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Looking Backward 12.1.216

25 Years Ago

November 28, 1991

 

Bands from Fordland, Norwood, and the Central High School Drum and Bugle Corps from Springfield are slated to be in Ava on Dec. 7, and will join the Ava school bands in the parade.

The Ava High School Bears will open the 1991-92 basketball cam-paign as the top-seeded team in the Forsyth Tournament.  But Ava’s Coach Jess Blevins says any one of six or seven teams could win the tournament.

Ava High School senior Karen Johnson was crowned Miss Merry Christmas at the Miss Merry Christ-mas Pageant sponsored by Anchor Club on Monday night, Nov. 18.  In the talent portion of the competition, Miss Johnson combined a trumpet solo with a Bible reading of the Christmas story.   Contestants vying for the title were Johnson, Marcy Wilson (second runner-up), Jolene Tate, Angie Chaffee, Tracy Streight, Reesha Snow, Deborah Smith, Robin Shirley, Fonda McChesney, Sarah Semro (first runner-up), and Kristal McCleary.

Officers and members of the Ava Middle School Student Council this year are DeAun Gray, president; Heather Garrett, vice president; and Jayme Barnes, secretary; Jonathan Meyer, Melissa Burnett, Amy Davis, Pepper Bloomer, Adam Liebert, Donell Roberts, Missy Meyer, Miranda Johnson, Josh Fleming, Travis McGill, April Bloomer, Lindsey Singleton, Megan McGill, Brett Mitchell and Brad Siler.

Doshia Miller, 218 NW 5th St., Ava celebrated her 87th birthday on Thursday, Nov. 21, with a dinner in her home.

Mark Twain’s boys defeated Thornfield to win first place in the boys’ division of the Thornfield Tournament last week, and the Thornfield girls defeated Skyline to take first in the girls’ division.

 

50 Years Ago

 November 24, 1966

 

This issue marks the beginning of the 81st year of continuous publication of the Douglas County Herald.  As far as can be determined, an issue of the paper has not been missed during the 81 years of its history.  The Herald is the oldest business establishment in Ava.

Three Ava Gridders Make First SCA All-Conference Team –– team members from Ava making the first offensive team are:  Center – Otis McFarlin, Ava, senior, 5’11, 211-pounds;  and Gary Dougherty, Ava, junior, 5’8” 185-pounds.  Team members making the first defensive team are: Tackle –– Clifford Strong, Ava, 5’10”  230 pounds.

No Christmas parade is planned in Ava this year, according to a report from Chamber of Commerce President Lloyd Weast.  Mr. Weast said that meetings concerning the parade were held, however, it did not generate enough interest.

The Bible Baptist Church building here has been purchased by a new conservative political movement with headquarters in Ava, according to Dr. Merle E. Parker of Thornfield, national chairman of the organization.  The property will serve as the national headquarters of “Save Our Consti-tution.”  The political amendment is sponsoring an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The proposed amendment will be known as “The Property Rights Amendment.”

Miss Suzetta Lee Dougherty, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Dougherty of Route 3, Ava, has been selected as one of the 10 finalists in the Diary Princes contest at the University of Missouri in Columbia.  Approximately 100 girls participated representing the units and sororities on campus.

Most men are easily conquered by a woman’s tears; women have always known that that is the way the bawl bounces.   …   Hear about the trained nurse who is in trouble? She was absent without gauze.

GIRDNER –– Pvt. Donnie Strong spent the weekend with his wife, Brenda.  They visited Saturday night with Mr. Strong’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva Strong of Ava, and Sunday, with Mrs. Strong’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Jones and family.

Sgt. E-5 Roger W. Stearns has returned from a 12-month tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Viet Nam.  Sgt. Stearns is on a 30-day leave at home with his wife, Joan, and son, David.  Mrs. Stearns is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy H. Dixon of Route 2, Ava.

We Are Still Pilgrims –– We no longer give thanks around a rough wooden table in a forest clearing, and our problems and rewards have taken different shapes, but they are basically the same.  We are still making a pilgrimage, the same search for a fuller and more fruitful life under freedom of religion.  Thanksgiving Day was named for its meaning –– the day that we come together to give thanks for our faith and our full life.  This Thanksgiving Day, give your thanks.

 

75 Years Ago

November 27, 1941

 

Ruth Osborn’s “Ozark Hill Billies” drew a capacity crowd from a wide territory to the basketball exhibition here Monday night.  Although defeated by the Ava town team by a score of 38 to 24, the girls gave a good account of themselves as basketball artists and as entertain-ers.

Organization of a Douglas County defense council probably will be effected within the next two weeks.  The council will take up problems that might occur in relation to defense.  The state council was organized under provisions of a state law and is affiliated with the national defense council.

  1. H. Hibbard, Miss Vernice Stecker and Miss Kathryn Shoe-maker were in Springfield Monday and attended a district meeting of county school superintendents and elementary teachers from both town and rural schools. The school people met to discuss means and methods of revising the Missouri state course of study.

