Looking Back with Lora Stull
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.
One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, March 24, 1920.)
Ellston-March 22- The bonds for the new consolidated school building carried by a large majority. There were 215 votes cast of which there were 91 men votes for the proposition and 42 against and 65 women votes for and 17 against, making an almost three to one vote in favor of the bonds. The men will have to sit up and take notice when the women have the legal right to cast their ballots along with the men, as it is plain to be seen that women are for anything that will help build up a community or forward educational and Christian principals. Let us hope that the next improvement that Ellston will get behind is better church facilities.
According to the war department the government has succeeded in securing positions in Iowa for 10,183 returned service men. These were put to work out of 17,873 registered for places. In the entire country 1,299,365 men have applied to the re-employment bureau for aid in securing employment.
Marriages: March 20 Marie Madson became the bride of Ernest McKibbon.
Births: A daughter, Pauline, to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Beymer…A daughter, Dorothy, to Mr. and Mrs. Ed Clark…March 24, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Yashack.
No obituaries in this edition.
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, March 29, 1945.)
The second grade of the Mount Ayr Schools was closed Monday as a measure of prevention of the spread of scarlet fever. Three children of the grade have contracted the disease and a number of other cases have been reported. The grade will be closed one week, according to Supt. Hugh Steele, who sincerely urges that parents keep their children away from public places.
The Pine Dairy and Refridgerated Lockers of Diagonal last week purchased the Piper Locker plants at Mount Ayr and Tingley. Possession will be given Monday, April 16.
Lieut. Wesley A. Poore of Beaconsfield, was decorated with the nation’s highest medal for heroism, the Distinguished Service Cross..in a formal ceremony held at Ellington Field, TX recently. The award was made for an
“extraordinary” act of heroism near the Ploesti oil field in Romania in May 1944, when Lieut. Poore unselfishly gave his parachute to a sergeant in his B-24, whose parachute was improperly harnessed. Col. E. V. Harbeck, Jr., Ellington commanding officer, presented the Distinguished Service Cross to Lieut. Poore in behalf of the War Department. Lieut. Poore, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Poore of Beaconsfield, is taking navigation instructor’s course at this installation of the Army Air Force Training Command. Although attacked by both enemy flak and fighter planes, Lieut. Poore’s Liberator successfully made its bombing run on the Ploesti target. However, the B-24 lost the use of two of its engines and was otherwise severely damaged, so that the crew was forced to abandon ship. Lieut Poore then discovered that the radio operator’s chute was faulty and exchanged it for his own. After the sergeant had jumped from the Liberator, Lieut. Poore followed, using the poorly harnessed parachute to land without injury. He landed on his back and while shaken up, he was not injured seriously. For the next four months he was a prisoner of Bulgaria, until he was liberated by the Russians in September. Lieut. Poore is credited with flying 30 combat missions with the 15th Air Force in Italy. He was overseas from March to October 1944. In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross, he wears the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters and the European theatre ribbon with two campaign stars.
As warm weather approaches it is more imperative than ever that furnace fires be extinguished as soon as possible, the Solid Fuel Administration for War warns, pointing out that next winters coal shortage will be far worse than it was this year. Because of the impending scarcity, the SFAW also announced that it has become necessary, beginning April 3, to limit 80 percent of a normal year’s supply deliveries of virtually all coals and coke to all household consumers in states east of the Mississippi River.
Marriage: March 3, Margaret Stamper and James Speer.
Births: March 26, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Iva Sissell…March 28, a daughter, Lynette, to Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Caskey…March 25, a son, Robert, to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Ellswick.
Obituaries in this edition: Cynthia Knight Bagley and Martha Luella Jane Rice Fouser.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, March 12, 1970.)
Changes in rural communities in Iowa are caused by changed transportation and by increased technology in agriculture. That’s what 50 Ringgold County residents were told at the second of the Forum Four series given by Dr. Eber Eldridge, economist of Iowa State University. Eldridge cited statistics to show that the local rural community is changing because of economic reasons. Increased farm efficiency has led to fewer farm jobs and therefore the non-farm jobs which support the farmer tend to decrease. In Ringgold County from 1960-1967, farm jobs decreased from 1405 to 973. Retail jobs increased from 491-537. Eldridge said that the 944 cities and towns in Iowa, 706 of them are below 1,000 population. Eldridge said studies show that the number of pre-school children in Ringgold County has decreased 50 percent from 1960-1970. Birth control measures and loss of younger married couples account for the drop.
Obituaries in this edition were: Minnie Blanche Motsinger Stringham, Elsie Kelley, and Leota Byerley Roudybush.
Twenty Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, March 9, 1995.)
Eight MACHS students placed high in state Business Professionals of America contest to qualify for the national contest in Nashville, TN. They are as follows: Betty Hull, Terri Reed, Kim Parrish, Renda Smith, Beth Bell, Kim Gregg, Anna Leigh Watson, and Brooke Mitchell.
Nancy Elmer, daughter of Rich and Diane Elmer of rural Mount Ayr was announced as the Ringgold County Pork Producer’s choice for princess.
Births: March 1, a son, Johnathan, to Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Triggs…March 3, a daughter, Emily, to Randy and Sherri (Smith) Seynaeve.
Obituary in this edition was, Kay Suzanne Rogers Butler.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News, Thursday, March 4, 2010.)
The fourth time making the trip to the state basketball tournament has been the charm so far for the MACHS Raiderettes in their trip to the Class 1A girls basketball tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. The Raiderettes made history by winning the first opening game in the state tournament of any Mount Ayr team, boys or girls, 54-45 Monday afternoon.
Excitement was in the air Thursday morning when the first breakfast was served in the new cafeteria at the Mount Ayr Community elementary school. For years meals had been served in the gymnasium of the 1936 building. Some 244 breakfasts were served on the first day, up by 33 from the previous high number for the school year.
For more than 20 years Bev McGinnis helped recruit blood donors for American Red Cross blood drives in Mount Ayr. Each time she urged a donor to commit, she helped ensure blood would be available for patients in need.
Obituaries in this edition were: Richard Gross, Mary Ruth Barnes Marler, Winnafred L. LeBaron Horton, and Margaret M. Ruby Tindle.