Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, October 23, 2014

By Mike Avitt

This week's photo was submitted by Mark Elliott, grandson of the Mark Elliott pictured above. Mark believed the students were those of Crown Point rural school although there was an off-chance this was a (sic) Eureka Methodit Church Sunday School class photo, Eureka being two miles west of Crown Point. I'll tell you what my research revealed.

I had a head start because I had the names of the students but lacked the location and date. I went to an 1894 Ringgold County atlas and looked at the owners of the land around Crown Point, located four miles south of Mount Ayr. Harden, Tyrrel, Elliott and Hutchinson were the family names that came up. A 1915 atlas produced the names of Elliott, Tyrrel, Harden and Rush. These names matched many of our students. Also, had this been a Eureka Church group, we would have seen the Boyles and Tennant family (sic) represented. So, I'm sure this is Crown Point.

Having the names, I then went to iagenweb.org/ringgold to look for obituaries and family histories. I also went to my Ringgold County Grave Stone Recordings book, compiled by Raymond Banner in 2002, to seek obituaries that weren't on the Internet.

The elder Mark Elliott married Ilah Spencer in 1915, and whe was a correspondent for the Mount Ayr Record-News' Crown Point column for many years. She also served on the Crown Point school board.

If you can't read the names with each student, I'll tell you three of the boys have the surname of Phillippie. Of course that's not a Ringgold County name, but their mother was a Gartin and that is a local name. George Phillippie (or Phillippe) died October 17, 1918 at Camp Dodge, Iowa, of pneumonia during the flu epidemic of 1918. His uncle Gene Gartin owned the Watterson Store in 1927.

Francis (Frank) Harden was the son of Thomas Harden and Thomas also owned the Watterson Store back in 1901.

The teacher is listed as Homer Tyrrel and the only thing I found on him was he ran for Ringgold County Clerk of Court in 1910.

The three Rush children, Friend, Olive and Howard, are pictured. Their aunt Emma Rush married Alamando Elliott. Howard eventually partnered with Frank chance in the produce and feed business.

Rees Elliott was born February 3, 1893 and died March 13, 1919. He married Lottie Trimble on May 28, 1914, and they had a son, Frank. Rees ws an abstractor and a member of the Eureka Methodist Church. Rees and Mark were brothers.

Florence "Flossie" Elliott, a sister, was born April 9, 1888 and married Alfred Earl Sackett December 8, 1909. She taught at Eureka rural school (also two miles west of Crown Point) at one time. Florence passed away September 8, 1984.

Mark Elliott was born March 13, 1891 in Rice Township. He married Ilah Spencer on April 25, 1915. They spent their entire working lives on the Elliott farm in Rice Township and were members of the Eureka Methodist Church. They had five children: Doris, dying at age two, Loren (of Mount Ayr), Jack, Zoe Nichols and Lois Ives. Ilah passed away September 8, 1987 and Mark left us November 30, 1976.

I had a little more on some of the other names in the photo, but not much. Thanks to Mark Elliott for the picture, thanks to Bobbi Bainum for the elder Mark Elliott's obituary, and a big thanks to Greg Sharp for his technical support.

Crown Point School was moved from its original site to approximately 3 1/2 miles south of Mount Ayr on Highway 169 where it is used as a home.

SOURCES:
Mount Ayr Record-News, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa, February 10, 2007
AVITT, Mike. Pages and Pictures from the Past. . .Ringgold County, Iowa 1855-2005 p. 17. Paragon Publications, Inc. Mount Ayr. 2009.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2009