Snapshots of History by Mike Avitt

By Editor | January 28, 2026 |

This photo is one of many photos that were developed from glass negatives found in the old Record-News office. The newspaper office moved from 119 N. Taylor in 1988 and many glass negatives were discovered in the process. I put all the photos in the 1913 to 1915 range. This picture shows a dog called Snowball on North Taylor Street.
Shirley Hickman ran this photo in the Mount Ayr Record-News on January 12, 1989 with her column Ayr Views. Shirley relates the origin of the picture and indicates the location as North Taylor Street as the old Record-News building can clearly be seen across the street. Then she asked her readers for more information about the photo. And she was successful.
Remember, this is 1989 and there were plenty of people around who could remember the 1920s and 1930s. Snowball’s owner was John Whitmore, a blind man who lived behind a barber shop on N. Taylor Street. Snowball was John’s seeing-eye dog.
John Whitmore had two sons: Verne “Happy” Whitmore and Merle Whitmore. Some of my readers will recall them. John died in 1936 and his obituary says Mr. Whitmore lost his sight on his farm in Grant Township – 1892. John Whitmore had some success as a real estate agent after that. He spent many years living with his sons.
Many years ago I found Snowball’s obituary on page five of the June 20, 1923 Record-News. Yes, an obituary for a dog. Snowball died of old age and the dog was lauded for its intelligence and faithfulness. Many locals expressed condolences and laid flowers on Snowball’s (box) coffin. The beloved animal was laid to rest on the old farm in Grant Township.
Ayr Views was a weekly column in the Record-News and made its debut on August 18, 1988. Shirley Hickman wrote the column on the behalf of the Preservation Partnership, an organization devoted to the collection and preservation of Mount Ayr history. In 1988, readers were encouraged to bring photographs and information to the Preservation Partnership booth at the Ayr Days celebration. The items would then be copied and photographed for use by the organization. Readers were also asked to mail in pictures or call in history details. That’s what was done in the days before the internet.
Shirley continued the column until 1992. Many of the photographs she collected are now at the Mount Ayr Depot Museum. In some cases, she would publish a photo asking for information. And then rerun the picture a few weeks later when she had details about the image.
The Ayr Views articles are on the digitized newspapers and are free. In her April 11, 1991 column, Shirley wrote about the people depicted in the Corn Parade mural hanging in the Mount Ayr Post Office. In the far lower left corner is William Belvel with the camera. He was an active photographer and barber in the 1910 to 1930 time frame. To Belvel’s right is “Doc” Brown. This gentleman came up once in my search (1923) as he was visiting here from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Howard Tedford is said to be seen in the far lower right. Others mentioned in Shirley’s article are Tommy Bevington, Bill Egly and Wesley Garton.
I inherited most of the photo collection of the Preservation Partnership when I joined the Mount Ayr Depot Preservation Corporation in 2001. I was told the Preservation Partnership was formed in the 1980s for the purpose of saving historically significant buildings such as the Mount Ayr Hotel, Brand’s Standard Service Station and the railroad depot. Well, we got one out of three!

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