Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt

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…

I believe this is my first time covering Barton and Laura (Stiles) Dunning, the first residents of Mount Ayr. We are fortunate to have a picture of Mr. Dunning as he died in 1877. This week’s portraits come from page 3 of the Mount Ayr Centennial Book. So, where did these photos come from and…

I got this week’s picture from both Jeff Klein and Lolly (Beaman) Summerwill. Jeff is the great-grandson of Mr. Downie and Lolly is Downie’s granddaughter. The picture came with the information that Everal Sumner Downie is seen driving his Cartercar with Burr Newton as his passenger. I question the identity of Mr. Newton as Burr…

This week’s picture shows station manager Art Clayton servicing what appears to be a 1928 Chevrolet at the Diagonal Skelly in 1932. Art is wearing a white uniform and I can see three gravity-flow gasoline pumps on a beautifully landscaped driveway. The movie theater can be seen to the left. A large sign advertises Tagolene…

This picture postcard appeared on Facebook recently and I love it. The picture was posted by Tami Foster and shows, not only the Kellerton depot, but the surrounding rail yard. The photographer was situated in an upstairs window of the Odd Fellows building across the street with the camera pointing northwest. The card was postmarked…