LOOKING BACK in the Early Files by Lora Stull

The extent to which a community may be agitated by the prevalence of one case of small pox was demonstraqted during the past week after A.M. Carr, who moved from Poe township to a farm near Tingley, was placed under quarantine for the disease. Mr. Carr had not been feeling well for a few days previous to a week ago Saturday, when he was in Mount Ayr, and during the time he was preparing to move. Neighbors had helped with the moving preparations and on the occasion of his visit to Mount Ayr he circulated freely amoung his friends. On Tuesday of last week Mr. Carr was not feeling so well and went to the office of Dr. DeLong in Tngley. Dr. DeLong, who during his years of practice has treated the disease, immediately recognized the patient was suffering from small pox and the home was placed under quarantine. Mrs. Carr and the daughter in the home were vaccinated.

Sheriff Fred Collings, of Union county, was shot from ambush Monday afternoon when he went to the home of George Gibson in the edge of Thayer to serve notice on Gibson to vacate a strip of land on his farm which had been condemmed for road purposes. Sheriff Collings died from the effect of the wound about eleven o’clock yesterday forenoon. The shot, which was fired from the barn on the Gibson Farm, pierced the sheriff through the abdomen. Sheriff Collings was able, with the assistance of Marshal Burke, to make his way to the automobile and was taken to a garage in Thayer, where he  was given first aid treatment, and where Gibson, who joined the throng which had gathered, was arrested by Marshal Burke. Gibson was held in the Creston jail and after the death of Collings yesterday County Attorney Don Harper filed charge of first degree murder against him.

Marriage: March 3, Vaughn Johnston and Mildred Shields.

Births: February 27, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Williams and a son, Warren Linden,  to Mr. and Mrs. Warren Drake.

Obituaries in this edition were: Roy Wood and Alice Ruth Abarr Stephens.

The editor of the Record News is in receipt of the following good letter under the date of February 18, from Sgt. Lyle L. Dulany, who is presently stationed in Korea.

“Dear Friends, well hello again from the Far East Command. It has been six years since I wrote the home town paper from this locality under similar circumstances. Little did I realize then that this could happen again or I might have had a much different attitude. Korea is a very sad and sorry affair. Even without a war to tear it up I can’t visualize the average American living under these circumstances, voluntarily, I mean. This nation is supposedly one of the oldest known civilizatons, 4,000 years old. The progress they’ve made could hardly be compared with any four years of ours. To you who haven’t seen or studied it, it just isn’t believable. If it weren’t for the threat that we might have to meet Communism in good old Iowa some day, I don’t believe we could find the courage to carry on. The question repeatedly asked every day, what are ‘We doing here?’ or ‘What are we fighting for?’ both by the enlisted men and the officers. So far we can’t get a very suitable answer. Some don’t call it a war, they term it a police action. If they could see it or just a part of it in the bitter, freezing cold, I’m sure they coulld see it very much differently.

The ones that call it a war are the military people who have seen it before and realize what it is. It is felt heavily by those and their families. We, the little G.I.’s who can’t yell loud enough to be heard where it counts, believe there is too much politics involved. You can’t  mix politicians and military men and get a sensible answer which has one bit of good common horse sense in it. The way it is in this situation they are stepping on each others toes wherever they turn. The Korean race is a pitiful people, who just don’t seem to care who they help or who rules them. It is a difficult task to get any supplies or materials from them as they just don’t have anything. Rice farming is their only source of survival, and if it were not for this they could not exist here in South Korea. Everything is done in a very primitive manner. Washing clothes consists of beating them on rocks in a could stream. Rice meal and such is ground by hammering by hand. The irrigation problem has been solved by building dikes and levees of mud and rock which is very inferior to our poorest grade of clay. The land is over populated and it is not unusual to find ten or twelve people living in a small room, 6×6, of their baked mud huts. They just tie all of their belongings in a bundle, put it on their backs and migrate around in neutral terrritory not knowing where to go next. Diseases and filth run high and this war is making it much worse.

As we move on and free more land from the chinks they move in like leeches to find their towns completely destroyed. This is the only way  to make sure you are cleaning up all of the enemy.

As for the North Korean army, it could no longer exist if it weren’t for the Chinese which are being eliminated in a hurry now. As for the Chinese, typhus is now running high along with their casualties. Their clothing and equipment are very inferior. It is hard to understand how they can stand the bitter cold. I don’t believe they could if they didn’t stay doped most of the time.

They are definitely on the run and if we can keep them that way I can’t see how we can have to stay much longer, unless of course, the United Nations and political affairs get us too involved with China and Russia. Then the question would be, would there ever be an end?

One doesn’t realize what a home town and a place like Ringgold County can be until they have to go to a foreign country to fight for something such as this. Believe me it hurts much more when you get a little older and have to go back for seconds within a five-year period.

Thank you for reading this gripe from a mighty cold Ringgold  County veteran.”  Sgt. Lyle L. Dulany. (Sgt. Dulany is the father of  Denise Golliday, and Debbie Cannon of Mount Ayr.)

  Marriage: February 24, Howard Bryan and Dixie Scraub.. February 17, Bertha Weichert and Carl Tamerius..March 3, Marilyn Morton and Robert Park..February 27, Norma Rees and Kenneth Creveling..January 26, Rose Ballew and Virgil Ashley.

Births: March 2, a daughter, Deborah, to mr. and Mrs. J.F. Krisinger..Sunday evening, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Duane Hawk..February 23, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Nelson..February 28, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Burl Mobley.

Obituaries in this edition were: Starr King Williams, Ralph Brenizer.

Cecil Dolecheck, rural route Kellerton, was elected president of the Ringgold County Pork Producers association at a meeting of the board of directors held Feb. 23. Dolecheck succeeds Randall Lynch of Maloy who served during the first year of the association’s being active here.

Births: Feb. 25, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Green..Feb. 25, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Ronald George..Feb. 26, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Gregg..Feb. 26, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Reasoner..March 1, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Adams.

Three Mount Ayr community high school students will attend the National Business Professionals of America conference in Annaheim, CA May 9-13. Those advancing are Melissa Winkler, Rachel Haley and BreAnn Weeda.

Marriages: September 30, 2000, Howard Noel and Callie Pherigo..September 16, 2000, Trudy Townsend and Aaron Fry.

Obituaries in this edition were: Terry Alan Bolinger and Richard Forest Stephens.

Mount Ayr’s appearance in the 2016 Class 1A Girls State Basketball Tournament may show up as a loss in the record book, but anyone who attended the game can tell you the Raiderettes gave top-ranked and undefeated Turkey Valley more than they bargained for in the first-round game.

Trailing by one point, 52-51, with only 22 seconds to go in the game, the Raiderettes were held scoreless from then on and eventually fell 55-51, to end their 2015-2016 season.

Obituaries in this edition were Ted Lee Foland, William Marvin Morse, Betty Jane Barnhart Robertson and Danny Dean Elliott.