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Snapshots of History: Bever-Grimes Cemetery

March 13, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History – Methodist Church at Benton

March 6, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History

February 28, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History

February 21, 2024

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…

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Snapshots from History – Ringgold County Speedway

February 14, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History – Mount Ayr square, west side

February 7, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History – Shannon City Methodist Church

January 31, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History – Wilson Grocery

January 24, 2024

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…

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Snapshots of History: United Food Market

January 17, 2024

United Food Market was a small chain of grocery stores in southern Iowa 90 years ago. In 1933, UFM opened at 107 S. Fillmore, the present location of Every Step. This location was also the site of Mount Ayr’s first chain grocery store, A&P, in 1928-29. The new manager was Richard Barton who had previously…

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Snapshots of History – Corinth School

January 10, 2024

By Mike Avitt While going through a very large number of Clair Heyer photos, I came across three pictures of Corinth School, Jefferson Township No. 8, dated 1966. This schoolhouse was located in section 28 of Jefferson Township on county road J-20, two miles east of the Pole Road (P-33). However, a 1904 plat map…

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