Looking Backward
25 years ago
Jefferson City and Mansfield, Mo., will dedicate bronze busts of internationally known author Laura Ingalls Wilder during September. New York sculptor William J. Williams, who was commissioned by the State of Missouri to do the work, will be on hand for both dedication ceremonies.
The Mt. Zion Country Store, a fundraising effort of the Mt. Zion Parent-Teacher Fellowship (PTF), opens its doors today (Thursday). The store is featuring crafts, collectibles and baked goods, as well as sandwiches, desserts and soft drinks.
Touch’s Golden Taffy A is the reigning World Grand Champion of the Missouri Fox Trotters. Golden Taffy is owned by Dallas and Betty Bearid, of West Covine, Calif., and was ridden to victory in the 1992 show by Steve Dampler of Eldridge.
The Ava High School Bears will open the 1993 football season in non-conference action at Marshfield Friday night and the Ava coaching staff can’t help but be optimistic of this year’s outlook. Again this year Ava will be smaller than a lot of teams it faces, but with good depth at all positions Coach Larry Silvey expects to start 20 players and says 25 people will see lots of action.
FRIENDSHIP –– Vera Dixon and Helen Batten visited Lorrine Dixon and Leonard Keith on Tuesday.
Four students from Ava participated in the Summerscape program at Drury College this past summer. Students attending from Ava were Samantha Brown, Kelly Freeland, John Ruff and Holly Shortt.
ALMARTHA –– Hazel Hurst has sold her place and has moved to Mtn. Grove.
Grandchildren of Alberta Hargis hosted an open house Aug. 14 to help celebrate her 85th birthday.
GENTRY / RAINBOW RIDGE –– Recent visitors of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Kellogg were her brother, Charles Spurlock, her sister Ethel and Dwayne Warden, and Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Thompson.
DOGWOOD –– This Monday is still very warm and some of our schools are turning out early due to the heat.
Ava won both the junior varsity and varsity matches in two straight games in the volleyball season opener for the Ava Lady Bears.
50 years ago
The fairgrounds here was burning with activity Wednesday as exhibitors arrived with their displays of arts, crafts, fruits and vegetables, flowers, along with many breads of livestock and poultry for the four-day fair which runs through Saturday night. Opening the first night’s free grandstand entertainment was a horse show sponsored by the Ava Saddle Club. The show which attracts several hundred persons was no exception this year.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Vinson and their daughters, Jeanette and Janeen, of Route 1, Ava, were in Joplin on Thursday night and Friday as guests of the couple’s son and family, Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Vinson and children, Regina and John Robert. The Ava family made the trip to Joplin to attend the Thursday night performance of the Joplin Shrine Circus at which time Darrell Vinson received special honors recognition for rescuing a family of six from a burning car.
Mrs. Ralph Kerr of Ava will attend the National Democratic Convention, which opens in Chicago, Ill., Monday, August 26, as a delegate from the Missouri 7th Congressional District.
Mrs. Dene Hughes of Ocie, a graduate of Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, has joined the Gainesville school system as elementary special education teacher.
Glen Pool and Buel Henley killed a timber rattler Monday in the Whites Creek community near Ava, by Alvin Miller. The snake measured 30 inches.
Mr. and Mrs. Weldon Sander (Suzanne Reynolds) of Route 3, west Ava, announce the birth of a son, 12:33 Thursday afternoon, August 15, at Burge Protestant Hospital in Springfield. The baby weighed 7 pounds and 9 ounces at the time of his birth and he has been named Mark Weldon.
Two Ava women, Mrs. Ruby Mackey and Mrs. Reba King, who will teach in the Norwood Elementary school this coming school year, attended a teachers meeting held at the school Monday morning.
WAGNER –– A little excitement was created on TT Highway Saturday evening when Highway Patrol and other law officers gave chase of a stolen tractor trailer unit, the kind used for hauling fruit, melons and grain long distances. The long truck alone attracted attention as they do not travel our highway usually.
Larry Oxley of Ava was one of the 26 members of the 125th Army Band, Missouri National Guard, that went to San Antonio, Texas Saturday to represent the state at Hemisfair ‘68 on Missouri Day Sunday.
