Looking Back
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, July 2, 1924.)
Announcing the opening of our new clothing store in Mount Ayr.
We are pleased to announce to the people of Ringgold County and surrounding territory that our new clothing store is now ready for business. We are located in the storeroom formerly occupied by the Grimes Clothing on the north side of the square and the stock is new throughout. Irving & Reynard Clothing (George Irving and John Reynard).
Reminiscenes of Pioneer Days in Ringgold County by F. W. Johnson.
They say one should never grow reminiscent, but I have a notion to break this rule and relate some incidents connected with the pioneer days of Ringgold county of which I have been an eye witness or have become acquainted with the facts by hearing them told by still older pioneers.
I frequently tell what to me are amusing incidents of the early days in the county, and recently one of my victims to whom I was talking, was kind enough to seem interested, and said I ought to get busy and give some of these experiences to the press before I check in.
The editor of the Record News also asked me to write some pioneer sketches, as I have before written a few articles for this paper on different subjects. I have often wished that some still older pioneers like Edgar Sheldon, L.O. Imus, F.B. Soles, Mrs. George Lesan or others would recount in the Record News some of the historical incidents of the county. I am sure they could write some very interesting articles and much of this pioneer history should be preserved.
But to properly start a biographical sketch I suppose it is always proper to refer to one’s birth. I was born in Knox County, Ohio, and that is why I happened to be a resident of the United States. When I was eighteen years old my parents concluded to move to Iowa, and we landed in Afton in September 1871, and in Mount Ayr on Monday, October 2, 1871. And this accounts for my residence here at this time.
I have never regretted my father’s decision to move to Iowa and to Ringgold County. If I had my life to live over again I know of no better place to live than in Mount Ayr or Ringgold County.
When we came to Mount Ayr the town did not look much like it does now. In fact the town has improved considerably since 1871.
When we arrived there were no beautiful filling stations for cars but instead the filling stations in those days consisted of saloons or drug stores. Some people complain so much money is spent for gasoline, but the spare change is better invested in gasoline than in booze. None of us would care to return to the old saloon days in Mount Ayt. Since I have disposed of “Spark Plug” and invested in a Ford, the temperance argument will vindicate a part of the gasoline expenditure.
One fact that convinces me that I am an old settler is that there are very few people living in Mount Ayr at the present time who were here when I landed in town.
This is the roll of the residents as near as I can recall: Dr. Wm. Horne and wife, F.B. Soles and family, Mrs. S. Bailey, Mrs. Freshwater, Harry Abrams, Bert Williams, Lee Kinsell, Mrs. A. R. Shriplin, Mrs. G.S. Allyn, John Dowling, R.S. Beall and Charles Fry. Among the old houses still standing in Mount Ayr which were considered mansions in the early days are the Dr. J. T. Merrill and L.W. Laughlin houses, which were built a short time before I came.
When I first landed in Mount Ayr the county seat was in some respects better off than at the present time, for the county actually boasted of a fine frame courthouse. It stood on the ground now occupied by the Krouch Hdw. Store.
After the second courthouse was built in 1883 which was torn down 2 years ago, much of the land around Mount Ayr was open prairie. The cost of the second courthouse was $38,000 and that seemed like a bigger sum in those days than $150,000 does now.
The members of the board of supervisors who had charge of the construction of the old courthouse were S.W. Moore, father of W. Moore of this city; J.P. Price, now pastor of the Christian Church at Bedford, and T.A. Stephenson, of Jefferson township, whose death occurred about a year ago.
The contract for the construction of the old building was let to the Allen Construction company of St. Joseph and they imported a good deal of negro help to work on the building. A brick kiln was started on the 40 acres owned by John Scott in the north part of town, just south of the Leather’s residence. E.P. Reed helped haul the brick from the kiln to the court house yard. He must have taken the contract a little low, but he played even by working faster.
I doubt if anyone in the country ever did more work in one summer than Mr. Reed did the year the courthouse was built. He stayed with the job and never complained about the wages.
It was while the courthouse was being built that Thos. Shay became involved in a quarrel with a big negro hod carrier (a laborer employed in carrying supplies to bricklayers, stonemasons, cement finishers, or plasterers on the job). The negro struck Mr. Shay a blow that resulted in his death. This occurred on Memorial Day. Mr. Shay was a solider of the Civil War and his tragic death made a sad ending of the day.
