Bit of History - September 25, 2024

Seventy years ago, Ridgeway had two big events.  First, the North Missouri Fox Hunter’s Association met in Ridgeway September 20-24 to hold the 46th annual camp and races.  They held four races, all starting at 2 am. “Committeemen have investigated the hunting ground and report plenty of foxes”, so they were expecting good hunting. In addition to the races, they held a horse show at the Ridgeway school athletic field on the first night of the races which included a “drill by the Northwest Boots and Saddle Club” and singing by the Girls from the Purple Sage.  The last night of races had bench show for the dogs running in the races (except the puppies) on the final night of the races at the Ridgeway City Park and the finals of the “farm and home talent show” of the radio station KIOA of Des Moines, Iowa.  Among the officers and board members helping to run the camp and races were Ridgeway residents Virgil Jennings as assistant master of hounds and Jesse Meek who served on the board of directors.  (St. Joseph News Press, 9/16/1954)

The Ridgeway Lions Club kicked off the week of races and fun with a dance at the school field house on September 17, 1954.  Music was provided by the Fox Hunters’ Orchestra.

The second big event of the month was a turkey shoot held on September 26 on the Claude Maxwell farm 1 1/2 miles west of Ridgeway on Rt A.  This was also sponsored by the Ridgeway Lions Club and a free turkey was going to be given away.  (Bethany Republican-Clipper, 9/22/1954)

Bit of History - September 18, 2024

In 1916, Harrison County had not one, but two county fairs, named “Harrison County Fair”. One was the first annual fair held in Bethany on the current fairgrounds.  It was a great success and in 1917, it was renamed the Northwest Missouri State Fair and continues to this day. 

The other “Harrison County Fair” was held in Ridgeway.  Sponsored by the Ridgeway Agricultural and Mechanical Society as the “Corn Show and Live Stock Exhibit”, the first fair was held on October 22-24, 1914 in Ridgeway.  They offered premiums for “live stock, corn and other products” and “everybody should get up on their toes for the biggest little affair of the kind ever pulled off in Harrison County”. 

In 1915, the fair was held in the J. W. Leazenby pasture west of town (on the north side of the current Route A just before you get to town).  It featured not only exhibits of livestock, crops and other items but also musical entertainment and the aerial sensations “The Flying Bicketts”, who were “double trapeze experts and wizards of the air”.  While the Ridgeway Journal referred to it as the “Harrison County Fair”, the other county papers called it “the second annual fair at Ridgeway.”

The 1916 Harrison County Fair in Ridgeway lasted 5 days and promised “to eclipse, in more ways than one, any like event ever held in the county.”  Free attractions included the Kohlman’s big band and the “biggest display of fireworks ever set off in Harrison County” including a piece specially made for the fair called “America First, Then Comes Ridgeway.” 

The 1917 Ridgeway Fair was still called by Ridgeway as the “Harrison County Fair” but listed on other Harrison County papers as the “Harrison County Agricultural and Mechanical Fair”. 

That year’s event was not a financial success and it seemed that some people thought that Ridgeway should give up on having a fair “after being rained out and frozen out for four years, but the Ridgeway spirit is not so easily broken” and the promoters were already planning to enlarge the fair.  However, there was no Ridgeway fair in 1918, although there would be other fairs in later years.

Bit of History - September 11, 2024

I received a suggestion to research Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Wards kit houses being built in Ridgeway.  These kit homes could be ordered from the company catalogs and included all the lumber, hardware and other materials needed to build a complete home.  They were very popular in the early 1900s and were shipped by railroad to the buyer.  I expected to find several advertisements in the paper for these homes but was very surprised to not to find any.  In fact, in 1905, the Ridgeway Journal instituted a policy where they would no longer accept any advertising from either mail order company or from bigger department stores in other towns to protect the local businesses.

From 1900 to 1905, the Journal published at least one editorial per year warning residents about the dangers of buying mail order and how it hurt the local economy: “Of course, such establishments do not have to pay any great amount of taxes to support schools, build churches, build country roads, bridges and such things…The money goes to them all the time, but little gets away. We have never heard of them contributing to the poor and unfortunate, but it takes the cash all one way to reach them.”

Both Sears, Roebuck & Company and Montgomery Wards had advertised in the Ridgeway Journal (though never their kit homes), but on September 8, 1905, the Journal editor had this item on the front page: “The Journal has decided to discontinue outside advertising that will compete with the home trade... We will now try the plan of not advertising for any department store from the larger towns. This will give the home merchants a better chance to make their ads effective.”  This included ads from Kansas City and St. Joseph as well as the mail order houses.  Though both companies were mentioned in ads by local businesses as well as in regular news items, the Ridgeway Journal didn’t print any more ads by either of these companies for as long as the newspaper continued to be published.

I am still interested in kit homes built in Ridgeway, so if you know you have one or are interested in finding out if you do, please let me know.  Send an email to ridgewaycba@gmail.com.

Bit of History - September 4, 2024

From the Ridgeway Journal dated August 31, 1916: Over the “Ridgeway Journal” banner was a reminder to all: “Harrison County Fair at Ridgeway, October 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 1916”. The interesting thing about the date line was that the typesetter didn’t redo the whole line from the week before, but just replaced the date and issue number in a different font type.

The Ridgeway School was scheduled to open its new academic year the next Monday, Sept 4. They had added new equipment and books and would have all the same teachers as the year before with two exceptions. The high school offered four units (years) of English, four of math, three of science, three commercial subjects and two years of Latin. A student completing the full course could then enter any state university.

The W. C. T. U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) held a “silver medal contest” to raise money for prizes for the baby contest they were planning to sponsor at the Harrison County Fair. Among the entries in the contest: “An Angel in a bar-room”, “Ugly Sam”, “Strong Drink is raging” and “Pat’s Bondsman”.

Mrs. H. A. Dale was given a surprise going away party by her neighbors and friends. A piano recital was to be held the next day by the pupils of Miss Orpha Whis’er at the Christian church. The Rex Theatre was showing the photo play “The Yaqui”, a film about life in “old Mexico”.