Looking Back
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One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, August 13, 1924.)
Kellerton News~A severe wind storm that seemed to assume almost cyclone like aspect in some places struck this community Friday morning, doing considerable damage.
Telephone poles were blown down and trees badly damaged in some places. A large plate glass in the post office building was broken and Roy Davis’ house, on their farm just west of town, was moved somewhat on the foundation.
The laundry requirements of a big circus afford something of a problem. When the Ringling~Barnum big show struck Des Moines the week’s washing was turned over to one of the big laundries of the city.
The collection consisted of 864 shirts, 1,738 pillow cases, 1,674 sheets, 39 bed spreads, 1,175 collars, and handkerchiefs by the hundreds. Then there were socks, pajamas, BVD’s such like, making the average family washing look like the proverbial thirty cents.
A day of Inspection ~Defense day is merely an inspection day, as President Coolidge has said. It is a day when the American people get together and ask each other, “in case of war emergency, what could you do and how quick could you do it?”
The day is devoted to an examination of our resources not only in munitions but in other supplies and the means of transporting them where needed. It is a sort of taking an inventory which every careful business man does every year. It is the sensible thing to do, and President Coolidge, being a sensible man and charged with the respondsibility of caring for national defense, is doing it.
Marriage: Bessie Stahl and F.C. McCallon were united in marriage…July 28, Ed Jackson and Marion Hacker…August 2, Roy Ruby and Hazel Hubbard.
Birth: June 15, a daughter, June, to Mr. and Mrs. C.T. Connor.
Obituaries in this edition were: Friend Cook and William West.
Seventy-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, August 11, 1949.)
Kenneth Driftmier, 29, superintendent of the Shelby Grundy experimental farm near Beaconsfield, was critically injured late Monday when he fell into a 30 foot well at the farm.
He fell into the water at the bottom of the well, and was nearly drowned before he was rescued by Roy Hammond of Beaconsfield, another worker at the farm.
The contracting of a janitor and four bus drivers this week made complete the corps of employees of the Mount Ayr school for the coming year. The appointments, made Monday evening at a meeting of the school board, are Ardis Ward, janitor and Dean Sickels, Sam Sickels, Roy Warner and Weldon Barker bus drivers. Ward will assist H.E. French and receive a salary of $1,950.
Marriage: August 1, Esther Walker and Otto Blessman…August 5, Myrtle Kaster and Roslyn Moore…August 5, Retha Motsinger and William H. French…August 7, Dorothy Jeanes and George Saville.
Births: August 8, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Cavendar…July 28, a son Richard, to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hammond…July 28, a daughter Kathryn, to Mr. and Mrs. Herman Reimer…August 7, a daughter Nancy, to Mr. and Mrs. John Davis…August 9, a daughter Carolyn, to Mr. and Mrs. Dean Crecelius.
Obituaries in this edition were: Betty Lou Bowen Van Lyoc, Raymond R. Hunt and Poe Johnston.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, August 18, 1974.)
A total of 200 farmers in Ringgold County have applied for disaster payments because of the drought, according to Bernard Sobotka, local ASCS director.
The first appreciable precipitation in almost a month came last weekend in Mount Ayr, too late to help the corn crop, but perhaps soon enough to help the beans and certainly welcome for pastures.
The official gauge at Barton French home in Mount Ayr registered 1 3/4 inches from Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Lightening was cited as the cause of two fires Tuesday morning. One at the home of John May on N. Hayes St. and the other in the Benton area, where a hay stack on the Howard Horne farm had been set afire.
Mount Ayr Raider, Ken Munyon, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.K. Runyon, a junior pitcher, was named to the Tall Corn conference baseball all-star team.
Marriage: August 4, Pam Henry and Roger Hill…June 16, Diana Hammond and Curt Turner.
Births: July 30, a daughter, Rhonda, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Holle…August 7, a son, Joseph, to Mr. and Mrs. Mike Bainum.
Obituaries in this edition were: Henry R. Miler, Eura Irene Forbes Mulholand, and Russell S. “Dick” Wiley.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, August 5, 1999.)
Dirt work got underway this week for the new doctor’s clinic building being built next to the Ringgold County Hospital.
Help from the public is being sought to find Lyle Leonard, 46, of Clearfield, who has been reported missing by his family. Leonard was last seen between 10:30 and 11 p.m. at the Kellerton bar.
Shannon Norris, daughter of Steve and Sharla Norris of Kellerton, won the grand champion senior showmanship award recently at the Ringgold County Fair while showing her wild mustang.
Showing the reserve champion market lamb at Ringgold County Fair. was Robert Tidman.
Allison Quick of Redding has been doing very well in go-kart racing events in Missouri recently.
State Representative Cecil Dolecheck of Mount Ayr helped provide “full service” at Lynn’s Texaco in Mount Ayr during a promotion by the Republican Party in cooperation with the Petroleum Marketers of Iowa.
Obituary in this edition was Valnetta Mendenhall Craft.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, August 7, 2014.)
Two longtime Mount Ayr Businessmen Retire ~After 45 years of practice Dr. Max Mekus has closed the door on his veterinary Clinic, and as of July 31 Dr. Mekus is officially retired.
Saying that dentistry is a Lawhead family tradition is no overstatement. From his grandfather, to his father and then to him, Collus Lawhead is a third generation Mount Ayr dentist. After having to call it quits in dentistry because of medical reasons, Dr. Collus Lawhead doesn’t have any specific plans, but he enjoys singing in the First Christian Church Choir, helping with vacation bible school, and golfing.
Engineer controversy continues~ At their regular meeting Monday, August 4, the Ringgold County board of supervisors continued to deal with controversy surrounding the county engineer’s proposal at the July 28 meeting to restructure personnel at the secondary roads department.
An audience of over 80 people packed the third floor courtroom in the Ringgold County Courthouse Tuesday, August 5 for a special meeting of the Ringgold County board of supervisors to review the contract of county engineer Zach Gunsolley.
Obituaries in this edition were: Vera Madeline Haidsiak Carson, Mickey Ray Austin, Permelia Ann Eslinger Fletchall, Bessie Opal Williamson Hagans-Line, Ruth Deloris Powell Cavendar.