The "Good Old Days"
In Ringgold County

Early History of Ringgold County and Settlers, Part 2

By Mrs. B.M. LESAN

From the Mount Ayr Record News, November 25, 1925

In 1855 David EDWARDS built the second log cabin in Mount Ayr.

In 1855 Chester STANDCLIFF built the third log cabin.

In 1855 Oran GORE built the fourth log cabin.

In 1856 Tom ROSS and Henry CRABB started the second store.

In 1856 DICKEY and HARVEY started the third store.

In 1856 A.W. TICE started the first drug store.

In 1855 the first Sabbath school started in Judge HAGAN’s cabin.

In 1855 the first blacksmith started by David EDWARDS.

In 1856 E.G. MARTIN, second blacksmith, bought the shop started by D. EDWARDS.

In 1856 David EDWARDS built the first hotel on lot south of the elevator, the lumber being hauled from Burlington; was first frame building.

In 1856 Rev. ELLIOTT, a methodist circuit rider, came to Mount Ayr and church was held in the log school house until the frame court house was built in 1859.

In 1853 Alex McCARTNEY was the first physician in the county.

In 1855 Dr. KEITH was the first physician in Mount Ayr.

Thomas M. BOWEN was the first lawyer.

In 1860 D.C. KINSELL started the first hardware store.

On August 6th, 1860, the first newspapers, “The Mount Ayr Republican,” was started by P.O. JAMES and Geo. BURTON, discontinued in nine or ten months when they both enlisted, one as a private and one as a captain. I have the 24th number of Volume I, dated January 21, 1861.

In 1862 Ruth ROBY started the first millinery store.

The second newspaper was started April, 1865, by Warren R. TURK and Ith BEALL. It was “The Ringgold Record.”

The first child born in Ringgold county was Manoah B. SCHOOLER in 1847 in what is now Lotts Creek township.

Charles DUNNING was the first child born in Mount Ayr in December, 1855.

The first child born in what is Liberty township was Mary J. (ARMSTRONG) WIBLE IN July, 1855.

The first child born in Poe township was Arthur LESAN, November 22, 1855.

The C.B. & Q. railroad was built in 1879 and was the first railroad in Ringgold county.

One coal shaft was sunk in 1884 by Hugh A. WHITE, Francis ELLIS, C.B. MORSE and J.C. ASKREN, two and one-half miles east of Mount Ayr depot. They went through sixty feet of rock, went in all 326 feet, but did not find coal in paying quantities, so after a cost of $1200 gave it up as a bad job. This was the only attempt ever made to dig coal in the county.

The first Fourth of July celebration was in 1861.

The first Methodist church was organized in 1870, dedicated in 1872.

The first United Presbyterian church built in 1870; cost $3,000; held church in the court house before. The first Presbyterian church organized in 1867; church built in 1873 and cost $3,600, where MICKAEL’s poultry house is now located. The sold this church later to the Evangelical church.

The first Baptist church was built in 1871 and cost $2200.

The first Christian church was organized in 1881; church built in 1883; cost $2700.

The only Indian to own land in Ringgold county was a Pottawatomie chief, Che-me-use, or Johnny GREEN, who entered eighty acres where Knowlton now stands in 1854; received his patent in 1855. It was sold for delinquent taxes in 1856 and the decree became final in 1857 as he didn’t not redeem it within the one-year limit. Marshall county’s historical society erected a monument to his memory in 1918 as he saved the early settlers of that county in 1855 from a Sioux massacre.

Leonard IMUS is the oldest living resident of Ringgold county, as he came here in 1854 at the age of eight years.

F.B. SOLES is the next oldest resident, as he came April 18, 1855, at the age of ten years.

Mary M. LESAN is the next oldest resident, as she came May 3, 1855; was eighteen years old and married.

Ellen FRESHWATER is believed to be the oldest person in Ringgold county, she being 92 years old on September 5, 1925. She came to Ringgold county in 1858.

First Threshing Machine in County

What is supposed to be the first threshing machine in Ringgold county was one owned by Sy CROSS in 1867 and ’68. Then Levi TERWILLIGER traded for it and he and Henry BUNKER ran it in 1869. This machine has a horse-power that had to be tipped off the wagon, by tipping the wagon over on one side, then holding the horse-power until the wagon was tipped back and pulled away, then the power was set down on the ground. This is what they called a down power. The tumbling rod ran from the horse-power to the separator and was very dangerous as there was no covering over the knuckles and it was very apt to strip the clothes off a man that stepped over it at these places.

Four or five span of horses hitched to the horse-power levers furnished the power. They went around and around the horse-power and over the tumbling rod at every round. There was no straw carrier to this machine. The straw came off the back end of the separator and when a pile accumulated they “bugged” it away with a rail that had a rope tied to each end and a horse hitched to the center of the rope and the rail was placed behind the pile of straw and a man stood on the rail and drove the horse to the straw stack with the straw where it was stacked. The grain ran out in a half bushel and a man had to empty it into a wagon. They kept tally of the grain by having pegs in the rows of holes in a tally board. There were rows of holes for one-half bushel, one bushel, one hundred bushels and one thousand bushels and this board was also used for a step to get upon the separator. The thresher men of today, no doubt, will think this is a crude machine, compared to the threshing machines of today, but it was far ahead of using the old “flail” or tramping out grain with horses or oxen and then winnowing the grain in the wind.

Transcription by Tony Mercer, February 11, 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

Thank You for stopping by!