Looking Back with Lora Stull
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One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record News, Thursday, July 13, 1921.)
During the month of June the Ford Motor Company, through it’s Detroit factories and twenty-two assembly plants through-out the country, reached the production of 108,962 Ford cars and trucks, setting up a new high record for one month.
Despite the fact however, that the Ford plants have been running at maximum capacity, the demand for Ford cars and trucks is not being met and at the present time. Many thousand unfilled orders have been piled up ahead so that Ford sales are still limited by manufacturing facilities rather than marketing possibilities. Particularly is this true with respect to enclosed cars, for which the demand has been unusually heavy.
Telegraphic devices to the Burlington Route report the opening of the Fall River Road across the Continental Divide between Rocky Mountain National Park and the Grand Lake Region Motor stages will be operated regularly. This is the connecting link in a circular two-day (236 mile) trip from Denver, comparing advantageously to any similar trip in the world. (The Old Fall River Road, sometimes referred to as “The Old Road” by park staff in Rocky Mountain National Park, was the first automobile road to penetrate the interior of the park. The road linked the east side of the park near Estes Park with Grand Lake on the west side. Work began in 1913 but was interrupted in 1914 by World War I with final work being completed between 1918 and 1920.)
Marriage: July 6, Ida Virden and Clyde Farmer.
Births: July 7, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nichols.
Obituaries in this edition were: Mary Curry Threslie Houston and Clemency Utterback Slaughter.
Seventy-Five
Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record News,Thursday, July 11, 1946.)
Ross (Bud) Morgan, who sawed his way out of the Clarke County jail on the night of June 18, was captured Saturday near Loch Ayr by Sheriff H.P. Todd. He was turned over to the Clarke County authorities and he is now back in jail awaiting trial on charges of looting a car in Osceola and facing additional charges of jail breaking.
According to Sheriff Todd, Morgan was intoxicated at the time he was found and offered no resistance to arrest.
The development of power in ships owes much to the pioneering work of Robert Fulton. In America, the expansion of steamboats exceeded that of Europe, largely due to his genius.
Fulton above all, was an engineer. He knew how to benefit by trial and error more than anyone else in the field of marine transportation at that time. After his first American steamboat, Fulton rejected steam engines made in Europe. He designed his own engines, made them more efficient than those of European design. They were lighter, more powerful, more economical and more dependable.
Marriages: July 8, Veronica Pine and James Markley…July 3, Lois Powell and Charles Stringham.
Births: July 1, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kling…July 5, a daughter, Linda, to Mr. and Mrs. Chester Wallace…July 4, a son, Robert, to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shay…July 15, a daughter, to Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Seiver…July 7, a daughter, Maurine, to Mr. and Mrs. Keith Rogers…June 2, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Freimel…June 27, a daughter, Donna, to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Pedersen.
Obituaries in this edition were: Eudora Alzina Hoover Miller, Orville D. Beadle and Mrs. John C. Griffith.
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record News, Thursday, July 15, 1971.)
Community residents have been invited to inspect the latest building project in Mount Ayr, the six unit apartment of Mount Ayr Manor Inc. Open house at the building located at the corner of W. Adams and N. Webster Street.
Karl Beesley, a student at Dubuque Theological Seminary, is the new student pastor for the Mount Ayr and Tingley Presbyterian churches. He succeeds Ron Davis.
Brent Geringer, David Henderson and Evelyn McAlexander of Mount Ayr Community high school were event winners in the state Jaycees Junior Champ track meet held at Luther College in Decorah on July 10. Geringer was a double winner in both the shot put and discus throwing 46’5” and 128’ 3.5” respectively. David Henderson won second in the pole vault clearing 11’ and won the 120 yard low hurdles and Miss McAlexander won the 440 yard dash in :67.5.
Obituaries in this edition were: Vera B. Jackson.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record News, Thursday, July 11, 1996.)
As a result of President Clinton’s signing a disaster declaration on July 2, four new southern Iowa counties: Ringgold, Adams, Taylor, and Union have been added to the list of 12 counties already to receive disaster assistance. All 16 counties will receive public assistance and hazard mitigation funding to repair damage resulting from severe storms and flooding in Iowa from May 8-May 28, 1996.
Two 100 year old residents of Clearview Home in Mount Ayr were recognized with certificates from the state of Iowa centenarians. There are now 799 people in Iowa who are 100 years or older.
Marriages: April 20, Amy Peters and Jay Wickham.
Births: July 2, a son, Tyrell, to Scott and Lydia Pollock.
Obituaries in this edition were: Neva June Ray Olney and Darlene Lucille Lantz Emig.
TenYears Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record News, Thursday, July 7, 2011.)
Wednesday, June 29 was a milestone for the Grand Valley Museum building. It returned back to its former home at the old school grounds in Kellerton.
The Foland School was constructed by Michael and Elizabeth (Sowerwine) Foland on their farm located NE of Grand River. Upon the closure of country schools in Iowa, it was moved around the year 1960-1961 to Kellerton. Grand Valley Community school utilized the building as a band and chorus classroom. (The closing of the one-room schoolhouses in rural Iowa would start with the 1950s legislation that stated that all public school districts in Iowa had to provided education from kindergarten to high school. Consolidation of smaller schools into one large school was challenging for the young students making such a big transition. By Iowa law, all public rural schools were closed by June 1966.)
Captain DeAnna Faris Pennings is currently deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, as a executive officer and flight commander in the 4th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron. Her duties as an executive officer include assisting squadron commander with various projects to include expanding the squadron’s facilities to enhance mission effectiveness. The squadron flies the MC-12 aircraft and the primary mission is providing intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance support directly to ground troops.
Obituaries in this edition were: Crystal Winemiller McNutt Gourley, Ruby Ilene Caldwell Schoonover, Jerry Frank Shinn, and Beth Ann Jennings Strange.