Ringgold County had grown briskly during the 1880's. but growth slackened during the next decade, and the tiny hamlets, never more than post offices in solitary stores or farmhouses, vanished. The new little villages took root, and a number of them reached their highest population before 1900.

All over the county there was a flutter of development. In 1890 the Methodists built a church at Benton and the Bohemian colony replaced their old church on the DOLECEK farm with a new one. Then next year the Goshen church was moved to Diagonal. A MORGAN opened a cigar factory at Mount Ayr in 1894 and A. H. [Albert H.] TEAL and W. W. PEASLEY built a $6,000 brick and tile factory at Kellerton in 1895. During 1895 the Odd Fellows at Delphos put up a two-story hall. The county erected a new two-story jail with an exercise room for the prisoners and several cells fo women second floor. The Mount Ayr city council for the first time presented diplomas to its firemen for their service. The first Ringgold County Farmers' Institute was held at Mount Ayr in 1896 and two years later rural free delivery was instituted in the county, although the first route out of Mount Ayr was not in operation for some time afterward. The various censuses taken in the villages gave Tingley 600 in 1896, Kellerton 750, Benton 200, and Delphos 100 in 1895, and Redding 450 in 1896.

Mount Ayr struggled for almost 20 years with the problem of lighting the business distrcit at night. The city council took a forward step in 1889 when street lamps, kerosene lamps with square glass fronts, were installed on poles along the main district street. For the job of lighting the lamps each night, extinguishing them the next day, and keeping them clean, the caretaker received 25 cents a day. This was soon raised to 40 cents. In 1900 the council ordered new lamps to replace the many that had been broken, and two years later they ordered 19 gasoline lamps and supplies of mantles and chimneys. This experiment proved expensive and unsatisfactory as kerosene lamps had been.

The hook and ladder company, poorly equipped in the preceding decade, was no better now. People in the villages had to stand by almost helplessly, watching stores and buildings burn without being able to do much about it. Many of the fires started early in the morning or late at night and were beyond control before the bucket brigade could reach them. Fire at Mount Ayr in February of 1894 destroyed the A. A. HUGGINS and the Z. T. KINSELL buildings, which housed half a doze businesses. The loss was between eight and ten thousand dollars. In December of the same year Tingley suffered one of the worst fires the county ever had, with losses mounting to $40,000. The fire, which started in the general store, spread to the east and the west, destroying the bank, the livery stable, and other buildings. On the same day there was a fire at Knowlton that caused a $6,000 loss. During a blizzard in February 1895 the school at Kellerton caught fire from an overheated stove and was destroyed, but the teachers and pupils marched out without a a single injury. In July 1895 there was another fire at Knowlton, one deliberately started, which caused a $15,000 loss. In 1897 the drug store at Mount Ayr, in which the new telephone switchboard was located, was struck by lightning and set on fire. This started a conflagration that brought losses totaling $50,000 to about ten business firms. In 1890 a serious fire at Redding burned the lumber yard, grocery store, and the post office. The valiant work of the bucket brigade, helped by falling snow, saved the west side of the square from complete destruction. In many instances the losses were not covered by insurance and the businesses were not set up again.

Telephones had come in in the early 1890's. Connection between several towns both in and out of the county was established in 1895 at the suggestion of H. BAUM and D. N. SMITH. The first line connected Clearfield, Lenox, and Mount Ayr. The central office at Mount Ayr was located in Bart WARREN'S drug store. There were connections to ALLYN'S bank, the vault in the county trreasurer's office, and Bevis real estate office. A switch at the central office connected the real estate office. A switch at the central office connected Mount Ayr with Des Moines. At what might be called a central office in D. N. SMITH'S farmhouse, rural residents could make connection with Mount Ayr, Lenox, and Clearfield. Mount Ayr and Tingley were connected in the fall with the central telephone at Dr. BENT'S office.

When the drug store burned at Mount Ayr, destroying the "central" in 1897, Jim BEARD, the telephone messenger boy, collected some copper wire, climbed a telephone pole, and connected the telephone in the auditor's vault with D. N. SMITH'S switches so that the telephone service would not be disrupted. A few weeks later the Mount Ayr central office was moved to the TIMBY building. In August of that year a local telephone exchange was established, with connections to about 21 business places and a few residences.

