Jasper County, Iowa

voted to build a 30 x 40 building to house the trucks and could also be used as a community building. It would be located in the park.

The park is really another story as it was started by the Ira Grange as a communality betterment program. They had leased the land from the railroad. However there came a time when the railroad sold the land and a meeting was held at the water house July 23, 1971 to vote on buying the property from the railroad where our park was located. Twelve members were present and it was unanimously voted by secret ballot that we would buy the land for $425.00.

The money for the building project was borrowed from State Savings Bank, Baxter, Iowa. It cost $5,000 to be paid back in ten years. The building was erected in the summer of 1972. Original signers of the note to the bank were: Sam Miller, Vernon Bucklin, Bob State, Charlie Koon, Ted Lane, Cecil Carpenter, Max Bucklin, Layman Cornelison, Ronnie Brockett and Raymond Loynachan. Proceeds from the annual fish fry, ice cream socials, auctions and calendar sales made the payment each year on the building plus buying equipment for the Fire Department.

In the spring of 1981 a meeting was held to discuss playground equipment for the park. Connie Wright, LuAnne Shaffer and Shelly Shaffer formed a committee to see about a grant from the Jasper County Board of Supervisors who did approve a $1,000 grant. Playground equipment was purchased from the Sully School.

All members of the Ira Community met in the park and installed the playground equipment and built a shelter house.

Then a special Fourth of July celebration was planned to help raise more monies for the Park Fund. A large parade at 1 PM started the festivities. There were concession booths built and run by the members, food was served and games played during the remainder of the afternoon. Home made ice cream and deserts were served followed by the fireworks at night.

In previous years Max Bucklin had next column

fireworks on the Fourth Of July at the Ira Park and many people had come bringing ice cream and deserts to enjoy the get together and watch the fireworks. Now Max's celebration has been expanded -- by the efforts of his own daughter, Connie Wright.

This first expanded Fourth of July celebration brought in almost $1,000 to work with on the park.

By 1982 our loan at the Baxter Bank was paid off, but our fire truck needed much repair. In 1983 it was decided to sell the old truck we had purchased and buy a 1973 utility truck. The old one was sold to a collector of fire trucks for use in parades, etc. The utility truck was purchased and formed into an attack unit, smaller and easier to handle than the old one.

Once again the young men - Dorwin Bucklin and Tom Gray in particular - spent many hours of hard work to make this possible.

The Park Committee and the Volunteer Fire Department have now combined as one group and new officers appointed. In this Centennial Year 1983 Dorwin Bucklin is Ira's new Fire Chief and Connie Wright is Secretary-Treasurer of the Park and Fire Department. The committees and volunteers in and around Ira continue to help on community projects - all in all it makes for a nice place to live and enjoy your family as well as your friends and neighbors.

MORE ITEMS OF INTEREST

The pastor of the Ira Methodist Church in 1943, the Reverend Monroe Jackson Rarick, and his wife, were killed by a train which hit their car at the railroad crossing at the east edge of Ira one Sunday morning while they were on their way to Church. Rev. Rarick was very hard of hearing.

The 100th anniversary of Union Chapel West of Ire was observed Sunday, September 18, 1977, at the Chapel.

The 125th anniversary of the arrival of the Tramel clan to the area of Union Chapel was observed Saturday night, September 17, l977. Descendents from 12 states were in attendance.

THE SMALL TOWN

There were many advantages of living in a small town like Ira in by-gone days and some of those advantages are still there. Like, for instance, not having to go long distances to one's job or to shop. Kids could and would walk to school. No second family car was needed for teenagers and even when the automobile arrived, a young man had to negotiate for the family car to go on a date. Fancy fur lined vans were not even dreamed of. But there were advantages in the "good-old-horse-and-buggy-days" when a young man could just drop the reigns and old dobbin would slowly go the right way while full attention could be given to courting the young lady.

There was no city government to levy, collect and spend taxes. There was no police force as none was ever needed. Residents could go anywhere at night without fear of being molested or robbed. Residents thought nothing of going away and not locking their doors. Of course stores and business places were locked at night and on Sundays, so few people to work on Sundays or even at night, unless you happened to be in the general merchandise business as I can recall very late open hours at one time on Saturday nights.

I can recall only one night time robbery in Ira, that of Sid Weston's store. Floyd Mason had an automobile stolen once and it was recovered, but not in Ira, so the thief lived some other place. There was no saloon or liquor store in Ira and I cannot recall any bootlegger selling his booze there. I cannot remember seeing any drunks in Ira. Even beer and wine had to be purchased elsewhere. There mo juvenile delinquency as was and common in the cities. There were no muggings and rape in Ira that I know of. The citizens of Ira were happy without the use of pot, speed, marijuana or other habit forming drugs.

