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…

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…

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…

Diagonal’s first school building was believed to have been built in 1892. Previously, Washington Township No. 3 was used as Diagonal’s school. This week we’ll look at the first year of Diagonal’s existence – 1889. In late 1887, the Chicago, St. Paul, & Kansas City Railroad laid its tracks through Ringgold County creating the towns…

By Mike Avitt This week’s picture shows the Chicago Burlington & Quincy depot looking north. In the background to the right, a couple of houses can be seen and those houses are in the original town of Redding. I also find it very interesting that the railroad put the depot between Old Redding and New…

This week’s picture comes from a postcard with a caption that reads, “4069A Christian Church, Ellston, Iowa.” My experience with these types of postcards tells me this card is from the years 1910-1912. We can clearly see a house to the left of the church. The Evangelical Church in Wirt (Wirt became Ellston on January…

By Mike Avitt Bob and Kay Sickels took this week’s picture in 1992, prior to the restoration process. The depot was restored and opened as a museum in 2000. The Burlington Northern Railroad officially closed the 19.7 miles of line from Lamoni to Mount Ayr on April 8, 1976. It is likely rail service ceased…

I recently posted a picture of the Mount Ayr depot on Facebook and someone asked when the last train left Mount Ayr. Two gentlemen responded that it was 1965 or earlier. I say it was spring 1977. Let’s see who is right. When the railroad came to Mount Ayr in 1879, it was called the…