Looking Back with Lora Stull

One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record -News, Thursday, November 30, 1921.)
One of four men indicted for having burglar tools found guilty.
J.W. Conroy, one of the four men arrested on suspicion by Sheriff Terrell two weeks ago and who with his companions was indicted by the grand jury, was tried in Judge Fuller’s court Friday and Saturday on the charge of having burglar tools in his possession.
The case went to the jury before supper Saturday evening and at 8 o’clock a verdict of guilty was returned. A motion for a new trial, filed Monday, was promptly overruled by the court and the defendant was given an indeterminate sentence of fifteen years at hard labor in the penitentiary at Fort Madison.
A corn crib containing 800 bushels of corn and the wagon and cow shed on the Harrison Olney farm in Middle Fork Township were destroyed by fire Wednesday afternoon.
The origin of the fire is not known unless it was caused by the heating of lime which had been thrown under the crib.
Marriage: Sylvia Brown and James Kennedy.
Obituary in this edition was: Susan Ver Nellie Mosier Summers.
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, November 28, 1946.)
Six players on the Mount Ayr Raider football team received births on the first and second team all conference teams, announcement of which was made last night at the Bluegrass Conference Jamboree held in Mount Ayr.
The Mount Ayr boys who were honored for first team include: Ivan Dolecheck, Harold Frost, Ed Knight, and Jim Braby. Second team honors went to: Bill Pratt and Allen Richards.
“Understanding Our’Teenagers” will again be the topic of the ninth adult homemaking class to be held Monday evening.
The following questions will be presented for discussion: (1) Should high school people be permitted to go out of town on dates? (2) Should high school people be allowed to use the family car? (3) Should high school students go steady? (4) How old should a girl be before she can date? (5) Generally speaking, do you think the high school people spend too much money on dates?
Last Monday there were 50 men and women present for a very interesting discussion.
Marriages: November 11, Hope Rinehart and Billy Wyman…October 22, Evelyn Lisle and Charles Howard.
Births: November 16, a son Johnny, to Mr. and Mrs. Eldred Cole…November 22, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. John Jackson…November 22, a son, Richard Archie, to Mr. and Mrs. Archie Palmer.
Obituaries in this edition were: Josephine Norris Cain Riley, Ivan P. Bruce, and infant Shirley Ann Anderson.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, December 2, 1971.)
Joe McNeill, head football coach at Mount Ayr Community high school, has been elected to the Iowa Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
McNeill recently completed his 24th year of coaching, 22 of them at Mount Ayr Community; in that time his teams have complied a record of 142 wins, 63 loses and 5 ties.
Maloy center of the Mount Ayr Community school was pressed into service as temporary shelter Sunday evening for a group of 43 students of Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs.
Enroute to the school in a chartered bus following Thanksgiving vacation, the group was marooned at the intersection of highways 2 & 25, thirteen miles west of Mount Ayr about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, when the bus broke down. The Dick Weehlers, who live nearby, called school officials who opened the Maloy school.
The youngsters ranging in age from 4-18, were taken to the school by Mount Ayr bus driver, Burl Mobley and his wife, Russell Boyd, Terry Myers, Larry Giles and Barton French rounded up sleeping bags and other equipment used in the summer school program and took it to Maloy custodian, Guy Dugan, who was on hand as was his wife, who held forth in the kitchen to feed the hungry youngsters.
A film was shown and a basketball game arranged for the older students. Another bus from the school finally arrived at midnight to transport the students back to the school.
Marriage: November 13, Carolyn Hosfield and Rodney Shields.
Births: November 23, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Spainhower.
Obituary in this edition was: Benjman H. Barnes.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, November 21, 1996.)
Twenty-two cattle get loose in city Monday night.
It was round up time at the Mount Ayr Livestock November 18 when 22 head of crossbred steer calves got out of a gate of a pen in which they were being held until they were sold at auction Tuesday.
Owner and operator of Mount Ayr Livestock, Steve Taylor, was awakened about 11:30 p.m. Monday night by a telephone call form Loren Winemiller, who lives southwest of the sale barn, telling Taylor that the cattle had gotten out.
It took Lowell Hickman, Winemiller, and Dwight Hickman, Mount Ayr police chief, Todd Jackson, and his deputy, Elb Strange, Ringgold County deputy sheriff, Doug Sheffield and Taylor until about 1 a.m. Tuesday to get the cattle back in confinement.
Obituaries in this edition were: Maxine LaVaun Main Kendig, Marion Everett Euritt, Albert Junior Bagley and Richard Guthrie Johnson.
TenYears Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, November 17, 2011.)
School was delayed Wednesday November 9, by the first big snow storm of the season.
The wet, slushy snow made driving the streets and roads of the county pretty slick. The temperatures were warm enough Wednesday that the snow soon melted.
Veterans Day was observed in several ways around Ringgold County Friday November 11. An assembly was held at Mount Ayr Community high school for all grades and included a flag ceremony, speeches, music from the various grade levels and a video presentation.
Obituaries in this edition were: Darlene Joyce Bailes Groves, Martin Fredrick Hintz, Patricia Ann Means Kennedy, Robert Lee (Bob) Poush and Lee Don Wood.