Looking Backward 1.1.2015
25 Years Ago
December 28, 1989
Area farmers and ranchers are bonding together to combat the increasing problem of cattle rustling in this area. Douglas County Sheriff Roldan Turner is working with the farmers in setting up a meeting. Joe Stoup from the Missouri Department of Agriculture will be here to advise cattlemen on branding and registration, and Sgt. Carl Watson from the Missouri Highway Patrol Troop G Headquarters plans to participate in the meeting.
Warmer weather on Christmas day was a very welcomed gift for residents of the Ozarks. After several days of bitter cold and well below normal temperatures, a warming trend began during the weekend, and by Monday temperatures were back up to normal for the first time since mid-December.
Master Sgt. Glenn D. Peebles has been decorated with the Army Achievement Medal at Fort Lewis, Wash. The Achievement Medal is awarded to soldiers for meritorious service, acts of courage, or other accomplishments. Peebles is a battalion operations sergeant with the 1st infantry.
Mr. and Mrs. David Adams of Rt. 3, Ava, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Trisha Dawn, on Dec. 19. The little miss weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz., and has three brothers, Larry, Brian and Steven.
A party was given Dec. 17, in the home of Doin and Vernice Uhlmann of Drury in honor of her sister, Opal Massey’s 80th birthday.
John Ruff, of Ava, was awarded the first place prize of $1,000 in the jewelry metalworking category of the 1989 Festival of the Masters art show held recently at Walt Disney World.
Sabrina Kastning, daughter of Steve and Laurie Kastning, Squires, has completed a very successful show season. Sabrina shows English in the Southern Missouri hunter / Jumper Association and Western in the South Central Association shows on her pony, Pepper.
50 Years Ago
December 24, 1964
Salem downed the Ava Bears, 71-51, in a South Central Association League game here last Friday night.
Lyle Murphy, a dairy farmer living near Souder, in Ozark County, is serving on the Douglas-Ozark Area Farmers Home Administration Committee. Mr. Murphy succeeds Virgil Robinson of Romance, whose three year term expired June 1964. Mr. Murphy will serve with Carol Joslin of Ava, chairman of the committee and Frank Aid of Ava, committeeman.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Williams of Route 2, Ava, was burglarized during the early evening hours last Saturday, and $110 in change was taken, according to a report by State Patrolman Joe Hart.
The search continues for a 1960 Valiant taxicab stolen here on Dec. 5 at 7:45 p.m., while parked beside the Rexall Drug Store. The car, owned by Ray Thompson of Ava, has not been located, according to State Patrol officers.
The temperature during the past week plummeted from a high of 58 Wednesday and 30 degrees Thursday to a low of zero Friday morning.
“Tis the season to be jolly.” But then there are minority opinions on everything. Plenty of folks are complaining Christmas isn’t what it used to be. They say stacks of Christmas cards, frantic last-minute shopping, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” on the TV, and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” on the stereo don’t make a Christmas.
A-3c Joe Henry Harley, who is stationed at Dow Air Force Base, Bangor, Maine, is spending the holidays in Ava with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Harley.
Mrs. Joe Pitts and her daughter, Barbara, entertained with an open house at their home, 313 North Jefferson, Sunday afternoon.
Merry Christmas from the Citizens Bank of Ava – Herman E. Davis, president and chairman of the board; Carl Henley, executive vice president and cashier; Mrs. O. C. Reynolds, vice president; Bryan Leeper, vice president; James E. Curry, director; Joe Hobbs, assistant cashier; and Jessie Powell, Helen Sanders, Carla Singleton, Ed Jaynes, Evelyn Cantwell, Blanche Alsup, Charlene Kester, Lucille Jenkins, and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Nally.
On Dec. 16 a daughter, Melissa Marguerite, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Danny Willis in Lincoln Memorial Hospital, Lincoln, Nebr. Paternal grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Fred (Bud) Willis of Elkhead.
- TABOR –– Tom Cox spent Saturday with Danny Patty.
MOUND –– Mrs. Modeena Bray and Mrs. Ocie Armour were in Ozark Friday.
STAR –– Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Letsinger, Nita and Chris, were dinner guests Sunday in the O. K. Welton home.
75 Years Ago
December 28, 1939
An effort to revive the tomato canning industry in Ava and vicinity is to be made the coming year, it was decided Wednesday when a group of local business men met with W. A. Cain, representative of the American Can Company, and Erie M. Rush,, successful tomato packer and supply man of Marshfield, Mo. Mr. Rush proposes to take over the old Nelson canning property here and to furnish supplies to small canners out in the territory. He is also interested in opening the plant here for the canning of tomatoes, should his proposition meet with approval of growers in this territory.
Snow that covered the ground here this week caused injuries to three persons in falls Tuesday.
It has been just forty years since Carry Nation descended on her first saloon at Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and, in the ten years that followed, Mrs. Nation and her hatchet were to chop a niche that probably will remain unique in American temperance history. Kansas has always caught the scorn of the world for fostering this busiest busybody of modern times. But the Missouri phase of Carry Nation affords the background that destined her to be something more than the village meddler, the background that made here the holy terror that 1900 knew.
Wednesday afternoon a heating stove fell over at the Lester Eslick home on Jefferson Street north of the square. This Thursday morning about 6:45 o’clock the flue burned out at the Rudy Kester home on Jefferson Street. There was no damage there.
Miss Marion Montgomery, daughter of Mrs. Vernice Montgomery of Mountain Grove, and Howard Pettit, son of Mr. and Mrs. L.H. Pettit of Ava were married Sunday afternoon at 5 o’clock in the home of the groom’s brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Pettit.
