The "Good Old Days"
In Ringgold County

When Saloons Cursed Mount Ayr

Written by L.O. IMUS

From the Mount Ayr Record News, April 22, 1925

As the Record-News is kindly giving some of its space to the early history of Ringgold county a number of the pioneers have asked me contribute some incidents to which I was an eye witness.

In Mrs. B. M. LESAN's letter a few weeks ago describing the women's crusade on the saloons in Mount, Ayr, she did not speak of the real cause of the women's indignation and as I was an eye witness to the incident I will speak of it.

The first court house in the county was built just east of the square and just north of Simpson's store. It was a frame two-story building, the court room on the upper floor. At the time this incident occurred court was going on. Most all that went to town when court was in session went in the court room as it was one of the wonders of the town.

One warm day my boy friend Tom and I went to town for the mail and when court was called at one o'clock we went into the court room and it is useless for me to say there was a great deal of drinking going on during court, but the wets managed to look after those that would drink too freely and would keep them looked after. There was a man named COARFAM that had to be watched sometimes. Everybody could get whisky in those "good old days." We noticed COARFAM start down the stairs and he had to hug the banister to keep right end up. Shortly after he went out one of the lawyers went down stairs and in a few minutes returned and seemed badly excited. He gathered a number of men and they bolted down stairs excited and it caused quite a stir in the court room. Tom said, "Let us go." We hurried down stairs. We saw the men huddled around the privy and pulling, their coats and rolling up their sleeves. Tom said, "We better stay back; it's fight." Those men rushed in and in few minutes snaked COARFAM out. He had fallen into the pit, the top of which was all open and the pit was about as full as COARFAM. When brought out he was the most revolting looking human I ever saw. They stripped him and took him to B. B. DUNNING's well just a few steps away. The well was a curb, rope and windlass and bucket. They drew bucketful after bucketful and threw over COARFAM until they could get at him to give him a good bathing and got him into a shirt and pair of pants.

This occurred just a few steps from Mrs. DUNNING's kitchen door and near the window where we could look in and see Mrs. DUNNING and her hired girl at the table washing the dinner dishes.

Mrs. DUNNING told the woman she was trying to raise respectable family and when such things as that occurred just at her back door she felt like burning every saloon in the village.

The real pioneers of the county such as F. B. SOLES and Mrs. Geo. W. LESAN, of Mount Ayr, will remember this incident.

Another incident occurred that I will mention to show how loyal the women of Mount Ayr have been to the temperance cause. Jesse GILLAND kept a lunch counter with crackers and cheese and candy and lager beer and a man ordered a lunch and a couple of glasses of beer. When Jesse had waited on him and stepped back this man told Jesse that he was buying the treats and that he was to drink the other glass. Mrs. GILLAND lived in the same room and heard the conversation and she dashed in ahead of Jesse and snatched the glass and threw it on the floor with all the might she had and turning to the man she said, "Now, you just dare to buy another glass of rot and offer it to my husband," and from her talk she surely was in earnest.

If there had been a vote taken in those good old days for the prohibitory amendment in Mount Ayr it surely would have gotten a black eye for as you know the women had no vote, but we must give the women credit for doing all they could to make Mount Ayr the clean town that it is.

- L.O. IMUS.

Transcription by Tony Mercer, February 10, 2025

The "Good Old Days" is a series of articles that appeared in the
Mount Ayr Record News in the 1920s about the early history of Ringgold County

Articles in this series:
Five Negroes and A Dog Funeral
Indian War of 1855
When Mount Ayr Was Wet
My Experiences of the First Two Years in Ringgold County
When Saloons Cursed Mount Ayr
How Pioneer Mount Ayr Met the Rebel Guerrillas
The Modest Styles of Long Ago
A Kidnapping Incident in Early History of Ringgold County
Early History of Ringgold County Settlers, Part 1
Early History of Ringgold County Settlers, Part 2

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