Obituary in this edition was Jacob Austin Mickael.
Seventy-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, June 30, 1949.)
Gary Morgan, 11, was committed as “a neglected and dependent child” to the Soldiers Orphan Home in Davenport at a hearing Monday morning. Judge Charles J. Lewis presided. (Wikipedia: In 1949, the facility was renamed “The Annie Wittenmyer Home” by the Iowa General Assembly. In 1960, the focus of the home shifted from that of an orphanage to a residential special education and behavioral counseling facility. In 1975, the Wittenmyer Home closed having helped an estimated 12,000 children and provided a century of service. From 1976 until November 2005, the Administration Building became a branch of the Davenport Public Library until the new Fairmount Branch was opened in January 2006.)
Plans for a new building for the housing of swine and sheep were approved by members of the fair board at a meeting held last Thursday evening.
The work of rebuilding Diagonal Theatre, which was started several weeks ago, has been completed, and is now ready for the installation of seats and equipment. The theatre was destroyed by fire last January and sometime later the Chamber of Commerce undertook the job of selling shares to the business men of the town, in order to raise sufficient funds to do the rebuilding.
Marriage: June 18, Margaret Haning and John Henderson…June 12, Clara Kiefer and Edward Bisdee…Saturday morning, Maxine Abell and Lloyd Jones.
Birth: June 22, a daughter, Marcia, to Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Michelson…June 23, a daughter, Patricia, to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hall.
Obituaries in this edition were: Donold Orrin Saville (11yrs), Mary Elba Maxwell Ross, Olive Rose Miller Greenman, Meredith Elaine Eighmy (6yrs).
Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, July 4, 1974.)
Ground breaking ceremonies were held Friday for a new nursing home in Mount Ayr. Mount Ayr Health Care Center, Inc. a fifty bed facility being built by L.W. “Joe” Gross, will be located on Hwy 2, just west of the new Iowa Department of Agriculture building on the north side.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety reminds all motorists that after July 1, they will be permitted to make a right hand turn when facing a steady red stop light, after they have come to a complete stop, unless a sign is in place prohibiting such a turn.
Mount Ayr rural route 2 will be discontinued and consolidated with the other two routes effective Saturday July 6, 1974.
Births: July 1, daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Dick Still…June 20, son, Sean, to Mr. and Mrs. Dave Barlett.
Obituaries in this edition were Mamie M. Ellis Wheeler and James Spencer.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, June 24, 1999.)
A perfect hand of cribbage isn’t dealt very often, but that’s what happened when Raymond Greene and Everett Reynolds were playing cribbage at Clearview Home in Mount Ayr Sunday evening.
A young Mount Ayr resident, Jamie King, was seriously injured in an accident last Thursday. King was southbound on Hwy 169 when a lawn mower driven by Doris Walters entered the roadway and when King swerved to avoid hitting Walters his car left the roadway and overturned.
Fourth through sixth grade classes at Mount Ayr elementary school were visited by Carey Crowson of Ankeny, a 1972 graduate of Mount Ayr Community School. He tunes and restores pianos for a living. For a second career, he has been composing Des Moines “jingles” for many years. Some of the more familiar “jingles” heard on the radio and television that Crowson has composed and sung include one for “Kum & Go”, the Barnstormers theme and Adventureland theme.
Obituaries in this edition were: Winnie Morgan Greene…Lela Pauline “Davis” Peterson…Avery Guy Sheldon and Lowene “Lee” Staiger.
Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, June 26, 2014.)
Tobacco~Ringgold County’s next cash crop?
If you asked to name the cash crops grown in Ringgold County, most people would immediately answer corn or soybeans. However, if David and Jen Breneman are successful with their experiment, tobacco may soon be added to that list.
Recent heavy rains earlier in the month have caused an estimated $300,000 in damage to county roads and bridges.
Jonathan, Tyler, and Kevin Triggs exhibited the Grand Champion spotted gilt at the World Pork Expo held in Des Moines June 7.
Obituary in this edition was Orlin Richard Henson.