BIT OF HISTORY: From the Local Mention column of the July 27, 1893 edition of the Ridgeway Journal:
The editor, C. M. Jaqua, complained that “Very little is going on in the news line. The farmers are too busy in the harvest fields.”
The Christian Church bell was “out of place and those desiring to attend services there have to go by time instead of by the bell.”
The school teachers were expected to arrive in Ridgeway within a week. “They will be met at the depot by the committee and shown to suitable boarding places.”
Mrs. C. M. Jaqua, who wrote the Women’s Department column, had sage advice on the care and use of flat irons and how to economize during food preparation to get as much as you can out of the food. Among her suggestions: Remove as little skin as possible when peeling vegetables (“Taking a thick cut often carries away the best part, as is the case with potatoes”). “Apples are often costly”, so carefully pare and core them and cook the clean cores and skins to make jelly or “with sugar, make a fine syrup for layer cake and to use with warm bread.” The peelings could also be used to make vinegar. “Children should be taught to break only the bread they will eat.” She had lots of ideas for using “boiled meat” as well and wrote that “all meat broths, except from pickled meats, should be made into food.” It’s quite interesting reading.
There was a long article about the success of the W. C. T. U. picnic in the City Park which started with a parade and continued with a “literary program”, an address by Rev. Burrows of Cainsville and a speech by temperance orator Prof. Gantz: “He makes as good a temperance talk as we ever heard and when he comes to Ridgeway is always assured of a large audience.”
(The front page of Ridgeway’s earliest editions of the Journal was typically only ads and national stories. To get to the good, local gossip, you had to go to the Local Mentions page for Ridgeway. It is also where you would find the timetable for the C. B. & Q. trains.)
