Bit of History -- November 19, 2025

he November 18, 1909 edition of the Ridgeway News listed a few new ordinances that Ridgeway residents were expected to obey. “To conform with the new laws passed by the legislature last winter the city council recently passed a new misdemeanor ordinance, several sections of which are new to the citizens of our city and for their enlightenment we quote here three sections.”

Section 35 prohibited “Any person who shall slide or coast upon any hand sled, coaster-wagon, or skates in any manner, upon any sidewalk in the city” and those caught doing so could be fined no more than $10 dollars.

Section 37 declared that anyone caught doing this would be charged with a misdemeanor and fined from $1 to $25: “Any person who shall, in this city fix, tie, or attach in any manner, to the tail of any dog, cow, horse. or other animal, any tin can, poping match, or other thing calculated to make a noise, or excite such animal, or scare other animals, or shall put upon any such animal any turpentine or other substance calculated to injure or excite such animal” (I don’t know what a “poping match” was – it may be a typo.)

Section 100 decreed that a person over the age of 10 and under the age of eighteen was banned from smoking or use cigarettes on any public road, street, alley, park, or other land used for public purposes, or in any public place of business or amusement” and could be fined no more than $10.

Bit of History -- November 12, 2025

From the front page of the Ridgeway Journal dated November 26, 1936:

Visitors to the Ridgeway Hotel in November 1936 were treated to a tour of the WPA (Works Progress Administration)sewing room in the basement of the hotel. A “large number of women who manifested a lively interest n the type of work being done in the room, which is under the supervision of Mrs. Cecile Miner.” Mrs. Mae Drummond, the county supervisor, “greeted the visitors and explained the different classes of work being done by the workers.”

The workers had produced a good quantity of sewn goods which included garments for men, women and children. The garments included shirts, dresses and underwear and “one day each week is being devoted to the making of toys to be distributed to children Christmas day.”

Mrs Drummond mentioned that to that point, the group had been emphasizing quantity, but had recently decided to focus on quality work instead. “Mrs. Drummond was highly pleased with the showing of the local sewing room and the excellent class of work that is being turned out in it.” Among the items produced in the sewing room were 612 shirts, 173 dresses, 48 blouses, 84 dresses and bloomers and 120 toys and many other things. All these things had been created in the one year since the sewing room started production on November 25, 1935.

Bit of History -- November 5, 2025

In 1932, Edgar Polley, local truck driver, was hauling a mixed load of stock to St. Joseph. He was about half way up Witt Hill when a bull he was transporting “decided he had gone for enough and jumped over the rack, breaking the rope with which he was tied, and causing the truck to come to a very sudden stop.” The bull didn’t go far, luckily and “allowed the driver to catch him again and with the aid of passersby was soon loaded back into the truck, but this time was "hog tied" in such a way that he could not jump”.

A few hours later, he was safely secured in a stock pen in St. Joseph. The article ended with “If anyone buys meat within the next ten days that has a tendency to jump out of the skillet while frying, you can rest assured that it is a part of this same bull.” (Ridgeway Journal, “It’s Just Like a Bull”, Nov 3, 1932.)