Monday was not only Christmas Day at the S.N. Hargis home at Foil but also the occasion of the Rev. and Mrs. Hargis’ golden wedding anniversary.
Announcement is made this week of the marriage on December 1 at Marshfield of Miss Rhasneh Burdett, secretary-director of the Douglas County Social Security office, and W.H. Tidwell of Kansas City, an electrician.
St. Louis University, the oldest university in the trans-Mississippi west, was incorporated on December 28, 1832, one hundred and seven years ago this week.
AVALON THEATRE – Friday, Dec. 29, “My Wife’s Relatives” The Higgins family (The Gleasons) in a rip roaring comedy that fits right in a holiday time. Saturday, Dec. 30, “Rough Riders Round Up” You would have to be a rough rider and a good one to stay with Roy Rogers in this picture of a Top Cattle Round Up. His latest and best. Sunday, Monday, Dec. 31, “Gracie Allen Murder Case” This is Gracie Allen and Warren Williams in one of the season’s biggest comedies, and you will like it if you like to laugh.
100 Years Ago
January 7, 1915
Wounded British soldiers in the hands of the Germans have hit upon a novel way of communicating with families and friends at home. They subscribe small sums of money to the German Red Cross society, but as few of them have any cash, they fill up a draft or sign a check to be sent to London and honored. On the back of the draft the banker is requested to communicate news of the drawer’s safety to his home. It is well worth a dollar subscription.
The Omaha suffragists are demanding that the anti-suffragists comply with the laws of Nebraska and file a statement showing who contributed the large sums spent in the effort to defeat the suffrage amending. It is rumored that the anti-campaign was backed by brewers, public service corpora-tions and other big interests that feared the women’s votes.
Those in the 4th grade Geography class who named all the States and capitals this week were Leo Pitts, Elda Norman, Bessie Robertson, Hazel Burdett and Dorothy Reeves.
A very pretty wedding took place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Quigley on New Years Eve at 12 when the daughter, Miss Ava Meroe, became the bride of Hon. I.T. Curry. Rev. G. R. Curry, the groom’s father performed the ceremony in the presence of the immediate families.
DENLOW ITEMS –– W. H. Brazel was among the unfortunate ones to get hurt on the ice. He fell breaking 2 or 3 ribs. Dr. Martin was in attendance.
DRURY ITEMS –– Hog killing is the order of the day.
- W. Irby has sold his stock of goods at Girdner to a gentleman from Ozark County.
EXCELSIOR ITEMS – William Currier aged about sixty years died last Thursday after five days illness of typhoid pneumonia fever.
PRIOR ITEMS –– The skating at Vanzant has opened again for the rest of the winter.
To make a fever pillow take a piece of old linen that has been well washed and make with it a case about 22 by 18 inches. Take old newspapers, letters or circulars and tear them into pieces not larger than a ten-cent piece, or soft paper into strips about half an inch wide and two inches long, and curl the strips with an old pen knife. Fill the case quite full with the papers and a few shreds of flannel and sew the end up. These will be found a comfort to anyone tossing about in fever. Many of them are being made in England to be used by the Red Cross for the sufferers of the war.
125 Years Ago
January 3, 1890
The east end has a cutting affray. On Christmas night there was a ball in the Martin neighborhood, which ended in a drunken row. We have been unable to learn the immediate cause of the trouble, but it resulted in a fight between Ban and Joel Martin and the Branson boys, of Texas County. The two Martin boys were both badly cut with a dirk knife and are not expected to live.
On Christmas night there was a dance at Mike Bradley’s in Springcreek Township. Several of the boys got to much whiskey, and as usual, in such cases, a racket was the consequence. James Banyard, Jr., and another young man by the name of Felton were the principals in a fight, which resulted in young Banyard getting seriously cut with a Barlow knife, and Felton received two or three scalp wounds on the side and top of the head. Neither of the boys is dangerously wounded.
La Grippe, the great European epidemic has certainly reached America. The number of persons in New York and Brooklyn suffering from influenza is very large and constantly increasing.
Squibb & Prophett have opened up a grocery store at Springfield. The thing they are fighting over at Springfield now is a hospital site.
Over one hundred persons have been converted at the Methodist revival at Nevada during the past week. There are always a good many sinners in a live, enterprising town like Nevada.
There are 1,191 men at work under the contract systems at the Missouri penitentiary. This number is far in excess of the figures of a year ago and is the largest in the history of the prison. The institution is in a prosperous condition.
Smugglers have been importing large quantities of gin in Canadian baled hay. They were caught at it.
The French government has appointed a committee to examine the plans for a bridge across the English Channel.
The United States Supreme Court has granted the state of Virginia leave to file complaint against the state of Tennessee in regard to the disputed boundary line.
St. Paul has decided to have no ice palace this winter. They were forced to this step by the unseasonable weather. The carnival of last year was abandoned for the same reason, and it is said no further attempts will be made there in the future to build palaces of ice.
A large drove of cattle passed through town on Saturday.
The Baptist Church being erected in Walls Township on J.W. Thomas’ farm, near Olive Springs, will be completed shortly.
The Ava, Arno and Mansfield telephone line has been extended to Andy Turner’s store.
Campbell and Pearson have opened up a drug and grocery store about three miles from Rome.
Two young men of our town have formed a partnership under the head of Ketchum & Squeezum. This, we think, ought to suit the young ladies.
