Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, February 06, 2014
Pages 1 & 9

The year is 1905 . . . Teddy Roosevelt is president, Einstein's famous E=mc2 theory is first presented, Las Vegas, NV is founded, the New York Giants defeat the Philadelphia A's four games to one to win the second World Series and the first automobile to reach 100 miles per hour is clocked on Daytona Beach, FL.

But what was going on in Mount Ayr and Ringgold county the week of January 20, 1905, just over 109 years ago? The answer to that question can be found on the pages of a Twice-A-Week News brought in to the Record-News office by Kathy Hemann of Mount Ayr. Hemann said she acquired three copies of the same edition of the paper at an auction she attended recently.

The Twice-A-Week-News was printed on Tuesdays and Fridays by Walter H. Beall. Subscription rates were $1.50 per year, regardless of residence location. To reach the newspaper office by phone, just dial 1.

The publisher assured readers "the News accepts no advertising from disreputable firms. . . You will find no fake medicine ads, no indecent or swindling scheme ads . . ."

The front page lead story reports on the upcoming court session during which the fraudlent banking case against Day Dunning and the murder trial of a Mr. Kling* will be heard.

Much front-page attention is also paid to the upcoming Seed Corn Day scheduled for the following week. Farmers from across the county are urged to bring their entries to the seed corn show for a chance to win a $5 first-prize in the yellow corn and white corn contests.

An opinion column can be also found on the front page. In this particular issue the writer concerns himself with feuding between Republicans and Democrats in Missouri politics.

Unlike current practice, advertisements appear on the front page in 1905. In this issue, "New Spring Wash Goods" are offered by M. E. Freeland, "the man who sells good goods at the price of the other kind."

M.A. Campbell advertises his high patent flour and guarantees his customers their $1.60 back if they are not fully satisfied.

Bert Teale, cashier at the Iowa State Bank, announces the bank is in a position to handle choice farm loans at the "very low rate of five percent."

The inside pages of the four-page newspaper cover a wide variety of news and notes, not only from Ringgold county but also from across the state, nation and world.

For example, datelines for news stories come from such diverse locations as Carroll, Washington, D.C., Detroit, London and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Nearly six inches of copy are devoted to the fact that only eight elephans had been exported from British India in 1903, seven of which were sent to Germany. The cost of an elephant in 1905? 825 rupees.

Another article told the story of a murder in Charlotte, Mi in which a newly-wed 21-year-old husband [Page 9] of a 15-year-old girl killed a 16-year-old boy of whom the husband was jealous.

Farm and market news was included in the 1905 Twice-A-Week News. In Chicago good to prime steers were going for $5.75 - 6.25 while good to choice heavy hogs were bringing $4.65 - 4.72.

Closer to home, spring chickens and hens were selling for seven cents while roosters were bringing 15 cents. Eggs sold for 18 cents a dozen.

Several advertisments for the sale or rent of farm ground appeared in this issue. One landowner asked rent of $2.25 per acre for 250 acres of Ringgold county crop and pasture land.

Railroad travel was a mainstay of rural Iowa in the early century, and the newspaper included daily time tables for the county's rail travelers.

For example, the Number One train of the Chicago and Great Western Railroad left Chicago at 6:30 p.m. and stopped in Shannon City at 9:12 a.m., in Knowlton at 9:25 a.m., in Diagonal at 9:28 a.m., in Benton at 9:40 a.m., in Blockton at 10 a.m., and in Kansas City at 3:30 p.m. The Number Two train reversed the sequence, leaving Kansas City at 11:30 a.m.

Two other rail lines served Ringgold county in 1905. The Keokuk and Western Railroad made daily stops in Beaconsfield, Ellston, Tingley and Diagonal on its way to Red Oak. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad stopped in Kellerton, Mount Ayr, Delphos and Redding on its run between Chicago and St. Joseph, MO.

Each week the names of all county and city officers as well as Mount Ayr school board members were listed.

As is still the practice today, service times and locations for county churches were included. Interestingly, the same could be said for a list of "Secret Societies," including the Masons, Odd Fellows and others. In fact, the list of these secret societies actually outnumbered the churches, 11 to six.

The personal columns recounting visitors to county residents appeared in the 1905 Twice-A-Week-News as they continue to do in the 21st century Record-News. Missing from the modern paper, however, is a listing of all real estate transactions that appears in the 1905 paper. That information is now found on the Internet.

In closing, here is an article that appeared on page 2 of the Twice-A-Week-News that may be as timely today as it was in 1905.

"A great many people dissipate more energy between the time when they leave their work at night and when they return to it in the morning than they expend all day in their vocations, though they would be shocked and offended if anyone were to tell them so. They think, writes Orison Swett Marden, in Success, that physical dissipation is the only method of energy-sapping. But men and women of exemplary moral habits dissipate their vitality in a hundred ways. They indulge in wrong thinking; they worry; they fret; they fear this, that and the other imaginary thing; and they carry their business home with them, and work as hard after business hours as during them."

* At around 2:30 p.m. on September 26, 1904, at a school meeting held seven miles southwest of Kellerton, J. W. Kling shot and instantly killed Samuel Egly. The men were involved in a dispute over some work done by Samuel and David Egly. The Eglys, both members of the school board, had engaged themselves to conduct repair work on the school building and grounds. When the meeting was called to order, a dispute arose concerning the legality of school board members hiring themselves as the Egly brothers had done.

Samuel Egly stepped outside and armed himself with an axe which was lying on the partialy finished walk. He reentered the school house and approached Kling. Kling shouted out a warning, commanding Egly to stop. Egly ignored the warning. When he was within six or eight feet of of Kling, Kling drew a revolver and shot Egly directly through the heart, killing him instantly.

Immediately after the shooting, Kling went to Mount Ayr where he gave himself up.

Egly, born on September 5, 1869, left behind a widow and two young children. He was interred at Oakland (Saltzman) Cemetery. His epitaph reads, "How Desolate our home bereft of thee."

Kling was past middle age. His bond was set at $3,000.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2014