By Mike Avitt I was at the Diagonal Printing Museum over the Labor Day weekend and Jan Johnston showed me a rural race track in a 1894 Ringgold County atlas book. The race track was in the southeast corner of section 27, Lincoln Township. I had not noticed this before now. Horse racing was very…

By Mike Avitt This photo was at the Mount Ayr Depot Museum when I joined in 2001. The back of the photo had the date 1891, but no location. I was able to figure it out using the window configuration and Ezra McMaster’s law and loan office next door. The sign above the department store…

By Mike Avitt Pictured are Phil Foltz (left) and Art Steinman (center) during the burial of the Ringgold County Bicentennial time capsule on April 30, 1977. This week’s photo was taken from a scrapbook donated to the Mount Ayr Depot Museum by David Cunning. So, why was the 1976 Ringgold County Bicentennial Time Capsule buried…

By Mike Avitt Many of us have heard the phrase “Timby Building” or have seen the name “Timby” at the top of the building at 100-102 W. Madison Street in Mount Ayr. But, who was Timby? William Timby was born January 11, 1829 in Norfolk, England. He married Mary Painter on June 4, 1853 and…

By Mike Avitt This week’s photo was taken by J. A. McClanahan, and appears in the June 12, 1896 edition of the Twice-A-Week News, a newspaper published by brothers Randolph and Walter Beall. The building was owned by Day Dunning, Citizens Bank President. His son Clyde was the cashier when this building, located at 100…

By Mike Avitt I recently found some 15 year old pictures on an SD card and it reminded me how I get, find, and lose photographs. So, let’s look at image collecting and my success and failures. And welcome to Snapshots of History” number 650. I took this week’s photo in Diagonal in 1997 but…

By Mike Avitt This week’s photo was taken in 1895 or 1896 by professional photographer J. A. McClanahan. This picture and many others by McClanahan appeared in the June 12, 1896 edition of the Twice-A-Week News, which was an extended, souvenir edition featuring many of Ringgold County’s business leaders and commercial enterprises. Pictured here is…

I am a member of the planning committee for the Mount Ayr Sesquicentennial Celebration which will be held next year. We have discussed many ideas including placing placards or signs on historic buildings indicating when they were built and what was the initial purpose of the building. But what about the buildings that are gone…

By Mike Avitt There is some disagreement about when some of our older churches were built. The disagreement is between the newspapers and the centennial books. Most people are unfamiliar with the digitized newspapers, so we will look at some early newspapers to see what they say. The church pictured this week was dedicated December…

Last week was a look at some church parsonages and I have information on a couple more. In June of 1985, Reverend John and Bessie Biddle answered the call to pastor the Assembly of God Church in Mount Ayr. Their first residence was 105 East Monroe, which was a parsonage. I didn’t know that house…