Every day is special at Rainbow Barbecue Cafe, drive a little – eat a lot in a quiet atmosphere, located on Hwy 5, 7 miles north of Ava.
Daryl McCarthy, senior at Mt. Zion Academy, has been elected chairman of the steering committee of Congressman Durward G. Hall’s Seventh District Youth Advisory Council.
75 years ago
School starts in Ava Sept. 6, and five positions are yet to be filled. C.W. Parker is superintendent, E.R. Norman will be principal of high school and Miss Vernice Stecker will be grade principal.
Radio station KWTO’s Statics, paced by the pitching arm of Slim Wilson, will meet Ava’s softball team on the city park diamond here tomorrow night. Slim Wilson will be backed up by other KWTO personalities including Lou Black, Bill Ring, Bill Mason and others.
The U. S. cadet nurse corps recently authorized by the Bolton Act, is seeking a quota of 65,000 new student nurses this year.
Fred Lethco, Harlan House and O.M. Jernigan returned to Ava Friday evening from Rochester, Minnesota. The three Ava business men had been in Rochester for 10 days and had been undergoing a series of examinations at the Mayo Clinic.
Corporal and Mrs. Howard Pettit left Ava Wednesday morning for Sacramento, Calif., where Mrs. Pettit will live while the corporal is stationed at Camp Kohler, a U.S. Army base near the city. Mrs. Pettit has been working in the local rationing office here in Ava but she plans to remain in California with Mr. Pettit while he is stationed there.
MT. TABOR –– Johnny Cox left last week for Illinois where he expects to seek employment. The John Clements family, Starling Cox and several others went to Illinois about two weeks ago.
School started at Turkey Flat Monday with Miss Blanche Tate as teacher.
Thick mud at the bottom of the Missouri River was the final resting place of the press and type of more than one Missouri newspaper whose owner gave too-free expression to his views during the Civil War. Editors who tried to bring their readers news and opinion had censorship troubles then as now, but the general tendency in Missouri in the 1860s was much father on the side of violence than it is today.
The Robertson school started Monday with Mrs. Glenn Hobbs and Audry Sellers as teachers. School is progressing nicely at Dogwood. Mrs. Ruby Ipock of Webster County is teacher. Lakey school starts Monday with Norma Herald as teacher.
ARNO –– Mr. and Mrs. Bart Lupton who have lived the past year on the Carter Hutchinson farm have rented the Tom McCullough farm in the Pleasant Green community and will move to their new home this fall.
Mary Ann Exline was guest of honor at a party given Wednesday afternoon by Annavee Thomas of the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Thomas. Other present were Martha Jo and Carlene Lethco, Betty Lou Stanton, Lorene Naugle, Ola Sue Souder and Catherine Reynolds.
We are still needing rain very badly.
Private Ivel Dooms is at Fort Bliss, Texas.
100 Years Ago
An attempt by Sheriff Miller and a posse of deputies to capture Rube Graham and Earnest Forrest, deserters from Camp Dodge Iowa, who have been hiding in the Rippee Creek settlement, 18 miles southeast of here, failed last Saturday night. The sheriff and a posse of about 20 deputies departed from Ava about dark Saturday evening in automobiles and spent the entire night in the settlement guarding suspected places of abode and keeping a sharp lookout for the deserters. A few residences were raided and search early Sunday morning, but none revealed any information as to the location of the fugitives. Sheriff Miller is of the opinion they have crossed the state line into Arkansas. Graham and Forrest were drafted into the army from Douglas County and were sent to Camp Dodge, Iowa. They deserted camp together on July 3, 1918, just before they were to leave for an eastern port to embark for service overseas, and returned to the vicinity of their homes where they have been hiding among the brush and timber and ravaging peoples houses and kitchens during the absence of the families.
The Ava Public Schools opened last Monday under the supervision of Prof. J.G. Farmer of La Grange, Mo. the Board of Education has experienced considerable difficulty in securing teachers this year.
