Looking Back with Lora Stull
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One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, September 6, 1922.)
School opened Monday morning-The high school is filled to capacity, the enrollment to date being 246 as follows: freshman class, 79; sophomores, 74; juniors, 48; seniors, 45- the largest high school enrollment in the history of the school, with about the usual enrollment in the grades.
Ringgold County wins at State Fair-Three head of cattle from E.C. Hoover & Son’s herd of Shorthorns brought distinction to Ringgold County.
The herd bull, Count Whitehall, in competition with the largest class ever shown at the fair, took second in the open class and 1st in the Iowa class. The senior yearling heifer shown also won second in the open class and 1st in Iowa class.
Other winners from Ringgold County were Perry Brown of Riley township, who showed Shorthorns and John Blauer, of Tingley township, with Poland China hogs.
Farmers in Blackhawk county are organizing to protect the wild life of that section.
Hunters from Waterloo and Cedar Falls invade the fields and woods and give but little heed to legal restrictions. Signs are to be posted upon farms and laws against trespassing are to be strictly enforced.
The claim is made that quail, pheasants. and prairie chickens have no opportunity of life under present conditions.
A group of farmers in Muscatine County are protecting a flock of prairie chickens. The same is true in Ringgold County. In northern Iowa these birds drift down in considerable number during the winter but largely return to the wilds of Minnesota and the Dakotas at nesting time.
Marriages: August 18, Kathleen McCartner and Charles Stotts.
Births: A daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cain of Benton.
Obituary in this edition was, Susanna Gouldin Tennant.
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, September 4, 1947.)
Eighty pupils are being transported to and from school on three buses in operation by the Independent School District of Mount Ayr. The drivers are Dean Sickels, John Foltz, and Sam Sickels.
In May and June Iowans were complaining about an unusually wet spring with its attendant devastating floods.
During August Iowans have complained with equal vigor about the intense heat wave and drought with the consequent damage to the corn.
In this atomic age however, the statement sometimes attributed to Mark Twain that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it is no longer true.
Aviators in five Iowa towns tried to manufacture rain by means of dry ice. The plan seemed so good that Lloyd Cunningham, Secretary of State of the Iowa State Fair Board, tinkered with the idea of dropping dry ice over the fair grounds.
Since Iowans are completely surfeited with the July through August heat wave and apparently care little for comparative statistics on the droughts of 1934 and 1936, a few comments on cold waves and snowfalls might be in order.
For Iowa’s winters have been as variable as her summers, ranging from the mild temperature which allowed a Dubuque farmer to plow his field on New Years Day in 1938, to the record frigid temperature of -47 degrees at Washta in 1912. The most prolonged cold spell in 125 winters was recorded between January 18-February 22, 1936, when the temperature dipped below zero every day.
During the past month Iowans could have used some of the record breaking snowfall recorded during the calendar year 1909 at Northland 113.4 inches. They would even be happy to have a fraction of the 20” of snow that fell on Humboldt in a single day, the greatest 24 hour snowfall ever recorded in Iowa. But cold waves and heavy snows can be just as unpleasant as protracted heat waves. Most Iowans manage to take the weather in stride and live quite happily in Hawkeyeland.
Marriages: August 30, Lois Mosbarger and Russell Risinger…August 28, Viona Sickels and Weldon Sandage…August 27, Kathryn Faust and Boyd Chartrand…August 30, Effie Pratt and Floyd Boyce…August 24, Doris Deibert and James Ash.
Births: September 1, a son, Kenneth, to Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Eighme…August 23, as son, Thomas, to Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Kruse…Born Sunday, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Drake.
Obituaries in this edition were: William B. Wilbur and Donald Laird Euritt.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, September 14, 1972.)
Ringgold County gets public health nursing…Ringgold County now has a county health nurse. In fact, it has two of them…Mrs. John Kelley and Mrs. Eddie Hightshoe, but they will be sharing duties of the office. Office space has been arranged for them in the former office of the Ringgold County Hospital, with office hours from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Student Ayr- Opinion Poll: What advice do you give to the freshman? Rick Adams: “Go straight home from school and don’t stop to play. Be sure your bike is securely parked in the bike rake”… Malcolm Eighmy: “Build a race car as soon as you can.”…Cindy Knapp: “Keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Speak only when spoken to.” …Kathy Richards: “Respect the upperclassmen.”
Marriages: July wedding Debra Patton and Darrell Rumley…June 30, Sharon Loring and Robert Marler.
Births: September 4, a son, to Mr. and Mrs, Kenny Willet…September 9, a daughter,Robyn, to Mr. and Mrs.Stanley Means.
Obituaries in this edition were: Roy Blunck, Eugene Clough and Nellie G. Bear Maggard.
Twenty Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, August 21, 1997.)
Gary Hensley of Mount Ayr showed the biggest horse at the 1997 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.
A Belgian gelding named “Tony” garnered the honor for Hensley. The 14 year old horse weighed in at 1,790 pounds. Hensley has three Belgian horses which he uses for draft horse pulling competition.
A “Child Wonder” from the 1930’s who now lives in Mount Ayr will be turning 70 on August 22.
Colleen Anderson Reynolds Knight gained nation-wide attention when a sketch of her appeared in the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” column in the Chicago Hearld & Examiner besides the words, “Baby Anderson, Promise City, IA age two, can sing the words and music to 30 songs from memory.”
Winning team in the two-lady best shot tournament at Sun Valley Golf and Country Club, Inc. was Dorothy Clough and Becky Dolecheck.
Obituaries in this edition were: Pauline D. Kuder Culver, Charles E. Fletchall and Ariel Green Keller.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record News, Thursday, September 6, 2012.)
Shopko announced this week that store-wide savings will begin Sunday September 2 at the Mount Ayr Pamida store as it prepares to begin its conversion to Shopko Hometown.
An early morning fire Monday morning destroyed the inside of the home of Derrick and Kasey Dredge, two and one-half miles southeast of Mount Ayr. It is thought that the fire began in the wiring in the laundry room area of the house.
After two and one-half hours of tumultuous discussion, Bob Strange was terminated from his position as the city maintenance 1 worker in a special meeting of the Mount Ayr city council Wednesday August 29.
Births: August 21, a daughter, Alyson, to Mr. and Mrs. Keith McConnell.
Obituary in this edition was, William Arthur Scott.