Members of the Ava volunteer fire department are sponsoring a public dance Saturday night at the Spurlock hall.  There will be music by Doc James and his orchestra of Mountain Grove and special music for square dancing, it is announced by O. M. Swick, fire chief.

Miss Betty Norman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Norman of Ava, and a student at William Woods College, Fulton, Mo., has been selected to play clarinet in the William Woods College orchestra which will open its seventh season Dec. 16 with program to be presented in Dulany Chapel on the college campus.

Willard Pueppke, who has been in training at Scott Field, Illinois, is being transferred to Texas.  Willard is home on 15-day furlough at the end of which he will go to Texas to continue his Army training. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Pueppke of the Cross Roads community.

Goodhope Temperance Society recently adopted a resolution of appreciation for the eating places of Ava which d not serve liquor, and recommend the patronage of these and all other business concerns of Ava which oppose the modern liquor traffic.    Ira E. Bray, reporter

Glenn Edward Harnden was united in marriage to Anna Kathleen Hailey Wednesday morning at the Methodist parsonage with the Rev. C.M. Kennaugh reading the vows.

The demand for Marines in the present emergency is increasing daily, and in order to meet its share of the demand, the Marine recruiting office at Springfield is authorized to establish five substations.

The Snoop at the Keyhole –– The old-fashioned country square dance, to our mind, is one of the very finest recreations that we people of the Ozarks have the privilege to enjoy. Surely no mixed group of persons with music in their hearts and nimble feet can have any more fun that at a square dance.

 

100 Years Ago

November 30, 1916

 

A sealed soda pop bottle con-taining the names of a Springfield Normal school picnic party, which was cast upon the waters of the James River near Turner last June, was washed to the coast of Panama.  Information to this effect has been received by Miss Opal Pope of Hartville, who was a member of the picnic party and whose name was among those written on the list that was inserted in the bottle. The letter received by Miss Pope was written at San Francisco by one of the crew of the U.S.S. Raleigh.  The writer said that while the Raleigh was stationed in Panama water several weeks ago he taking a stroll along the beach when he came upon the bottle.  As proof that the bottle was the same that was thrown into the James at Turner, the writer enclosed the identical list of names that had been written on a piece of wrapping paper by a member of the student’s party.

Geo. B. Wilson is having a well drilled at his house on Ozark Street this week.

Of the 800 women registered in the University of Missouri 522 have signed for a suffrage catalogue of the school.  Of this number 375 are for the movement, 15 are indifferent, 27 are opposed and 7 are interested but undecided.  The remaining 278 will be catalogued before the vote of the school is sent to the national College Equal Suffrage League.

War has been declared on the English Sparrow by the American Sportsman’s League of New York City.  A nationwide campaign is to be started in an attempt to extinguish the pest from the United States. Plans outlining the method of warfare will be sent to every county in every state in the Union within the near future.

Electing a president is compara-tively easy but counting the ballots is an awful job.

It is within possibility that the woman elected from Montana to represent that state in Congress may hold the balance between the Democrats and Republicans.  Never before has any woman in the United States been placed in such a position of power.

The total vote cast in the state of Missouri in the general election was 775,998. This was an increase over the vote of four years ago of 74,436, and a gain over the unprecedented vote of 1908 of 61,335.

 

125 Years Ago

November 26, 1891

 

Ordinances of the Incorporated Village of Ava were adopted November 24, 1891.

CHICAGO –– It is learned here that Inventor Edison is engaged in a certain modification of the phono-graph for the purpose of fitting it to become the successor of the raised letter system in production of books for the blind. The changes are chiefly in the way of increasing the capacity of the cylinders.

The Union Pacific has offered a reward of $1,000 for the arrest of the miscreant who removed a nail and caused the wreck of the fast Denver passenger train.

William King, Republican alderman of Clinton, Mo., disap-peared and no trace of him has been found.

Five thousand deer have been slaughtered for their skins by Ute Indians in Colorado.

A family of six has been poison-ed in Louisville.  Each one had a life insurance policy. The mother is alive and well.

The experiment of trephining to cure insanity, made recently at Cincinnati, has proven successful.

[Trephination is perhaps the oldest surgical procedure that began during prehistoric times, according to archaeological evidence. It is a surgical action in which a hole is drilled into the human skull, to treat for intracranial diseases.]

There were crowds of people in town on Saturday buying their winter’s supplies.

  1. W. Bowdry has nearly completed a new dwelling house on the south side of his lots.

Ed Turner of Arno made our city a visit last week.  He seems to have entirely recovered from the shock of being shot at by a turkey hunter.

City Marshal Linday took charge of his office on Monday and the boys had better keep cool and sober, as the calaboose is not a pleasant place during such cool weather.

There are people who probably think their heads were made for wearing crowns, every time they look into a looking glass.

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.  –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don’t fool with a wasp because you think he looks weak and tired.  You will find he’s all right in the end.

Our grand business in life is not to see what lies dimly in the distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.