Bit of History -- April 1, 2026

In Ridgeway’s early days, dressing up for Easter was an event in itself. It was a time to show off your Easter finery and especially your new hat. But in 1909, the weather made wearing those new hats a bit difficult. “While the day was one of comparably clear sunshine and not an extra chilly one, a regular Kansas wind made it very disagreeable one to be out of doors.” On Saturday, the weather was fair, but “On Saturday afternoon, the barometer, which had been pointing to fair weather, took a sudden turn and chased itself rapidly back to the point which reads ‘stormy’ in good big letters.”

Sunday started with the wind: “the storm commenced on Sunday morning in the shape of a gale of wind which kept it up throughout the day until after midnight”. At midnight, it started to rain heavily with intervals of snow and sleet. This continued until around noon on Monday when “the clouds broke away and sunshine prevailed once more.” (Ridgeway News, Apr 15, 1909).

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 - August 28, 2024

On the west side of Main Street just south of Cedar are several empty lots (and I am using the plat map to count the lots).  If you look closely at the ground, a section of the tile floor of the old Farmers National Bank, earlier known as the Commercial State Bank, is still part of the landscape.  

The Commercial State Bank chartered in 1908 and opened for business in January 1909.  The bank’s primary competitor was the First National Bank of Ridgeway just down the street.  In May, the bank purchased lots 1 and 2 of Block 23 from Mrs. Lugenia Witt for $1800.  The lots had previously been occupied by a rental home and the Ridgeway Photo Gallery.  A handsome, two-story brick building was built on those lots and the new bank was open by December 1909.  

The bank wasn’t the only business that occupied the building at the time.  The rooms of the upper floor were rented out at different times to several dentists, a real estate agent, an attorney, and an osteopathic physician, and the Woodman lodge for their band to have rehearsals.

The Commercial State Bank remained in operation until 1925 when it was reorganized into the Farmers’ National Bank of Ridgeway.  The building burned in January 1979 after Farmers National Bank moved into their new building on Cedar Street, destroying the Echo Insulation Co, a neighboring building formerly occupied by the Farmer’s Store and a car owned by Mrs. Frances Woody.  (Bethany Republican-Clipper, Jan 31, 1979).

Bit of History - January 10, 2024

 In October, 1908, E. C. Deel, the Supreme Organizer of the Mystic Toilers of Des Moines, arrived in Ridgeway to start a subordinate lodge here.  The group was not just a social club, but a fraternal benefits insurance group.  The cost of joining was just one dollar for “local examination”.  Per the article in the October 1, 1908 edition of the Ridgeway Journal, “accident, old age and disabiy (sic) benefits are paid out and not deducted from the face of the policy at the death of the insured.”  The article went on to say that Mr. Deel had already gotten a number of prominent Ridgeway citizens to apply for membership and that “Fraternal societies, especially those admitting men and women, are becoming vey popular and the scheme of human protections is certainly one that should encouraged and embraced by our citizens because of the substantial aid it brings to the dependent ones in the hour of need.”  Fraternal benefit societies offered insurance at lower rates than buying more traditional insurance.

The society didn’t just give its members security, but also social interaction.  The Ridgeway society met twice a month.  There were also groups in Bethany and Cainsville that held parties for their members.  Despite the initial popularity, though, the societies didn’t seem to last too long.  By the end of 1909, there were no more mentions of Mystic Toiler meetings in any of the Harrison County papers and in 1919, the Mystic Toilers, being unable to continue business due to financial constraints, was reincorporated as Liberty Life Insurance Company (not to be confused with the company of the same name based in South Carolina). 

Bit of History - April 19. 2023

In the January 7, 1909 edition of the Ridgeway Journal was a item with the title “A Sensation Divorce”.  It was the tale of a “beautiful blue-eyed maiden of eighteen summers” who lived in the town of B- .  Many young men sought her hand, but she resisted.  However, in time she wanted a home of her own.  Soon she met and married a young man of 23 and they settled down together.  Four years passed and they were joined by a “blue-eyed girl and a curly haired boy”.  Alas their marriage was doomed because no matter how hard she tried, her cooking just did not please him and they divorced.  Their home could have been happy If only they had lived in Ridgeway and bought all their groceries at Stoner’s Grocery Store “where all good things to eat are found”.  

(I didn’t realize it was an ad until I got to the end of the story either.  Interestingly, there was a divorce listed in the county report, so it could have happened.)

Bit of History - September 28, 2022

I wrote before about the “Local Mentions” column in the old papers and how they reminded me of modern social media in that you found frequent ads interspersed with sick list notifications, people visiting back and forth, or going out of town for business or pleasure.  But back in the early 1900s, you also found companies requesting that people pay their bills and sometimes they got quite blunt about it.

All these examples come from the 1909 and 1910 editions of the Ridgeway Journal.  The first was from the paper itself and politely explained why subscribers needed to come in to pay their bills.  Other advertisers were more direct.  “Pay me, for I need the money.  MIKE” got his point across. Lair & Harrison asked nicely: “Please call and settle your account as we want to close up our business.”   O. P. Bennett, co-owner of a dry goods store, later owned a grocery store in the building that would be Scotts Grocery, also wrote “I NEED THE MONEY” and asked that anyone who owed Stoughton & Bennett to pay up.  I. M. Reeves, owner of a hardware and harness store, believed that advertising often would bring in the overdue accounts – he frequently had 3 or more ads in each paper: “Come in and lets square accounts.”, “I. M. Reeves needs the money.  Pay your account.”, “If you owe me, pay me.”, and “I mean business.  Settle your accounts at once.”.   I wonder how successful he was at getting paid as these ads were printed several weeks in a row. 

Bit of History - October 13, 2021

On page 12 of the Ridgeway Then & Now history book, there are three pictures of a flood by Big Creek in 1909.  There isn’t any other information about the flood in the book, so I went to the library to do some more reading.  There wasn’t a Ridgeway Journal on microfilm for that year, but I did find some information in the Bethany Democrat. 

The rains began on Sunday, July 4 and continued through Monday night. They thought that Bethany had at least 11.5 inches of rainfall, and in Floris, IA, the total was 21 inches. All the creeks were well over their banks, not by inches, but by feet.  It was the most flooding anyone had seen in the history of Harrison County and the damage was estimated to be close to a million.  Farmers lost crops, livestock, and equipment as it was washed away.  In Bethany, people had to be rescued from roof tops and homes and businesses were damaged, some beyond repair. The Bethany mill, electric light plant and the county farm were all flooded, and people were stranded in attics, barn roofs, trees, and even poles. (Bethany Democrat, July 8, 1909)

Ridgeway was likely spared much of the damage as it sits on higher ground, but the fields in the creek bottoms were under water and undoubtedly lost their crops.  Ridgeway still felt the effects of the flood as a mile of railroad track was washed out north of Cainsville and bridges were out all over the county, stopping the mail and shipments for days.  Train service was halted due to wash outs and water over the tracks.  The water started going down on Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday evening, the creeks were back in their banks.