The St. Joseph News-Press had a news item on July 15, 1956, that the Ridgeway Lions Club and the Harrison County soil district were co-sponsoring a plowing match and field contest on July 25 on the farm of Gilbert Taraba, located one mile west and five miles south of Ridgeway. Referees were selected from Bethany, Pattonsburg, Eagleville, and Ridgeway. The referees from Ridgeway were Ray Arney, Floyd Tuggle, Dean Buntin, Vilas Young and Dean Williams. The event also included music by the Ridgeway High School band and demonstrations in pond, terrace, and waterway construction as well as a watershed model display by the Missouri State Conservation commission.
Side note: Plowing contests were very popular until the 1970s and tested the farmer’s skills in plowing straight and consistently in both contour and level land plowing at state and national levels. Harrison County hosted the national plowing contest in 1951 in the community of Bridgeport, south of Bethany. (St. Joseph News-Press, Aug 12, 1951). Larry Long of Bethany competed in that contest having won second place in contour plowing in the 1950 national competition. He was only 16 in 1950 and went on to become an optometrist in Albany, Missouri. There is still a plowing match held annually in Big Rock, Illinois in September.
