Snapshots of History

By Editor | November 20, 2024 |

By Mike Avitt
This week’s photo shows Gary Keenan of Des Moines carving an elm tree stump into an eagle over the Liberty Bell.
It was Keenan who suggested the design and the Ringgold County Board of Supervisors agreed. Keenan was paid $750 for his effort.
I took this photo in January 2006 and I’m glad I did, because the sculpture is gone today. I took a photo in 2018 that shows the sculpture but it disappeared sometime after that.
The fact is, there are many things missing from the Ringgold County courtyard and some things have been added.
In 1916 a concrete and stone bandstand was erected on the north side of the courthouse and it was torn down in February 1951. At the same time, the concrete base of the Howitzer on the northwest corner of the courtyard was removed. The Howitzer gun was donated to Ringgold County in 1928 and was donated to a World War II scrap drive in 1942.
Removal of some elm trees made room for the shelter house on the southeast corner of the courtyard. A slab measuring 26 feet by 34 feet was poured in early June 1972. The shelter house was built soon after.
In November 1897, a steel tower was erected on the northeast corner to act as a fire alarm and curfew bell. A modern fire siren was purchased in March 1916 and the tower was dismantled after that.
The soldiers and sailors monument on the northeast corner of the square was dedicated July 4, 1918 (during World War I) so it has been in place 104 years, now.
There was a concrete slab on the southwest corner of the courtyard where the high school band played while sitting in folding chairs.
I did not have this information on my hard drive and in the few minutes I searched the old newspapers, it didn’t come up. It was there in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It was where the Peggy Whitson Rock is today.
The Whitson rock was placed in the courtyard in 2018 and dedicated April 6, 2019. Bubba Sorensen transformed the rock into a beautiful monument for astronaut Peggy Whitson.
Remember when there was music emitting from speakers on the square? Those speakers were installed in October 2013. I haven’t heard the tunes lately so I don’t know what happened there.
In 2019 Eighmy Monument placed the Veterans Memorial monument on the northwest corner. It is an outstanding and powerful tribute to veterans.
The Scottish telephone booth was installed in August 1986 with help from the Robert Burns Society. It was operational for many years. It is still there today.
The Mount Ayr square was paved with brick in 1915. There was a hitching rack in place at this time, but a decision had to be made concerning replacement of the hitching posts as paving would soon change the surface of the street.
It was decided to plant steel pipe posts every eight feet except in the area of a driveway or sidewalk entrance. A chain would run through a loop in the top of the post for hitching horses or mules. The cost of material and labor was $525 which caused a great deal of disagreement and hindsight questioning. But the deal was finally consummated.
I couldn’t find when the hitching posts were removed but the steel post were cut off even with the bricks and can still be seen.
I’ve omitted many things like the fire escape that goes all the way up to the old jail on the fourth floor of the courthouse. It was probably installed in the 1980s.
Did you know in the 1970s, there was no night time sheriff’s office dispatcher? If you called the sheriff in the middle of the night, Ringgold County Sheriff Elbert Strange would then call deputy LaVerne Worthington and make him get out of bed!
Things were different 50 years ago.