Looking Back

One Hundred Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, January 7, 1925.)
Peter Westevelt, an aged man living with his sister in the Grand River neighborhood, was robbed recently of a sum of money and a quantity of Liberty Bonds.
Mr. Westevelt was in the habit, it was said, of keeping considerable money around the house and had drawn what money he had on deposit in the banks out and hid it around his home.
Evidently, someone familiar with his habits went to the house Sunday night and bound him and his sister thoroughly ransacked the house, after finding the money and bonds that they could, left leaving Mr. Westevelt and his sister bond and gagged.
George Dickey of Redding brought to the county seat Monday morning the pelt of a large gray wolf which he shot in Clinton township.
The wolf was a fine specimen, weighed 35 pounds and measured 5 feet 8 inches from tip to tip. The pelt was brought to town to be exhibited at the office of the County Auditor Palmer, where claim for the $10 bounty was filed.
Mrs. George Irving returned Saturday morning from Ligonier, IN where she spent several weeks with her parents.
Marriage: January 3, Juanita Grubb and Chester Williams…January 7, Alberta Arnold and Clifford Mericz.
Birth: December 10, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Howard Sype…December 22, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Ray Grout…December 25, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Ruel May…December 30, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Grant Stamper.
Obituaries in this edition were: Ruth Gertrude Morris and Frank Dowling.

Seventy-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, January 5, 1950.)
The PM Place Stores Co., operator of variety and notions stores in Missouri and Iowa, has recently announced the purchase of another store, this one in Corning.
Fred Tieman, 54 years unmarried farmer living 4 miles southwest of Diagonal, died Friday afternoon from injuries received after a wood-burning laundry stove exploded in the kitchen of his farm house.
Rowe Denney of Middle Fork township, was elected chairman of the Ringgold County Board of Supervisors at the re-organization meeting held Tuesday.
Miss Belle Sickels returned Tuesday evening to Maryville, MO, where she is a student at Northwest Missouri State teachers college, after spending the holidays with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rex Sickels.
Miss Margaret Turner returned Tuesday to Maryville, MO, to resume her studies at Northwest Missouri State teachers college, after spending the holidays with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Barton Turner.
Births: December 24, a son, Stephen, to Mr. and Mrs. Keith Davis…December 30, a son, David, to Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Brand…December 19, a daughter, Lila, to Mr. and Mrs. Gene Olney…Friday, a daughter, Tarecia, to Mr. and Mrs. Linford Mason…December 27, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Eldon Dillenburg.
Obituaries in this edition were: Henry Clay Beard, Mamie Pearl Long Bird, Mary Jane Bickett Stranahan.

Fifty Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, January 9, 1975.)
First baby of the year born on January 2 was a boy, Charles Ludford Miles. Parents are Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Miles of Hopkins, MO.
The new year didn’t waste much time weatherwise. About 4 inches of the white stuff fell Thursday starting about 7:30 p.m., the snow coated highways and streets making traveling somewhat hazardous.
Open house at the Big Bird Nursery School will be held January 12. The nursery school, a cooperative venture of Ringgold county parents, is located in the former Ruth’s Cafe building on Highway 2 & 169 in Mount Ayr.
Thirty persons interested in services for the elderly met with the Ringgold county supervisors Monday, December 30. Included were representatives of the county project council for Area XIV Agency on Aging plus other interested persons.
The Mount Ayr Volunteer Fire Department answered a total of 39 calls during 1974, of these, three were rescue calls, 3 mutual aid calls and eleven town fires and 22 rural fires.
Marriage: November 29, Marilyn Yashack and Steve Werner…December 21, Doris Fetty and Gilbert Rule…November 23, Terri Schoonover and Colin Gatewood.
Births: December 30, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Craig Elliott…December 31, a daughter to Mrs. Kathy Lowman…January 2, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Miles…January 2, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Tom Drobny…January 6, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick Simpson.

Twenty-Five Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, December 30, 1999.)
The average value of farmland in Iowa slipped in 1999, but Ringgold County farmland bucked the state trend and rose slightly in value. The average value of farmland in Ringgold County increased $11 an acre to $889, up 1.3 percent from $878.
Beginning, Monday, January 3, 2000 the Treasurer’s office in the Ringgold County courthouse will be issuing driver’s licenses.
A Ringgold County student is one of 20 Buena Vista University students to participate in a Holocaust study tour during the January 2000 interim. Cody Cochran of Mount Ayr will take part in a study tour which will feature stops in Prague, the Czech Republic, at a town of Terezin, Poland, and the camps at Auschquiz-Birkenau and Majdanek, the sites of Jewish ghettos in Karakow and Warsaw.
A Kellerton youngster, James L. Dowler III, took home a huge stocking full of presents in a drawing held at CGI Foods in Mount Ayr for the holidays.
Obituaries in this edition were: Frances Olive Day Boles, Neoma May Feuring Bucy, Evelyn Bernice Miller Manning.

Ten Years Ago
(From the Mount Ayr Record-News,Thursday, January 1, 2015.)
Year in review: Winter 2014 was the coldest in 141 years of weather records; “Nunsense” was the highlight of the annual Princess Gala; Raider track team celebrated their Class 1A state championship in May; Strong storms battered trees and dropped heavy rains; The Raiders made the state football playoff semi-finals; sightings of magnificent bald eagles became a regular occurrence in Ringgold County; The states 1st tobacco harvest hangs to dry at the farm of David and Jen Breneman; MAC Sparks drill team placed 2nd in both the pom division and the novelty division at the state drill team competition.
Births: December 22, a son, Logan, to Mr. and Mrs. Greg Still.
Obituaries in this edition were: Garnita Ellouise Laird Ewart and Mary Ellen Yashack Lesan.