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Looking Backward 8.20.2015

25 Years Ago

August 16, 1990

 

Ava Masonic Lodge No. 26 will present Joe Pitts with a 50-year membership jewel on Saturday evening, Aug. 18, at the lodge hall in Ava.

With an increased interest in the sport of competitive roping, Lee Bettis is announcing the opening of a team roping school at his Ozark Mountain Whip & Ride Arena southwest of Ava.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard McGill accompanied by his sisters, Frieda Fletcher, Jean Daugherty and Mabel Everett, left Ava Aug. 1 enroute to Redwood City, Calif., to be at the bedside of another sister, Myrtle Schoening, who is a patient in the Sequoia Hospital in Redwood city.

Betty Sue Evans of Chicago, Ill., left Ava Tuesday morning after visiting one week with her mother, Irma Evans, her brother, Billie Joe Evans and family and relatives in Ozark.

John Ruff, a seventh grade student at Thornfield School, par­ticipated in Drury Summerscape program this year.  Ruff partici­pated in the Stage Center program at Summerscape.

DENLOW –– Congratulations to Robert and Bertha Uhlmann for 50 years of togetherness. Fifty years ago I doubt we had heard the word “togetherness.”

STAR –– Mr. and Mrs. Jim McFarlin of Fort Smith, Ark., spent the weekend with his father, Wesley McFarlin.

State Highway Patrol Trooper Brian Thompson will be speaking at First General Baptist Church Sunday.

Douglas County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisors Marvin Petty, Rick Huff, Frank Wideman and district office man­ager Sue Geeser were among the 584 soil conservation professionals attending the 42nd annual Summer Training Conference for district supervisors.

 

50 Years Ago

August 12, 1965

 

Mr. and Mrs. Glen King and family have been selected to repre­sent Douglas County at Farm Family Day at the Missouri State Fair at Sedalia on Aug. 23, it was announced this week by Ray Parsley, area balanced farming agent.

An Ava woman, Mrs. C.V. Turner, was reunited last month with one of her sons whom she had not seen in 27 years.  Abner McCallister, whose disappearance dates back to 1938, left home at the age of 23 and in 1938 lost contact with his mother.  Mrs. Turner said that all attempts to trace her son failed, and the family presumed him dead.  Early in July Mrs. Turner received a letter from her son.  Mr. McCallister, now 52, wrote the letter on June 12 from Fulton, Mo., where he had been hospitalized for the past 27 years.  He sent the letter to Foil, in Ozark County, at the address of his mother’s former home, and mem­bers of her family did not deliver the letter until early July.  After the family received the information, the patient’s two brothers, Howard McCallister of Illinois and Buell McCallister of Ava, went to Fulton and brought their brother to the home of his mother.  Mr. McCallister spent one week in his home community and visited with members of his family and renewed many boyhood friendships, Mrs. Turner said.

First Lt. Roy P. Sagerser, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Sagerser of Elkhead, left July 22 from the Springfield airport enroute to Okinawa and the Viet Nam area.  He is a member of the 173d Airborne Division.

Mrs. Marvin Barnes and Mrs. Clinton Maloney were co-hostesses at a miscellaneous wedding shower given Tuesday night, July 27 in honor of Mrs. James Fleetwood, the former Alice Ann Cooper.

The largest walnut tree ever pur­chased in the United States by Midwest Walnut Company, was cut and hauled last week from the land of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Murphy of Almartha, according to Jay Burnett, a representative of the company.

ARNO –– Mr. and Mrs. Elmo Pelham have chosen the name of Patsy Linn for their new daughter, born July 25.

BRUSHYKNOB –– Rev. and Mrs. Oscar Cunningham are going to take Timmy Riley back home to Houston, Texas, and LaDonna Schmidt to Garland, Texas, Tuesday.

EVANS –– Lowell Lambert was injured in a car wreck recently.

GIRDNER –– Mr. and Mrs. Robert Potter of Ava were Wednesday evening dinner guests of Mr. and Mrs. Evert Porter, Freeman and Nola Jean.

Gunner’s Mate Third Class Thomas J. Williams, U.S. Navy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Williams of Smallett, Mo., is serv­ing aboard the attack aircraft carrier USS Oriskany which recently departed Japan after a two-week visit.

 

75 Years Ago

August 15, 1940

 

The long-awaited Nazi blitz-krieg may or may not be underway against Britain, but the increase in bombing raids that past week indi­cates that Germany is taking the first step in its lightning war attempt to crush the British Isles.

Citizens of Ava voted Tuesday 296 to 189 against licensing a pool hall in the city.

Robert D. McCrite, Jr., 19-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. R.D. McCrite of the Bryant community, has passed examinations for the U.S. Navy and is now waiting to be called for active service.

Russell Morris, son of Mrs. Netus Proctor of Route 2, Ava, and Miss Grace Henson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I.P. Henson of Cold­spring, were married Saturday in a ceremony ready by Justice of the Peace R.A. McJimsey. Mr. Morris drives a milk route and he and his bride will make their home with his mother.

Mr. and Mrs. Ovle House and sons, Harlan and Ronnie Lee, and Miss Betty McClendon left Mon­day morning for a three weeks vacation tour through several of the southern and western states. The group will center their stay in Arizona while Mrs. House is seek­ing a cure for a sinus infection which she has suffered for several months.