During the decade there were several celebrations at Mount Ayr that drew crowds for all over the county. Towns for miles around abandoned local celebrations to attend the Fourth of July "doin's" at Mount Ayr in 1895. Mount Ayr residents had been excited over the affair for weeks. Flags and decorations transformed the business district, and many hours were spent decorating floats, bicycles, buggies, and even the horses. Special trains from Leon, in Decatur County, pulled in early in the morning bringing the Leon band and its crowd of followers, and later a train from the south brought a load of celebrators from Grant City, Missouri. Twice during the day crowds stood craning their necks to watch Professor G. W. KANE make a parachute jump from his balloon high in the sky. In the afternoon the crowds lined the streets, watched the attractive floats pass, and listened to the band blare out the well known martial airs that were a part of every procession. The afternoon program was filled to the brim with music by the Leon band, selections by a group of 50 Mount Ayr singers, a ball game between Mount Ayr and leon, and a bicycle race. Everybody had a chance to participate in some of the other festivities. Fun-seeking crowds gathered to watch contenders chase a greased pig or hobble and tumble along the sack race. The tug-of-war between the townships brought heated rivalry. More than once a five-dollar bill was placed atop a greased pole and he who could reach it could have it. The day ended with a display of fireworks, without which no celebration was complete. Henry WALLACE, editor of Wallace's Farm And Dairy, was the speaker, and reminded the people that Independence Day meant "something more tha a day for firecrackers or holiday at the beginning of the harvest."

Nearly 1,000 school children from all parts of the county attended the county fair September 17, 1896, to participate in the School Day parade. The children, grouped by townships, each group wearing decorations of its own choice, paraded past the reviewing stand. Liberty Township School pupils won first honors, but features like this did not make the fair a success, and the association dissolved in 1898. In the fall of 1899 a new fair association sponsored one of the most successful county fairs ever held at Mount Ayr. The fine exhibits and the newly erected Floral Hall attracted a record-breaking crowd.

In 1898 Kellerton initiated its Annual Reunion, holding it in September, though afterward it became an event of early August. This celebration continued for many years.

Diagonal twice aspired to be named the county seat. On July 4, 1895, the Ringgold Record carried the statement: "Diagonal is much lifted up with our plans and propects of having a depot, sidetracks, and stockyards at the crossing put in by the Chicago Great Western Raildroad. Should it happen, New York and Chicago will pale before this place, and who knows but Mount Ayr and Knowlton may move over, and if that happens of course, Mount Ayr will bring along the courthouse and new jail, and then we'll be the county seat, we will."

Twenty-five years later, when a new courthouse was needed, Diagonal citizens again pointed out how much more centrally located their town was since it was the only town with two railroads. The people even went as far as to circulate a petition throughout the county to call an election to vote on a county seat, but no action was taken.

On July 20, 1897, some of the old frontiersmen formed an Old Settlers Association, opening the membership to any one who had lived in the county 20 years or longer. Judge Isaac W. KELLER, the chairman, set September 30 for the first reunion and on that day four or five thousand people jammed the courthouse yard to enjoy the celebration. Prominent pioneers told stories of their experiences, and prized relics were exhibited at the post office. Visitors registered at a tent set up by the Mount Ayr Journal and exchanged reminiscences.

A 20-mile strip, half a mile wide, in the western part of the county was in the path of the Maloy cyclone that swept through the county May 17, 1898, injuring three persons and causing thousands of dollars in damage. The storm originated in Worth County, Missouri, four miles south of Blockton, and traveled slightly northeast, striking Ringgold County about five or six in the evening. It veered so as to miss Maloy, and then followed the Platte River Valley through Benton, Grant, and Lincoln Townships. Ash trees with stumps as large as a man's body were uprooted and sent flying into the river. A huge old oak in Grant Township, from which Sol STAHL had planned to make $50 worth of fence posts, was snapped off about 15 feet about the ground. Many buildings were unroofed.

Almost immediately on the heels of the cyclone, the news of the war against Spain reached Mount Ayr and American flags and Cuban colors were unfurled. Patriotic window displays and flying flags gave the town a warlike atmosphere. Interest was keener than ever when Ringgold County boys enlisted for service, among them a number of college men in the battalion of Spanish War troops organized at Simpson College.

When the soldiers returned to Mount Ayr November 10, 1899, the townspeople met them at the station with bands playing and flags flying. As the train pulled in, the signal whistle on the roller mill blew, and all the church bells in town started ringing a welcome. Almost at once a parade was formed, with bands, lodges, school children, and horseback riders to escort the soldiers to the courthouse where singing, speeches, and gaiety held sway. That evening the soldiers were again honored at a banquet. This affair broke up into a merry celebration. As the Mount Ayr Twice-A-Week News stated, a "Fish-Horn band was organized as the its chief object being to create as the gaiety proceeded, all the noise possible." Very likely some of the veterans, on the alert for souveniers, had brought back the long tin horns used by coastal fishermen.

Kellerton, too, gave a royal welcome to its soldiers that night.

Back to Ringgold County History, 1942 Index

Ringgold County Iowa History The Iowa Writers' Program Of the Work Projects Administration.
Pp. 46-50. 1942.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2011