Bit of History - November 13, 2024

From the pages of the Ridgeway Journal dated November 20, 1924:

The Methodist-Episcopal Church held their annual Father and Son Banquet.  About 75 fathers and sons attended the banquet and program of music and speeches.  The Henry family was represented by four generations of their family:  W. H. “Uncle Will” Henry, Sheridan Henry, Clarence Henry and Lloyd Henry.  The food was prepared and served by the ladies and the men promised to return the favor during Mothers and Daughters Week.  

The New Ridgeway Hotel changed management when it was leased by W. V. Hopper from C. H. Washburn.  Mr. Hopper was from Albany where he managed the New Albany Hotel.  

The Ridgeway Journal also changed ownership, having been purchased by Frank and Bettie Robertson who had previously leased the Record of Weir Kansas.  “The Journal was already a good paper, but Frank and Bettie began immediately to make improvements.  If they continue the way they have started they will soon be classed among the best in the state.”  Despite this glowing recommendation, there were still some mistakes in their first issue:  The article about the new Journal owners was placed between the last two paragraphs of the obituary for Cordelia Barnes.

The Harrison County Poultry Association was preparing for their Annual Winter Show in conjunction with Ridgeway Annual Corn Show and Farmer’s Festival, planned for early December.  The Rex Theatre had several entertainments planned such as a vaudeville show and two plays.  There was an “old-time square dance” for Ridgeway area residents at the New Ridgeway Hotel and the Methodist Ladies Aid member were planning Thanksgiving dinner.

Bit of History - November 6, 2024

From the pages of the Ridgeway Journal dated November 9, 1916:  The Journal reported that “indications are as we go to press Wednesday afternoon that Woodrow Wilson has been reelected President by a close margin.” The paper also mentioned that “The race for governor in the state is close between Gardner and Lamm, the returns favoring the latter.”  Frederick Gardiner, a Democrat from St. Louis won over Republican Henry Lamm in the closest gubernatorial race in Missouri history.  Lamm won the Harrison County vote.

The Methodist Church was pleased to report that 142 attended Sunday School with a collection total of $5.00. J.H. Thompson wrote the column for the church: “The election is now over and the president and governor and all other needed officers elected, so let us get down to hard work again for the kingdom of God.” 

The Rex Theatre was showing “Rupert of Hentzau”, a photoplay based on the sequel to “The Prisoner of Zenda” and was a story about an Englishman who “had been elevated to rule as the King of Ruritania at the time with the rightful king was being held prisoner”.  He looked so much like the king that even the queen didn’t know the difference until after the coronation. 

 

The community was saddened by the loss of Pansy Alice Henry, a young woman who passed away after a long illness.  D.L. McCollum advertised his home in the Sunnyside addition for sale.  Twenty-three local property owners posted that “we, the undersigned, will positively not allow anyone, with guns or dog, to trespass on any land owned or leased by use and anyone caught in the act will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”  There had been a few accidents in the community caused by careless hunters or loafer “and we are positively going to stop it.  This is not a slight hint, but we actually mean business.”

Bit of History - October 30, 2024

From the pages of the Ridgeway Journal, November 10, 1905:  The Ridgeway School published the attendance report for the second month of school.  Mark Burrows, the superintendent, was especially pleased to report that there were zero tardies and 19 visitors to the school during that month.  “Quarterly examination cards” were also sent home to parents at this time with a reminder that “A few do not seem to realize that children who spend much time on the streets at night, or attend mid-week gatherings, can not do the same high grade work as their more carefully looked after classmates.  “Our school is our business” is the motto of our more successful students.”  

Mr. Burrows also announced that the Weather Bureau would be sending a daily telegram with the weather forecasts.  The school would then display a weather flag on the flag stag to let community members know the forecast. The school had cards explaining the flags available to the community. 

I found two great ads in this issue.  The first was from R. M. Prater, auctioneer in Ridgeway.  He listed the requirements for a successful sale:  1:  have a good clerk, be sober and clear-headed; 2.  Have no by-bidding or skin game, for if you do, you will be the one skinned. 2.  Have plenty of help that is not afraid to hustle; 4 Have plenty of bills, not less than 200.  Don’t employ R. M. Prater unless you want him, for if you do, he will be there rain or shine.

The second was from Mrs. Myrtle Allbee, milliner, who was closing out her entire stock of Ostrich plumes and tips at her cost.  She also had a sale on “toilet preparations” at half price and ladies could supply themselves with “perfumes, creams, powders, etc.”  I wonder if ostrich feathers were going out of style on hats.

Bit of History - October 23, 2024

On November 4 and 5, 1938, the Ridgeway School held a school carnival and fair. This school fair was very similar to the county fairs: students entered exhibits for agricultural products such as corn, wheat, barley, soybeans and other row crops as well as fruits, vegetables, and eggs. Ernest Flucke oversaw the agricultural exhibits as the vocational agriculture instructor.

Home economics students also submitted entries for cakes, candies, canned fruit and vegetables and butter as well as rugs, quilts and fancy work. Mrs. Stanley Gex was the home economics teacher and was responsible for these exhibits.