People were friendly and everyone knew all the residents of the town and for miles around as contrasted next column

to the city residents who often did not know nor speak to their next door neighbors. Helping a neighbor was common. Farmers traded labor with one another.

In bygone days people in Ira did not have the so-called modern conveniences. Many tasks were done the hard way and there is not room enough here to go into details. However I will mention one. I recall Ira's first grain elevator. A team of horses would pull the grain wagon up a long earthen, then wooden, slope from the west to what would be considered the second floor level where the grain was dumped into a hole in the floor after a door was opened. The team and wagon would then exit thru a door on the east side and reach the ground level by a steeper and shorter slope. A big gasoline powered engine ran the machinery which carried the grain to the top of the elevator from which it ran by gravity thru big pipes to the various bins or to a railroad car. However the floors in the bins were flat with an opening to the chute in the middle so when a bin was to be completely emptied, a man had to enter it and shovel the last of the grain into the chute. By the time the new grain elevator was built someone had thought of sloping the floors of the bins from all sides to the middle so that the grain would all run out.

The old elevator bins were of the common house type wood framing construction strengthened against bulging by a few long iron bars across from wall to wall with iron plates and nuts on the outer sides. In Contrast the new elevator bins were much stronger since the walls were built up by bolting a two-by-six plank flat on the foundation, then laying another one on that and spikes driven thru both, then another and another were nailed together until the desired height was reached. Of course the corners were lapped the opposite way on every other layer. Also for the new elevator someone had thought of digging a hole in the ground for the receiving bin so horses and wagons, and later trucks, did not have to next page

negotiate the long slope to the second floor, but could enter on the ground level. Also an ingenious device permitted the wagon or truck to be tilted up at the front end so the grain would roll out easier and quicker.

However, no one had thought of constructing an elevator of concrete circular bins and pouring the concrete by a continuous process using a form that was slowly raised as the concrete was poured. We now see many of those type of elevators as we travel the grain producing states.

This is only a sample of the many changes that have taken place over the last hundred years of Ira history. Written by Donald A. Price.

A Few Words of Explanation

Some of the good people of Ira, & some others, suggested I include in the Ira Centennial Booklet family histories of past and present residents. This I have not done in the Ira Centennial Booklet or in the history of Ira of 1976.

Only a few family histories were submitted at the request of the Centennial Committee. I feel it would not be fair to others now living in Ira, nor to the many families who made Ira their home over the past 100 years to publish only those few. It would be practically impossible to get all, or even many, of those histories of past family residents.

The same reasoning applies to pictures of people. I would like to publish some, but where would I draw the line.

One thing I do regret is that when researching for the Ira History, I did not make a list of names of past and present residents. In fact, I never even thought of it until it was too late. I spent many, many days looking at micro film copies of the Baxter New Era newspaper which carried Ira news. I also viewed some micro films of Newton and Colfax newspapers. I am grateful to the Iowa Historical Society for that privilege.
Donald A. Price Editor.

TRAIN WRECK OF NOVEMBER 23, 1948

This freight train wreck occurred around 8:30 P.M. about a quarter mile west of the Ira depot.

When we heard the crash we looked out to see two or three cars in flames and it just kept going on to other cars. It re ached a tank car carrying gasoline and it blew a ball of flames clear to the field north of us where the lid of the tank car landed. My daughter Sharon and Christiana Whitehead and daughter Shirley were outside at that time and we started running up the road. People were lined up and down the road watching and luckily none were hurt. Some of the people were watching from the other side of the creek when the tank blew up and didn't quite make the jump back across. The engine had continued on without the wrecked cars and whether the crew knew they had lost the cars or not, I don't remember. Another train from the west was able to pull a few cars away from the wreck and fire.

The ground was wet or it would have burned the whole area.

A second car carrying gasoline blew up the next morning.

Fifteen cars were burned and more were damaged. The railroad estimated the loss to be more than $100,000. Account from story by Maxine Rankin.

Robert Krewson, a former resident of Ira now living at Toddville, wrote that he recalls a train wreck around 1930. A freight train was moving on the passing track to let a passenger train go by. A car carrying large telephone poles jumped the track and the poles went flying striking the supports of the water tank. It then collapsed spilling water over the area. The tank was rebuilt. See the History of Ira for more train wreck accounts.

