Thursday, July 26, 2018

Pushball, football and May Day at Iowa State ...


Smartphones were few and far between back in 1911-13 and Instagram had not yet come into its own. But there were picture postcards to serve a similar function, although patience was required.

These five cards and a few others in the Lucas County Historical Society collection depict student life  in that time at what then was the Iowa Agricultural College in Ames, now Iowa State University.

The recipients were Harry and Winnie McNay, a brother and sister act that would turn the family farm in Warren Township into a conservation showplace and eventually --- in 1956 --- donate its 400-plus acres to Iowa State. With later additions, it's now the ISU McNay Research Farm.

Harry had completed his formal education at Iowa State in 1910, but both he and Winnie still had friends and relatives among the students and heard from them often via postcard.


The first two postcards depict the 1912 pushball contest, an annual campus tradition that matched freshmen against sophomores from 1909 until it was discontinued in 1927.

This postcard depicts the annual May Day celebration, held from 1907 until 1933 to honor women of the senior class.


Jack Trice Stadium had not yet been dreamed of, but football already was a campus tradition.


This postcard depicts 1911's 9-0 encounter between Iowa State and the University of Iowa. The second postcard, which may date from the same year, records a 6-6 match between Iowa State and Nebraska.


Harry (1888-1975) and Winnie (1891-1967) were the only surviving children of Isaac Morford and Ida Jane (Blayney) McNay, prosperous farmers just up the road north of May Church and May School along the Mormon Trail road in Warren Township.

Ida Jane died during 1901 of tuberculosis, age 41, leaving Isaac to raise the children alone. They became a close-knit family unit and eventually Isaac commissioned from Chariton architect William Lee Perkins the fine brick home still in use on the farm.

Isaac died during 1941, but Winnie and Harry remained together on the farm for the remainder of their lives. With no immediate family to consider, they decided during 1956 to deed the family farm to Iowa State for use as a research center, retaining the right to live on the property for the remainder of their lives, which they did. Winnie died in 1967 and Harry, in 1975. They are buried with their parents and an infant sister in the Derby Cemetery.

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