By Mike Avitt The Mount Ayr Sesquicentennial Celebration committee asked people to bring their historic Mount Ayr artifacts to be displayed in the courthouse during the event and many did. This week’s picture came from the Rideta Electric Cooperative table and shows their two buildings at 111 and 113 South Fillmore Street. I know that…

By Mike Avitt A couple of things happened this week that I must mention. Tony Mercer announced that he has succeeded in getting the Ringgold County centennial books online for viewers at no cost. Tony has previously gotten most of Ringgold County’s newspapers and high school annuals online, as well. So, I was poking around…

By Mike Avitt This week’s photo appears on page 183 of the book, “Early History of Ringgold County,” by Mrs. B. M. (Maryann) Lesan. I’m usually pretty good at narrowing down the date of undated pictures, but this one has me buffaloed. I know the date to be between 1917 and 1936, that’s all. I…

By Mike Avitt We get many items donated to the Mount Ayr Depot Museum every year and this year has been no exception. Frank Baker recently donated a box of old stuff, so let’s see what in it. But, first, let me remind our readers how fragile paper is and how, during World War II,…

By Mike Avitt I photographed this week’s picture from A. T. Andreas’ Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa (1875) and this is the earliest town plat of Mount Ayr I’ve ever seen. There are a few changes since then and I’ll point them out. North Street is called Columbus Street today and this…

By Mike Avitt I was looking at the history of Gentry, Missouri and I was reminded of the unusual path (literally and figuratively) the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy RR took in reaching St. Joseph, Mo. from Chariton, Iowa. Let’s see if I can get the entire history in one article. The Burlington & Missouri River…

By Mike Avitt Welcome to “Snapshots of History” number 700. In my first “Snapshots” article from December 23, 2010, I wrote I didn’t know how long this column would run. Now, almost fifteen years later, I still don’t know. My research methods have changed over the years as I use mostly digitized newspapers, now. Previously,…

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…