IRA
A VILLAGE SMALL

One hundred years ago
A village small was born,
With one small home, and great ambition
It grew through strife and storm.

Some folks came because,
It had a friendly air --
Some folks came because
People really seemed to care,
Some came because they wanted
To sink their roots down deep
They like the "Country Flavor"
Where friendly people meet.

Each one knew his neighbor
And extended a helping hand.
They built their homes, and everyone
Felt pride in his parcel of land.

Two Churches and a school were built
As children came, and grew --
And people worked together
In this village small and new.

The years rolled by in harmony,
And people came to see --
The need for some industry
In this small community.

Their progress started with a general
Store, a Post Office and a Bank,
A depot by the railroad track,
Even a water tank!

A stockyard to serve the farmer,
Who drove the cattle in;
They even built a Hotel,
to serve the traveling man.

A lumber yard, a hardware store
Were also needed too --
As you can see, this village small
Grew - and grew - and GREW!
A creamery was another store
That farmers really need,
An elevator to buy the crops
And furnish the feed.

A livery stable was a must
In those days of wagons and teams
A leather, shoe and harness shop
furnished all their needs.

The Machine Age came,
Horses gave way - -
Gas was needed, instead of hay --
Now came the need for a blacksmith shop
And a garage - should the machine stop!

next column

The little town grew. -- new faces came
All searching for something --
All wanting the same,
Just a small country town,
Where friendly folk meet --
Where you know everyone
You meet on the street.

Time has made changes,
In places and faces --
It builds up - tears down -
Replenishes - erases.

One Hundred years now have gone by -
We like our small town,
I'll tell you why -- It has a warmth --
A "Country flavor,"
Where goodwill abounds,
And Neighbor greets Neighbor!

by Florence Taylor Lane

DO YOU REMEMBER

When movies were shown in the basement of the "new" school house and a weekly cash drawing was held? One catch was you had to be present to win if your name was drawn.

When dances were sponsored by the Ira Grange? The entire family went and danced and took along sandwiches for a break time lunch.

Sledding parties for young and old alike.

MORE NEWS

Grace Loynachan received a 50 year pin for grange membership in April 1963. Two years later Raymond Loynachan received his pin for the same.

In December 1883 it was reported that T. J. Hancher is about to put in stock yards and scales. Wm. F. Rippey sent the first load of hogs over the new railroad on January 30, 1884.

Steps are being taken to prospect for coal was the news item March 5, 1884.

An April 21, 1886 news item said: "We have a natural gas fountain in Ira --no well- - come and see it."

October 20, 1886 -- Mr. Salem Jeffries is buying grain in Ira for Dixon Newbert.

EARLY MEMORIES OF IRA

By Maude Logsdon Jontz.
Given at Ira Centennial Celebration, July 4, '83

It's so good to be here with old friends and neighbors on Ira's Centennial Day. You have all worked very hard to make it a success, and the weather is beautiful.

My parents, Alice and Garrett Logsdon, were married in 1896, and shortly after came to Ira, where they ran a hotel around the turn of the century. They boarded and roomed the men who built the railroad from Ira to Baxter.

My sister, Blanche, was born in a house on Main Street between the grocery store and Gillie Castor's home. In the early 1930's my brother, Claude, and wife, Mary, ran a restaurant, "the Blue Goose" on the west side of Main Street. He also ran the elevator for a time and also the lumber yard. Later he trucked coal from a mine at Centerville.

My father started carrying mail out of Ira April 1, 1904, and continued for 30 years with the help of his family. Hiram A. Jeffries was his first postmaster. Dad drove horses hitched to an enclosed cab buggy and used a small charcoal burner to help keep his feet warm. He wore a long fur coat and cap in winter. The route was about 32 miles of dirt and mud roads with around 100 patrons in the vicinity of Ira.

In blizzards the farmers would scoop his horse and sleigh out when he got stuck in snow drifts. All of us took turns helping as we grew up. We always carried the mail around the route in all kinds of weather.

We kept one or two good riding horses and used them a lot. In later years we used cars, and my father had 18 Fords and traded quite often.

house for a party, and we had a full house and lots of visiting and fun.

The Jessie Cross hill, northeast of Ira, was so steep we'd sometimes have to push to get to the top. Our great-aunt, Mary, would often be there with cookies and lemonade for us. The Charley Gearhearts would let us pick cherries at their place.

