Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt

By Mike Avitt In this week’s photo we see Ben Thompson being recognized for fifty years of continuous service with the Mount Ayr Fire Department. Ben lived in rural Ringgold County until 1888 and joined the department in 1889 when he was twenty-five years old. Mr. Thompson’s retirement gift was an upholstered chair and ottoman.…

Sometimes folks need to be motivated and on May 10, 1879, they were. Fire broke out in the early morning hours on the north side of Mount Ayr’s square and didn’t stop until it had reached the alley in the middle of the block. Going the other way, the fire turned north on the northeast…

By Mike Avitt The Bever-Grimes Cemetery is located in section 12 of Jefferson Township. The cemetery’s location is about a mile and a quarter southeast of Shannon City. This was also the site of Ringgold County’s first church building in 1858. Frame buildings were not yet being erected in Ringgold County so this would have…

By Mike Avitt The picture with this week’s article shows the Methodist Church at Benton around 1910. It was built in 1890, in part, with money raised by having a livestock auction. It was the first church built in the new town of Benton. Let’s look at the early years in Benton. Before Benton came…

By Mike Avitt This week’s photo shows Norm Klejch, representing the Mount Ayr Lions Club, driving a Kiddie Train at the 2010 Ayr Days celebration. I sometimes get asked about Ayr Days and its predecessors, so let’s look at the history. It all started in September 1956 with an event called “Ridiculous Days.” A committee…

By Mike Avitt I first moved to Mount Ayr 54 years ago and have lived in about fifteen different locations here since then. Many of those residences are no longer standing. Sometimes, I grab a large coffee and drive around Mount Ayr looking at houses, especially older houses. I will point out there is one…

Thanks to Merle Walter for this week’s photo. Merle says he got it from Bob Ricker years ago. This week we’ll look at the final years of the speedway. The first race was held in 1957 and was sponsored by the Mount Ayr Jalopy Club. At this time, the track was called the Mount Ayr…

By Mike Avitt This is the only photo I have of three business buildings that burned in 1927. The 1927 fire is historic in that it was the last fire on the Mount Ayr square to involve wood-frame buildings. And this fire changed the landscape of the Mount Ayr square. Fire was discovered in the…

My friend Karen Simpson gave me a stack of old newspapers a few weeks ago and in it I found a supplement to the Afton Star-Enterprise about the history of Shannon City. It was dated May 21, 1981 and was written and compiled by David Pugh. Mr. Pugh was a publisher of both the Diagonal…

By Mike Avitt Last week I mentioned several of Mount Ayr’s grocery stores in the 1930s. This week we’ll look at some earlier than that. The building in this week’s article was built in 1891 for grocer H. H. Wilson. Mr. Wilson passed away in 1922, but many readers will remember his son, Attorney Frank…