General Pershing Day, Aug. 20, was observed in Ava with a pie supper on the courthouse lawn in the evening, through the efforts of the Woman’s Committee of the Council of Defense. As a result, $6,251. 50 was added toward the district’s quota of W.S.S. Miss Ranie Miller opened the bidding by taking her full allowances of $1,000 on the first pie offered for sale. More than 100 pies were sectioned, the amount of each purchase price going as a pledge for that amount of W.S.S.
With the British Army in France, August 26 –– On some parts of the northern battle front, the British have reached points a thousand yards from the old Hindenburg Line, which seems strongly held.
Miss Minnie Curnutt who spent several days visiting relatives in Douglas County departed Saturday for her home at Broken Arrow, Okla. she was accompanied by Mr. Oden Reynolds who will visit friends and relatives in Oklahoma and Kansas before returning.
In compliance with regulations issued by the War Industries Board we have set Oct. 1, as the date on which all delinquent subscribers to the Herald will be discontinued. The regulations require that only subscriptions paid in advance be kept on the lists of country weeklies. Newspapers must cut out all unpaid for circulation and stop all other forms of [paper] waste.
ROCKBRIDGE –– Turkey Flat school was dismissed last Monday on account of the spring being dry.
STONY POINT –– Gusty Burke went to Ava Sunday to take his daughter, Sylvia Spurrier, who intends to start into school here.
CHAMPION ITEMS –– Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Coonts are the proud parents of a new boy at their place.
125 Years ago
WASHINGTON – The president has issued his proclamation opening the Cherokee strip settlement at the hour of 13 o’clock, noon, central standard time, Saturday, Sept. 16.
Nearly 70 lives, so far as known, were lost in the storm off the Atlantic coast, Wednesday night and Thursday morning. As fuller reports of the great storm on the Atlantic coast come in, it is learned that a number of vessels were lost with all on board.
The residents of the neighborhood of Chickamauga battlefield are in a state of panic over the appearance of ghosts on the memorable field.
ROME –– The striking cab drivers of Naples fought the police in several quarters of the city yesterday and the military and rioters had three encounters. More than 1,000 were arrested. In the last three days, the garrison in Naples has been strengthened by 12,000 troops, The regiments are camping in the principal squares of the city.
A large part of the devil’s work is to make wrong people think they are right.
DENVER, Col. – R. L. Wooten, Sr., known throughout the West as “Uncle Dick” died at Trinidad last night in his 86th year. He was the greatest pioneer in America, and the oldest Indian fighter in the West. He built the toll road over the Baton mountains 35 years ago, and until the advent of the railroads in the West, the pass was a portion of the famous Santa Fe Trail.
MOUNTAIN GROVE – Frank McCormack, editor of the Hartville Press, is under arrest charged with having forged the names of M.D. Gorman, S.A. Shields, E.H. Stewart and Albert Bouldin to notes for $200, $50 and $500, which he cashed at Mansfield, Hartville and Marshfield. He is also accused of having embezzled $300 from an Insurance company which he recently represented.
The drunkard is a great sinner, but no greater than the moral man who does not repent.
The best motives to action are those which lie outside of self and its supposed interests.
The Mansfield High School, a thorough teachers training school, will open its winter term January 9, 1893.
Sheriff Hancock and two deputies have been busy engaged for past weeks servicing summons for the coming term of circuit court.
Miss Lena Hale of Little Beaver visited relatives and friends in Ava on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Miss Hale is preparing to begin teaching a term of school at the Victory School House in Buchanan Township, on Monday morning.
The Astell Anchor says a lady bought a new kind of a coffee pot off a peddler. In the evening she showed it to her husband, a hardware dealer, who told her he kept the same thing in the store at half the price she paid. “Well!” said she, “Why don’t you advertise, nobody ever knows what you have for sale.”
Born to the wife of Joel N. Clinkingbeard, on Saturday last, a boy. Mother and child are doing well, but Joel will hardly recover.
J. C. Curnutt opened up school at the Hume Schoolhouse, near Vera Cruz, on last Monday morning. This is Callie’s first attempt in the pedagogical career, but we predict for him a success s he is of the right material and has had ample training in the normal.
