is of the models that were used on the aviation fields in the United States for training our aviators for service in France and the only difference between this plane and the scout planes “over there” is the scout planes have a more powerful engine. Those who took advantage of the opportunity thus offered were: Mrs. Bert Teale, Floyd Davis, Dick Johnston, Maude McClanahan, T.J. Dalbey, Mrs. Clyde Lesan, Curt Hass, Clarence Lesan and Miss Stella Bruce.
Billie Finch the man of ill-luck as far as his car is concerned, had his Ford speedster “smashed up” again last Monday evening when Mrs. John Flynn driving her Ford touring car hit him amidships. Billie was coming from the east and intended turning south at the first corner north of the square on Depot Street while Mrs. Flynn was headed for home and going north. It seems that Mrs. Flynn did not sound her klaxon and Billie was unable to get out of her way in time, so he did all there was left to do, as he says and got hit.
The Princess Theatre changed hands last week. G.D. Cooper of Corning, purchasing the property from Homer A. Foster.
Marriages: August 24 Harry Woods and Chris May Hall.
Obituaries in this edition were: Ira Bert Bennett and Henry Schultz.
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, September 7, 1944.)
Staff Sgt. John E. Hall, who has been a German prisoner of war since June 18 when he was reported missing in action, is in the prison camp, Staglag Luft 111, near Breslau, Germany, which is near the Polish border. (Each compound consisted of fifteen single-story huts. Each 3.0-by-3.7-metre (10-by-12-foot) bunkroom slept fifteen men in five triple-deck bunks. Eventually the camp grew to approximately 24 hectares (60 acres) in size and housed about 2,500 Royal Air Force officers, about 7,500 U.S. Army Air Forces, and about 900 officers from other Allied air forces, for a total of 10,949 inmates, including some support officers.)
Technician fifth grade Warren A. Allen died in France on June 6 from wounds suffered during the D-Day invasion. He is the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Albert A. Allen of Tingley.
O.B. (Jack) Hutchinson purchased Saturday the Bryant Sandwich Shop on the northeast corner of the square. Mr. Bryant has operated the Sandwich Shop
the past 12 years.
C.O. Willey this week purchased what is known as the Wilson building on the west side of the square, owned by Frank F. Wilson. The building is unoccupied at the present time. It was formerly owned by the Gamble Store.
Marriages: August 30, Marian Sheumaker and Donald Stark…August 6, Alice J. Campbell and Pvt. Maxwell F. Hughes…June 21, Pvt. Lloyd Leonard and Doris Holby.
Births: Aug. 22, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Florha… Aug. 21, a daughter, Cheryl Lee, to Mr. and Mrs. Jack Moore.
Obituaries in this edition: Roy L. Bailey, Mary Ellen Cox Pearce, Sarah Jane Simbaugh Austin, Ethyl R. Faris Denhart, Emma Ellen Deibert Wright, Warren A. Allen, and Howard Joseph Cooper.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, August 28, 1969.)
A railroad section car and a local freight train hit head-on on the north western railroad tracks about a mile southwest of Diagonal Monday. Following the accident, in which the section car was demolished, gasoline from the car caught fire and spread to the diesel locomotive. The blaze was extinguished by Diagonal volunteer fireman. Statewide interest in the accident was evidenced because the railroad is the route used to ship deadly phosgene gas from Colorado to the east coast. State officials are protesting use of the route through Iowa because of the number of accidents on the line and that the threat it posses to Iowa residents.
Diana “Annie” Taylor, one of the 16 year old twins of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Taylor of Diagonal, was named Teen Queen of the Iowa State Fair Saturday night in Des Moines.
Mount Ayr says hello to these new teachers for the 1969-70 school year. James Saville, Annette Roed, Margaret Bishop, Betty Cobb, Lynn Argotsinger, Jean Yearous, Carol Sapp, Janene Van Houten and Kathleen Harover.
June 14, Quita Trullinger and John Jacobson were united in marriage.
Births: August 20, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Roger Lane…August 21, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lowman…August 22, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Graham.
Obituaries in this edition were: John Quincy Overman and Louetta Andrews Kelley.
Twenty Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, August 25, 1994.)
A Ringgold County longtime spotted hog breeder was named to the Iowa Spotted Swine Breeders Hall of Fame during the Iowa State Fair. Marvin Triggs, 61, of Mount Ayr, was recognized by the Iowa Spotted Swine Breeders organization as the 1994 inductee to the hall.
New faces on the faculty in the Mount Ayr Community schools this year include Jill Taylor Weehler, elementary special education instructor and Joe Cantanzareti, junior high and high school language arts instructor.
Some $1,800 worth of items were taken from Mount Ayr Video after a break-in at the store in Mount Ayr late Friday Aug. 12 or early Saturday, Aug. 13. According to owners, the back door of the business was broken into with a crow bar. Taken in the burglary were 2 VCR machines, 120 VHS tapes, including 30 XXX rated tapes and three Super Nintendo tapes.
Members of the Citizens to Protect Our Environment group have organized a petition drive to ask Ringgold County Board of Supervisors to develop an animal waste control disposal ordinance. It says that the ordinance should apply to all hog confinement operations beginning production in 1994 or years following, requiring that manure from the operation either be injected or spread and immediately incorporated to reduce odor and run-off.
Two Ringgold County farm families were recognized in the 1994 Century Farms program at the Iowa Sate Fair. The Shaha brothers, Kyle and Kurt, from Mount Ayr and Lyndon and Lucinda Taylor
Births: Lee and Heather Martin are proud parents of a son, Levi, born August 21…August 20, a son, Connor, to Sean and Kendra Mahan…June 30, a son, Daniel, to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Ricker.
No obituaries in this edition.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, August 13, 2009.)
The Iowa Department of Public Health announced last week that Iowa’s first novel influenza A(H1N1) death occurred. Because of confidentiality laws IDPH is prohibited from releasing identifying details about the case.
Another Ringgold County resident passed the century mark when Vera Combs, who now lives at the Mount Ayr Health Care Center, turned 100 August 8.
Iowa car dealers have in less than 2 weeks sold at least 2,300 vehicles under the popular “cash for clunkers” program, but more than half of those dealers were making sales conditional as they waited to get reimbursed about $9.7 million from the federal government. Births: Mindy and Jason Stoltzfus are proud parents of twin girls born July 17, they have been named Zophia Ann and Zurina Ray… August 3, a son, Nichols Lee, to Lucan and Jessica Triggs.