125 Years Ago: 1901
A new law was passed by the US postal service, which affected many people in Nodaway County. This law allowed rural people to petition for free delivery if they lived within 25 miles of a post office. This allowed around 100 families outside of Elmo to get free mail delivery.
The mayor of Maryville, Smith Casteel, resigned from his position for unmentioned reasons. This led to an emergency meeting of the city council, and they selected George Kimmons from a group of applicants to fill out the rest of Casteel’s term.
The first horseless carriage was used to deliver mail on one route. Mr. Williams, at the post office in Maryville, was given an early version of this car to try out on his route instead of his regular horse-drawn carriage. Mr. Williams’s route was a 26-mile route to the southwest of Maryville and would normally take him 3 hours and 40 minutes. Now with the car it took one less hour to complete and used 3 gallons of gasoline.
The Hanamo (Holt, Andrew, Nodaway, and Atchison counties in Missouri) Telephone Company, one of the largest companies in Maryville, changed hands. A group of three men purchased the company from current owner E.L. Hart for $15,000. The company had been in Maryville for about five years and serviced over 400 phones in the region.
A grocery store at the intersection of Buchanan and 3rd Streets changed hands. One of the previous owners retired while the other stayed on as an advisor to the new owner.
75 Years Ago: 1951
Northwest Missouri State College signed a contract with the government to train Air Force recruits. In the coming semester, 25 new recruits would come every week for 10 weeks.
Northwest Missouri State held a Hereford breeders’ sale where people could come to sell or buy cattle. 59 total cows exchanged hands with an average of $554 per cow. Thirty-one bulls and 28 female cows were sold with the highest going for $900 and the cheapest being $90.
A new program was rolled out in Nodaway County under supervision of the Farmers Home Association. This program allowed farmers in the county who owned inadequate farms to get essential improvements to help keep up with new technology. The FHA had $15,000,000 to give to farmers as loans that they would pay back over 40 years.
The first aerial photograph was taken in Nodaway County and the picture was posted in the newspaper. The paper offered a copy of the photo to the person who owned the pictured farm. Mr. Scheiber who lived 5 miles outside Guilford proved the farm as his and was rewarded with a 8x10 photo of his farm.
Ravenwood voted to add new courses to their school in the areas of home economics, industrial arts, and agriculture. Alongside these new classes, the Ravenwood school started construction of a new gymnasium.
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen and Iola LaMar of Maryville took students from across Nodaway County high schools on an educational trip. Over a 7-day period, the group visited the Lake of the Ozarks, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, all for a cost of just $48 per student.
50 Years Ago: 1976
Two young men from Nodaway County were chosen as recipients for a national award of “Outstanding Young Men in America” by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce. There were 5,000 recipients of the award across the country. The awards were given to young men who
were involved in and impacted their local communities. The two recipients from Nodaway County were Douglas Watsabaugh of Maryville and Thomas Dwight Davis Jr. of Graham.
Northwest Missouri State University started an incentive to keep Maryville students in Maryville. A semester of tuition to attend Northwest Missouri State University for a Maryville High School graduate would be only $150. In addition, the top third of the graduating class of Maryville High School were offered a $200 scholarship to attend Northwest.
Also in Northwest news, the university’s tennis team lost its first game in over 2 years with a 6-3 loss to Southern Illinois University.
Because of a lack of physicians in the area, the Maryville Chamber of Commerce had been working on recruiting more doctors. The newspaper reported some success with these efforts as a second doctor had moved to town. Dr. Castillo joined Dr. Harr, who already worked in the town.
Democratic nominee candidate for Senate, Jim Symington, visited Nodaway County during his campaign. Symington gave a speech for the Nodaway County Women’s Democratic Club. He focused on making government more accountable.