Looking Back with Lora Stull
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One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, April 11, 1923.)
One of the outstanding industries in Iowa is that of the manufacture of cement.
The demand for this material as a substitute for lumber, brick and steel in buildings and the large use for paving and road building has placed a heavy tax upon the producing capacity of what few cement plants are in operation in Iowa.
Mason City, Gilmore City, Muscatine, and Des Moines are the principal manufacturing centers.
The Hawkeye plant southwest of Des Moines is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the state. It employs a force of 300 men, mostly Mexican and Italians and runs continuously not even stopping on Sunday. It’s output is 5,000 bushel a day. A barrel contains the equivalent of four sacks, therefore this plant turns out 20,000 sacks a day.
Is your car fully equipped regarding number plates and registration? Are you displaying your rear light? Is your car equipped with a signal horn? Are you keeping within the speed limit while driving through town?
If not you had better begin now to get ready before May 1. No alibis will be accepted. Marion Stephens, Ringgold County Sheriff.
Obituaries in this edition: Neva Hale Teale, Rev. Hiram Tharp, Elbert Arthur Dolson, James Calvin Curry, and Abraham Jones Bretz.
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, April 8, 1948.)
Six of the vocal and instrumental entrants from the local school, in the pre-state music contest held Saturday morning and afternoon at the high school building in Mount Ayr, received superior ratings, qualifying them for participation in the state contest.
They were the girls sextet; mixed quartet; brass quartet; Mary Ann Davis, treble high; Annabelle Stuck, treble medium and Edna Walter, treble low.
There is one vast source of meat-maybe an inexhaustible one-that the US public might have to consider seriously if beef and pork become as scarce and expensive as it is predicted they will: Rabbits.
That is a Department of Agriculture idea. The department suggested that the American people take up the raising of rabbits as a supplementary source of meat.
Marriages: April 5, Ann Spurrier and Joe Motsinger…March 20, Kathleen Davis and Myron Johnston…March 26, Doris Foster and Donald Green…March 28 Vaunceil Beck and Lowell Brott.
Births: March 27, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Earl Campbell…March 28, a son, Gary, to Mr. and Mrs. Bill Webb…April 6, twin boys, to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kidney…March 17 a daughter, Dixie, to Mr. and Mrs. Bob Parrish…March 22, a son, Allen, to Mr. and Mrs. Dale Brown.
Obituaries in this edition were: Anna Fogle Kepert, Fredric William Trower, and infant Mary Kay Oliver.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, April 12, 1973.)
Blizzard Stings County-Ringgold County residents spent Tuesday digging out from an early spring snow that practically paralyzed the state.
The snow, coupled with winds up to 50 mph, stopped through traffic cold. Barton French, official US Weather Bureau cooperative observer for Mount Ayr estimated the snow fall at 11 inches.
Rollin Noble will be the new Mount Ayr Lions Club president for the club year which starts July 1, 1973.
Births: April 5, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Rice…April 5, a son, Justin, to Mr. and Mrs. Steve Jones…April 6, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hull…April 9, a son, Dr. and Mrs. John Peters…March 21, a son, Mitchell, to Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Siverly.
Obituaries in this edition were: Ernest Blunck and Mabel Dennis Worthington.
Twenty-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, April 2, 1998.)
Heavy rains Sunday and Monday sent streams out of their beds, causing flooding on a good deal of low lying farmland across the county, after more than 2 1/2 inches of rain fell.
Melissa Winkler won the Knights of Columbus free throw shooting contest held in Webster City. Winkler a freshman at Mount Ayr Community school, took 1st place in the 14 year old division of the contest making 23 of 25 foul shots.
A Mount Ayr Community student, Laura Jones, has been nominated to participate in the All-State speech festival at the University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls. Jones was nominated for all-state for both her acting and her prose reading entries at the state contest.
Births: March 22, a son, Trey, to Larry and Colette Hunt.
Obituaries in this edition were: Laurie Suzanne Sackett and Rosella Lavonne Smith Greimann.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, April 11, 2013.)
On February 14, thirteen Ringgold County residents boarded a plane in Des Moines. Thirty hours later they stepped foot in Johannesburg, South Africa, the beginning of a two week adventure of a lifetime.
The group comprised the Ringgold Mission Team affiliated and Dr. Jim Blessman and his wife Beth through their humanitarian mission, Blessman Ministries.
Included in the group were Brandy Anderson, Rhonda Brand, Clare Magers, Chad & Jennifer Main, Bill Priest, Bruce & Michell Ricker, Lindsay Ricker, Cyndi Sobotka and Drexel and Lora Wall.
A Ringgold County resident has been named a finalist for the 2013 Iowa Elementary Principal of the year award by the school administrators of Iowa.
Amy Walkup Whittington, elementary principal at Central Decatur, Leon, was nominated by her peers and chosen as one of three state finalists for the honor.
Obituaries in this edition were: Karen Readene England Balster, Evan L. Olney Jr., Diann Lyn Hill Peters, and Robert Sherman Toland.