Snapshots of History

By Editor | September 24, 2025 |

By Mike Avitt
The Mount Ayr Sesquicentennial Celebration committee asked people to bring their historic Mount Ayr artifacts to be displayed in the courthouse during the event and many did. This week’s picture came from the Rideta Electric Cooperative table and shows their two buildings at 111 and 113 South Fillmore Street.
I know that Rideta moved into 111 S. Fillmore in July of 1944. I don’t know when they took possession of 113 S. Fillmore but I’m guessing it was also 1944.
The building at 113 S. Fillmore was built in 1927 as a tire repair shop and therefore had a auto garage door. Dr. E. C. Sheumaker was the previous occupant of 113 S. Fillmore having moved there in 1939.
This was the perfect building for REC as their truck could be parked next door to their office. The word Rideta was created by taking the first two letters of the words, Ringgold, Decatur, and Taylor.
There were many more REC items on the table, but let me explain something that is important to me.
Someone connected to the Rideta Electric Cooperative saved historically valuable material and displayed that material to the public in the Ringgold County Courthouse during the Sesquicentennial Celebration.
To possess history is one thing; to voluntarily share it with the public is another matter. I want to say, “Thank you,” to those folks who shared their history with the public. Let’s look at some other cool stuff that was on display.
There were several vintage calendars on display and the first thing I look at on an old calendar is the January page. I like to see pristine, unused calendars and all of these were pristine.
There was a 1946 John Deere calendar with Mabel McCullough as the dealer and I believe Mabel acted as an authorized John Deere dealer for only one year.
The Ringgold County Hospital had a table with many items including a photograph of my old friend Dr. Jerry Phipps and one of my former primary care physician Dr. Mike Magers. Many more items, too.
I saw an embroidered shirt that said, “Dairy Sweet.” What I know is…..Beginning in 1993 the spelling of Dairy Sweet was changed to “Dari Sweet.” Both spellings appeared throughout the 1990s. I try to be aware of small details like that.
The United Methodist Church table had a 1913 church directory. Church directories are all the same, right? Not this one. Randolph Beall compiled this directory in April 1913 specifically for the Methodist Episcopal Church Conference to be held at Mount Ayr later that year. Mr. Beall included the street addresses of the church members and this is the earliest I have ever seen street numbers in print.
So, probably one-tenth of the houses in Mt. Ayr are represented in that directory. Cool.
While I was looking at the Mount Ayr history on all three floors of the courthouse, Wendy (Ploeger) Wimer approached me with a couple of Items for the Mount Ayr Depot Museum, and these items were new to me: metal dog tax plates.
There was a slot in each end so the owner could attach the plate to the dog’s collar. One was dated 1933 and the other was 1930. Also, the words “Ringgold County” appeared on each plate.
The Mount Ayr Depot Museum received items of historical interest from three different parties last weekend and some of the photos just might end up in a movie some day!
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the historical aspect of the Sesquicentennial Celebration and thanks to those who personally thanked me for my contributions. It was a great opportunity to get Mount Ayr history out to the public and to see some history that was previously unknown to me.