McDonnell Appliance donated an item to the Mount Ayr Depot Museum this week. It is one of those little metal racks that hold non-personalized checkbooks. In the 1980s and before, local businesses offered counter checks to its customers with the names of local banks on the checks. No account numbers needed. The banks identified the…

By Mike Avitt Thanks to Bill Stringham for suggesting this topic and thanks to Donna (Hartman) Jones for the photo and some info. I didn’t think I would find much information on the Popcorn Stand, but I did. The Popcorn Stand was on the east side of the Mount Ayr square in the vacant lot…

The Benton Community Center was built in 1992. Before that, some Benton events were held at the former Methodist Church. I didn’t have information on that church’s last service but I was able to find it. In the years 1966 and 1967 the church directory in the Record-News listed Raymond Banner as the person delivering…

By Mike Avitt Using mostly the Ringgold Record newspapers, I found some early history on Clearfield. Beginning in 1907, I have access to the Clearfield Enterprise, and in 1910, the Lenox Timetable. There is a beautiful mural on Clearfield’s main thoroughfare and I took this week’s picture of that mural last week. The Humeston &…

By Mike Avitt Take notice of the upstairs windows. There are four upstairs windows on the left storefront and five on the right; same building. I have never seen that before. Tingley’s Opera House was built in 1894 and had quite a formal opening. Colonel William P. Hepburn, a Republican Congressman from Clarinda, Iowa, was…

By Mike Avitt I took this week’s picture in April 2011 and in 1949, the storefront nearest the camera was the home of Mount Ayr’s first television set. Ted Marrs had a radio shop in that location and he put a new TV on display there in July 1949. But, who had the first radio?…

By Mike Avitt Automobiles first began to appear in Ringgold County in the years 1905-09. By 1910 cars were becoming more common and in need of maintenance and fuel. Autos advanced well ahead of roads and service stations. Tires were inferior and roads were treacherous. Repair and blacksmith shops were already in existence ahead of…

By Mike Avitt This is a great view of Knowlton as seen between the years 1905-1915. The view is looking southeast and shows all three of Knowlton’s brick buildings. The photo appears to have been taken from the upstairs window of the two-story, wood-frame high school which was built in 1894. What we know as…

Kellerton High School’s gymnasium was built in 1951 and beginning in 1952, the remaining Ringgold County Girls’ Basketball Tournament games were played here. Prior to that, most of the tournaments were held at Beaconsfield. The first tournament in the modern era was played in 1942 with the Delphos girls as champs. After that the Tingley…

By Mike Avitt Here’s what the Tingley Vindicator newspaper had to say about sports in its April 2, 1903 edition: “Basketball is becoming as much of a menace to life and limb as football.” The Vindicator was not in the minority on this issue. I have read several articles in local newspapers warning against dangerous…