There was a lot of entertainment available to fair attendees: bingo, music, minstrels, games and side shows as well as concessions. On Friday evening, attendees enjoyed a program of music, plays and singing and “various other amusing and entertaining features”. The main program on Saturday was an “amateur contest” in which any school or community could participate. Prizes were given out for first, second and third place to winners who had been selected by the audience. (Ridgeway Journal, Oct 27, 1938)

The fair was considered a success despite the unfavorable weather that occurred those two days. The crowd was small on Friday, but a good-sized crowd arrived Saturday evening to enjoy the program and see the exhibits. Delores Hendren won first prize of $1 in the amateur contest with her solo “Says My Heart”. There were 22 agricultural exhibitors and $13 was paid out in prizes. Proceeds from the carnival went to the athletic fund to buy equipment and help pay travel expenses for the teams. (Ridgeway Journal, Nov 3, 1938).

Bit of History - October 16, 2024

On Nov 3, 1938, the Ridgeway Journal reported that Halloween that year was a quiet for pranks but a great night for parties.   Pranksters placed a gate across Main Street, but other than a few mailboxes on the gravel road east of town being torn down or broken off and a few hard-to-locate milk cows the next morning, pranks were minimal.  Masquerade parties were in swing all over town and beyond, however.

The first five grades of the Ridgeway school got enjoy their class parties after recess that Monday.  The young Rendezvous Club held their Halloween party at their club rooms on Monday evening with a treasure hunt that took them to various parts of town, after which they played games and had refreshments, then enjoyed dancing.  The sixth-grade students had their party on the Saturday evening before Halloween at the school and snacked on apples and popcorn balls.  

The T. S. E. Club held a party on Friday evening in the school auditorium.  Cleo Stockwell won a box of chocolates for the best costume and the group played games and had cider for refreshments.

Parties were not only for the children; adults also got in on the fun.  The W. T. L Club members held a masquerade party and covered luncheon at city hall for their families.  Mrs. Nelse Haun and Mrs.Will Mathis won as “best masked”.  Dr. Lake Brewer’s Sunday School class held a party at the home of W. E. Moore and they enjoyed “pumpkin pie with whipped cream, coffee, cocoa and apples”.  There were several private parties as well.  

I

Bit of History - October 9, 2024

Here are a few things that happened in Ridgeway in October 1962:

Floyd Tuggle was elected Chairman of the Harrison County Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Committee.  He had previously held the position of Vice-President.  The committee was “responsible for the administration of the Department of Agriculture programs on the county level”, including Feed Grain, Wheat Allotment and Stabilization, ACP, Wood subsidy, Price Support, Conservation Reserve and Facility Load programs.  (Bethany Republican-Clipper, Oct 3, 1962)

The Ridgeway FFA encouraged farmers to “cooperate in the FFA Safe Corn Harvest Program”, a statewide program sponsored by the Missouri FFA which provided signs, posters and other reminders about the special dangers of mechanical corn harvesters to “help prevent tragic injuries”.  The program was also supported by Ridgeway firms Shepard Equipment Company, Polley Bros. Feed and Seed, Farmers Produce and Oil Company, Tripp Insurance and Milligan Insurance. (Bethany Republican-Clipper, Oct 3, 1962)

The Ridgeway 4-H club worked on a wildlife conservation and erosion control project on a watershed lake on the Okla Fitzpatrick and Jim Polley farms.  They planted trees, grasses and rose fences to provide better erosion control as well as food and cover for wildlife.  

Two Ridgeway 4-H members were recognized for their Junior Leadership projects.  Shirley Rucker took Health as her project which called for every 4-H member to be tested for diabetes, a breakfast survey, health picnic in the Ridgeway Park and a visit to the club from Dr. Nibbe who talked about Care of the Skin.  Gary Tomes was in his 4th year of Junior Leadership and selected Safety as his project which included having each member check their home for fire and safety hazards as well as writing articles and setting up displays in store windows.  His project won the fire safety contest sponsored by the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company in which he placed first in county, state and national contests. (Bethany Republican-Clipper, Oct 31, 1962)

Bit of History - October 2, 2024

From the Ridgeway Journal dated October 3, 1940:  The Ridgeway Methodist Church welcomed a new pastor, Rev. H. E. Marshall, who came from the Hundley M. E. Church in St. Joseph.  He succeeded Rev W. R. Woodward who had been pastor of the Ridgeway church for three years.  The Ridgeway Christian Church had a successful Sunday School Rally and Homecoming Day with over 200 people registered.  Rev. Noel T. Adams arranged the program of songs in the morning, a basket dinner for lunch and a “dramatization of the devotional by the members of the primaries, intermediate, junior and young people’s departments of the Sunday School”. The dramatization was closed with a rendition of “Rock of Ages” by Mrs. Clayton Pontius.

The town was saddened by the loss of a young man, Guy Kenneth Prather, age 28, who was killed when the car in which he was riding struck a “bridge banister” and was totaled.  Two other young men were injured but survived.  The accident occurred on this side of Witt Hill.  

The Ridgeway Owls football team travelled to play Stanberry, winning 18 – 13.  They were to play King City the next week and that game was to be dedicated to the memory of Knute Rockne, the late great coach at Notre Dame. 

The area was having a warm dry spell that allowed for maturing of corn and soybeans but delayed the sowing of winter wheat.  The paper reported that the drought was hurting pastures and some were badly burned by the lack of moisture.  Gardens were nearly gone except tomatoes “which will not last much longer”.

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.