By Mike Avitt This week’s photo shows Gary Keenan of Des Moines carving an elm tree stump into an eagle over the Liberty Bell. It was Keenan who suggested the design and the Ringgold County Board of Supervisors agreed. Keenan was paid $750 for his effort. I took this photo in January 2006 and I’m…

By Mike Avitt In 1988, the Mount Ayr Record-News moved from 119 N. Taylor to 122 W. Madison. Many lost and forgotten items were discovered during the move including about 20 glass negatives. In 1989 the negatives were made into prints and Shirley Hickman published several in her column, “Ayr Views.” The photos are random…

    By Mike Avitt Many of us remember when burning trash in your backyard was common. And it was free. In 1964 a city dump was established on the “Junk Ditch Road” and I’m sure the Mount Ayr City Council enacted an ordinance prohibiting the burning of trash in your backyard. This week’s photo…

By Mike Avitt Shafer’s Service Station closed in November 1979 and I took several photos before the building was razed to make way for the new Tingley State Savings Bank building. The old filling station was located at 100 E. South Street and was started by Day Shafer way back in 1927. Day moved to…

Mike Avitt I always seek the history of a Mount Ayr business because I find it interesting. Sometimes, I find the family history interesting, too, and such is the case with Freeland’s Department Store. Montgomery Edward Freeland was born June 6, 1861, along with his twin brother, in Illinois. The twins, M. E. and John…

By Mike Avitt In my research, I often use a book called, “Cemetery Gravestone Recordings of Ringgold County, Iowa.” This book was compiled by Raymond Banner in 2003 using information gathered by Raymond, Betty Ruby, Ruth Haley, Rick Wiley, and others over a period of many years. This book is helpful to me in finding…

By Mike Avitt The first church built in Benton was the Methodist Episcopal in 1890. The Benton Christian Church was built in 1897. But I found two Benton churches built in 1894 and 1895; a Seventh Day Adventists and a United Brethren. The Seventh Day Adventists Church was dedicated April 28, 1895 and was probably…

By Mike Avitt This week’s picture shows a typical family plot know as Tindle Cemetery. The are nine known burials here with six of them having the surname of Tindle. One other was a Livingston who had a mother with the surname of Tindle. So, the folks buried here were all connected in some way.…

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…