Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt

By Mike Avitt I’ve written about the past almost 700 times. What if I wrote about the future? It’s been done before. Jack Terry wrote in the Mount Ayr Centennial Book (1975) that we need to face the future “with courage and optimism” as our forebears did. And that Mount Ayr’s future depends “on what…

Last week I honored the Mount Ayr High School class of 1975 as they get together for their 50-year reunion. There are many overeaters in that class, so I know the event will be well catered. The class of 1965 graduated 60 years ago and I found some information on what Mount Ayr was like…

By Mike Avitt The Mount Ayr High School class of 1975 will get together for our 50-year reunion in about three weeks, so I will dedicate this article to those overfed, geriatric grads. We will also take a look at some of the events and way of life of 50 years ago. Many members of…

By Mike Avitt It has been quite some time since I wrote about our friend Harry Bedwell. This week’s picture was scanned from page 65 of the book, “Harry Bedwell – The Last of the Great Railroad Storytellers,” by Frank P. Donovan, Jr. The house is described as being two blocks north of the depot.…

By Mike Avitt Let’s revisit an old mystery that has since been forgotten by most people. During the winter of 1997-98, the Mount Ayr Depot Preservation Corp. members found a gravestone while landscaping the depot grounds. The stone indicates the name of the deceased as Washington Alley. In a bit of irony, the railroad came…

By Mike Avitt Last week I wrote about Charles Thorla who had a sixty-foot tapeworm removed from his abdomen and how alarming it was to see such news in the newspaper. This week we’ll look at some other alarming or bizarre accounts in the newspapers. Bounties paid on destructive animals are nothing new, but did…

The gravestone of Washington Alley in Mt. Ayr. Let’s revisit an old mystery that has since been forgotten by most people. During the winter of 1997-98, the Mount Ayr Depot Preservation Corp. members found a gravestone while landscaping the depot grounds. The stone indicates the name of the deceased as Washington Alley. In a bit…

By Mike Avitt This is a beautiful view of the newly constructed Ringgold County Courthouse in the winter of 1927-28. In two years our courthouse will be 100 years old. Amazing. We should have a celebration or an ice cream eating contest or something like that. The construction of a new courthouse was a major…

By Mike Avitt Shown this week are five Mount Ayr matchcovers. A matchbook contains a staple and matches; this is the cover only, hence matchcover. These little bits of advertising have historical significance for me as I have no photograph of these businesses. I’m currently selecting images for a picture slideshow to be shown at…

By Mike Avitt This week’s photo was loaned to me twenty years ago by Lucile (Buell) Jackson and shows her brother, Ernie, and father, Lynn Buell at the Buell Service Station in Ellston. My research yielded very little info, but let’s see what I found. Before I begin I want to point out the restoration…