The enthusiasm evidenced by a group of farmers and their wives at a meeting in the courthouse Thurs­day night last week indicates a good possibility for an electric power line in rural sections of Douglas County. It was estimated that 80 or 90 persons were present.  Some farm homes were represented by both the husband and the wife.  Something like 40 farmers signified that they were ready to sign an agreement to use electric current from the White River Valley Elec­tric Cooperative if the cooperative extends its line into this county from Christian County.

Because of the lack of sufficient number of students and the inability to secure a bus driver, it now appears that there will be only one school bus in operation between Denlow and Mountain Grove, and it will follow a route somewhat similar to the old one.

Dean Davis came from Gary, Indiana, Thursday night to join his family at the home of his wife’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tincher. On Sunday the group visited one of Mrs. Tincher’s brothers who lives near Gainesville. The Davis’ started home early in the week, and planned to go by way of Minnesota and Canada where they have relatives.

ARNO –– Mr. and Mrs. Everett Posey are the proud parents of a baby girl who arrived August 7, named Freda Lucille.

A ferocious looking beetle a full two and a quarter inches long was found last week by Orville Stamper at the Clyde Hayes farm two and a half miles north of Ava and was brought to the Herald office Satur­day.  The beetle had a set of pincher fully an inch long.

 

100 Years Ago

August 27, 1915

 

The Herald extends congratula- tions to our sister cities, Mansfield and Seymour.  You are “dead right” and your citizens voted right. We congratulate you.  At a special election held in these road districts last Tuesday, Mansfield voted a bond of 420,600 for road purposes by a vote of 187 to 69, and in Sey­mour, the vote was 384 for and 161 against, getting a clear majority of 223, for a $30,000 loan.

Ava looks a lot different to what it did 25 years ago, and we would like to see it keep on building and prospering. But there are a few things yet which her energetic citi­zens ought to do.  The streets around the courthouse yard had ought to be paved.  It wouldn’t cost much if every fellow would pay his proportionate part, and the trade it would bring to your city would more than pay you for the work.  It is a shame that the mud is on the public square, and when the farmer comes to town he has to get off in the mud to his shoe tops and wade clear across the street, and wade it back again to get his team to go home.  Ava wants the country trade, they must fix the town so that it will be nice and inviting.  Give us good roads, a new courthouse and paved streets in our county seat and all the joys of the world will be ours.

School opened at Stony Point on Monday, August 16th, with Miss Fanny Garton teacher.

Douglas County Fair and Stock Show, Sept. 30th through Oct. 2nd

Miss Ethel Mitchell was able to be on the streets Monday. She in­forms us that she has given up in despair over getting her name changed while an old maid school teacher, and that she has decided to retain the name Mitchell but would be glad to be recognized socially as Ethel.

The KCO&S Ry. is about the only railroad in this part of the state that has “kept on the track,” and runs on schedule during the recent rains and washouts. You may make fun of our little roads, but it is most always “there” when the others are “off.”

Very heavy rains are reported in all parts of the country and much damage is done. Heavy damage is reported at Mammoth Springs, the dam being washed out, and many cities are in darkness.  At Lake Taneycomo, a breast of water 12 feet high has been flowing over the dam.

It’s all right to save time, but some people lose a lot figuring how they can save a little.

What is worth doing at all is worth doing well, unless you are going to make a fool of yourself.

 

125 Years Ago

August 21, 1890

 

The debt of Missouri in 1880 was $16,882,699.  By the new cen­sus it is $8,439,749. This shows a reduction of nearly one-half in ten years.

The amount of Internal Revenue collected by the United States from citizens of Missouri for the last fiscal year was $8,023,294, nearly as much as the total state debt.

A pretty woman eloped with a streetcar conductor the other day in St. Joseph.  Her husband is in pursuit with a gun.

A Missouri woman recorded her husband with the census man as being a lunatic because he sold out and went to Kansas.

A boy 17 years old and a girl 11 years old eloped from Taney County last week. They were cap­tured at Springfield, and it is to be hoped that both of them were well-spanked by their parents.

Sedalia is blowing about a bull snake which was killed in one of the parks there the other day.

Dr. Reuben Samuels, husband of the mother of Frank and Jesse James, is one of the best house­keepers in Missouri. He can cook, bake, wash and iron, and employs his time mostly in the performance of domestic duties. He always gets the breakfast and supper and Mrs. Samuels prepares dinner. There is not a cleaner house in Missouri than the Samuel residence.  A per­son could eat off the floors.

The Secretary of the Interior has received a telegram from Governor Prince of New Mexico asking for troops to suppress white cap out­rages.

Council Sharkey of Wilmington, Delaware, has been arrested for challenging Editor Edwards of the Evening Journal of that city, to fight a duel. He was held in $2,000 bail.

An Omaha woman was awak­ened by a burglar and with a re­ceiver held at her head went to the bureau drawer to show him where the jewelry was kept. She grabbed a revolver from the drawer and turned on the burglar whereupon he ran from the house, leaving his mask behind.

Lumber and shingles are arriv­ing every day for the new Baptist Church and the work of construc­tion will commence in the near future.

Last Saturday Taliman and Rector awarded the contract for a $500 schoolhouse in the Brawley district, some 3 miles south of Ava. The house is to be completed by the 1st.

The Bank of Ava has purchased the lot west of Dr. Harper’s office on the north side of the square and will commence the erection of a bank building.  W.J. Turner has the construct for the building.

Ava is now provided with an original “Blind Tiger.”  The blind tiger is a hole in the wall.  Knock on the wall, out come a box, drop a dime in the box, and out comes half a pint of seasoned alcohol.  Steve Potter is the proprietor of the corner and up to the present time is doing a flourishing business.

Still the improvements go on in Ava.