(There were several other steep, clay hills on the route. One bad one was the "Hoy Hill" northwest of Ira. Garrett upset his car on it one day. Once when crossing the flood swollen creek at the foot of Hoy Hill on horseback, he and his horse were swept down stream by the swift current. His faithful horse "Banty" managed to swim to the shore and climb the bank with rider and mail bags intact. Ed.) Our first mail box on the route was at the Fred and Agnes Battles home We went to school with Claude, Doris, Irene, Harold, Garold and Ardith.

Our Ira home was built in 1916 by a German carpenter, Fred Vanetta, after our baby brother, Lynn, died of pneumonia. It was a big ten room house with full basement and attic, and we spent many happy years growing up there. We entertained relatives and friends at school parties, dinners and dances. One day my mother, Aunt Lydia, LeOna and I were outside, LeOna, 4 years old, climbed up a ladder leaning against the framework of the new house. When we saw her, she was walking upon the second story framework. Mother talked to her while I went up and helped her down. What a scare.

We had electric lights and a modern bathroom and a big wood or coal burning furnace and heated all the rooms. The outside was covered with a wire mesh and a special plaster containing pieces of black shiny mica which sparkled in the sun. It made a real warm house.

Later we ran wires to Dad's garage and blacksmith shop a block away and on up to Kate and Sid Weston's store on the west side of Maine Street. We had Lally and then Delco light plants and ran them quite a lot to keep the lights bright.

We later sold the home to Bob State and he and his family continue to live there. Mrs State, the former Anna Jean continued next page

Warner, had played there as a child and enjoyed it so much.

The Methodist Church was near our home, and we spent lots of time there. Abbie Iske, mother's cousin, was our early Sunday School teacher, and Mrs. Flora Price taught the young people's class; very good teachers.

There was a big coal range in the kitchen at the Church, and Mother, Aunt Lydia and Lillie Holtz would go early and get the fire going. We'd help peel potatoes and get tables set in preparation for the Church suppers. The Inglis girls, Velma Cross, etc. would help serve. Lillie Rippey brought such good gelatin and whipped cream, Mclntire's delicious chocolate cake, and Mother's angle food were old standbys. Velma Cross' father, Denver, enjoyed those suppers so much and ate a lot as he was a big man. They grew lots of potatoes and furnished them for the suppers.

At Christmas time we had a big tree in the Church for everyone. Our parents would have a present on it for each child, and we'd be so excited when Santa Claus arrived with a big bag of treats, a sack for each child. My sister, Blanche, had a doll on the tree one year, and she turned her back to the people and looked up at the doll and spoke her piece. LeOna, my sister, and Naomi Inglis were angels one year and were up on a stepladder. Mother made their costumes with big cheese cloth covered wire wings. That was a beautiful Christmas tableau with a real baby Jesus. Mary and Joseph, and the wise men with the star lit up, etc.

A Miss Mastellar came on the 7 o'clock train from Des Moines and gave music lessons all day Saturdays to Helen and Evelyn Weston, Marie and Gertude Tramel, Lois and Thelma Southern, Helen Baker and Blanche and I. We'd play in the big tree and in between times.

The school was at the north end of Main Street at the top of the hill, and the Christian Church close by. When Viva Rumbaugh and I were in the 4th grade, Maude Zimmerman, our teacher, would let us help teach the first graders their arithmetic and spelling.

Later on Albert Taylor fixed up a big bob sled, and we'd coast down the long hill north of the schoolhouse and hurry back up the hill, pulling the sled before the recess bell rang.

We'd visit Hannah Tramel, Andrew Truslers, Grandma Beals and Grandma Weston and Gillie Castors on the way home from school.

Ira was very patriotic during the first world war. Five Ira boys enlisted, Clifford C. Castor, Seward V. Castor, William F. Castor, Zenas Jones and young Russell Rippey. All got back but Russell, which was so sad. (Twenty two young men from the Ira vicinity and in Ira served in the war. Ed.)

We planted an evergreen in our Church yard in honor of Russell. It still stands there. We used to sing "Over There", "Keep the Home Fires Burning", etc. Armistice Day we burned the Kaiser in effigy. When an early morning train came through Ira, the engineer blew the whistle continuously. After the war so many young men were out of work and rode the freight trains looking for jobs. Some would get off and come to our house looking for food. We always fed them homemade bread and jelly, etc. Al Seals was depot agent then, and Ira was a real busy place, but few sidewalks and lots of mud or dust.

Ira had a stock yard and was a shipping point for the farmer's hogs and cattle for miles around. A big water tank for the steam engines was near the depot. We also had post office, restaurant, two general merchandise stores, a hardware, bank, harness and shoe repairs, barber shop, garage and blacksmith shop, lumber yard, grain elevator, and two Churches, beside the Ira School.