Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Page 9

By Mike Avitt

Thanks to Doug Strange for donating this week's photo to the Mount Ayr Depot Museum. My email address is above the picture. If you would like to receive this photo via email, simply ask.

Pictured on the back row from left are: Marvin Sobotka, Murray Shaha, Arlo Stewart, Junior Klejch, Velmer Stephens, Benny Cannon, and George Dailey. Third row: Gene Gunsolley, Roger Grose, LeRoy Woods, Rex Shaha, Bill Horne, Dudley Watts, and Lawrence Swank. Second row: Marvin Reynolds, Vaughn Case, Jim Smith, Daryl Holden, Dwight Johnson, Lester Sickels, and Vern Marler. Front row: Elbert Strange, Howard Henry, Howard Paist, Clair Foltz, Ralph Brammer, and Carnie Anderson.

Law enforcement in Ringgold County in the early 1960s was changing a great deal. Elbert Strange had been elected sheriff in November 1960 and he contacted Taylor County concerning organizing a sheriff's posse here. Sheriff Strange also appointed LaVerne Worthington as Ringgold County Deputy. Mr. Worthington was a resident of the Maloy area and had been in the farming business his entire life.On June 8, 1961, the Mount Ayr Record-News reports Wayne Petersen of the Iowa Highway Patrol was assigned to the Mount Ayr area. Mr. Petersen was one of twenty-three graduates who participated in a five-week training course at Camp Dodge near Des Moines.

Mount Ayr Mayor J. M. Turner appointed Victor Thompson to be Mount Ayr Marshal in February 1961. James Wood was the other police officer.

Many people don't know, or forget, Mount Ayr had a city jail in the rear of the town hall. It was removed about fifteen years ago when the Mount Ayr City Hall was remodeled.

Speaking of jail, what happened to the portable jail that was used in the Mount Ayr Centennial of 1975? I believe it sat in Raymond Hutchinson's backyard either soon before or soon after the centennial.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2017