March Woman's History Month #2

 Second lady for Women's History month is Mrs. Cleo Croft, Teacher

Mrs. Cleo Croft Retires in 1973

A face familiar to most of the students who have attending Crittenden County High School during the past 23 years is leaving the Crittenden County High School faculty this year. Mrs. Cleo Croft is retiring from school teaching after 37 years in the teaching profession.

 

She had taught is no many and so varied school she has difficulty remembering them all. For Mrs. Croft, school really began at Lola. After graduating from Lola High School and receiving her bachelor of science degree in English and geography at Murray State University, she returned to Lola to begin teachings.

 

She has taught in one-room schools and two-teacher schools as well as high schools. Among schools she has taught at are Lola Elementary, Sisco’s Chapel, Pleasant Grove, Shady Grove Elementary and Tolu Elementary and High School. Mrs. Croft was principal of the Tolu school during World War II. 

 

Concerning her tenure at Crittenden County High. "I started with the new building in 1950, she said. While at CCHS, she has taught both English and Geography.

 

Of course, a lot of things can happen in 37 years, especially in the teaching profession, and Mrs. Croft has her share of tall tales to tell.

 

She says that in the old days in the smaller schools, teachers did double duty as janitor. She remembers building fires in those old potbellied stoves on many cold mornings. 

 

And one of the incidents from her teaching career that still stands out in her mind concerns one of those stoves. While she was teaching at Tolu, the stove needed new pipes. A student agreed to replace the stove pipes over the weekend but failed to do so, and, when the class arrived the following Monday morning the room was quite cold. Although adept at building fires in the stoves, Mrs. Croft says she wasn’t able to replace the pipes. Finally some boys in the class did install the pipes for the stove.

 

Another of her memories concerns the time she was principal at Tolu. During that time she served as basketball coach. She says, I wasn’t really the coach. There was usually some boy form town who would guide the team. We didn’t win many games while I was supposedly the coach, but win or lose in her capacity as principal and coach, Mrs. Croft did travel with the team to all ballgames, both home and away.

 

Mrs. Croft is currently faculty sponsor for the Future Teachers of America club and the Rockette, school yearbook. She has been yearbook sponsor for the past eight years. She has also been sponsor for numerous class plays and fun raising campaigns. 

 

Students as well as teachers change in 37 years, and Mrs. Croft feels that a lack of respect for property and authority that some students have today has been the greatest change she has noticed in the years she has been teaching. She attributes this to a change in home life.

 

Since she’s not going to be coming to school anymore after this year, Mrs. Croft says, I’m going to do as I please and quite punching a clock. I’m going to quit sitting up late grading papers, and I’m going to sleep late. She adds that she would like to find the time to travel a little after retirement.

 

When asked what she felt Kentucky teachers today need most, she listed, adequate salaries, good buildings, adequate supplies, smaller classes and a better understanding between parents and teachers.

 

In summing up her career, she said, I guess one reason I’ve continued teaching all these 37 years is at the end of the year, I seldom remember the bad things that happen, but I try to remember the good things and hope I’ve been a good teacher to each of my students. (This article appeared in The Crittenden Press, May 24, 1973)

 

Cleo V. Foster Croft was born Sept. 27, 1912 in Lola, Livingston Co., Ky. She was the daughter of Russell and Nora Thompson Foster. She died May 27, 1995 and is buried in the Lola Pentecostal Cemetery in Lola.

March is National Women's History Month

 

March is National Women’s History Month. I always enjoy sharing some past articles and history about some of the fine ladies that contributed to the history and lives of Crittenden County. At the time they were just trying to do their best at their jobs and doing something worthwhile for the town and county, but in doing this, they helped shape the minds and futures of all generations.

***

Founder of the Crittenden County Public Library

Jessie Croft Ellis, the founder of the Crittenden County Library, was born near Salem on September 10, 1891. She was the middle daughter of George Croft and Margaret Ellen Cox Croft. She was raised by her mother following the death of her father when she was six.

 

 

Jessie, a graduate of Marion High School, was sent to finishing school at Sayre College in Lexingston, Kentucky. There she married Cecil B. Ellis, who was on the football team.

 

By 1924 both her mother and her husband had passed away, and Jessie was faced with the task of earning a living and raising her son alone.

 

The family farms were no longer profitable at that time, so Jessie took the big step of moving up North to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and enrolling in the University of Michigan to get a teacher’s license. Upon getting the license she got a job in the high school at Alma, Michigan, teaching American History. 

 

But Jessie found she didn’t like teaching. So she talked her way into a job in the library of the University of Michigan and began taking classes for a Master’s degree in Library Science. She had carefully chosen her new job to be in a university town, where her son Cecil, Jr. could go to college at home. 

 

Jessie Ellis stayed at the University Library in Ann Arbor for many years until her retirement, but she always knew that she was a daughter of Marion, Kentucky, and when she retired she instantly returned home.

 

She bought a house on the Bellville Road out of town, with money from the family fluorspar mines which had now become profitable, but she didn’t sit at home to knit.

 

Jessie Ellis had to do something for the people of Marion. What she knew best was library work, so she went to all the leading people of Marion and badgered them continually for money and space to start a library for the town. 

 

Finally the state appropriated $2,900 for the organization of a library in Marion, which was matched with $300 by the fiscal court. Many plans were made and April 6, 1953 was the date set for the opening of the new library. She worked very hard to select and catalog books to be ready for the opening. The first library was housed in a small office space on a first floor in the heart of downtown Marion. In less than a year, it had outgrown the building and it was necessary to find a new location.

 

In March 1954, the library, with approximately one thousand volumes, moved to a new location on North Main Street (located where Johnson’s Furniture warehouse is today). The library’s next move was to a building on W. Bellville St. across from the courthouse.

 

The library kept growing and needing more room, after the old jail was torn down, the present library was built on that location where it stands today. We can give thanks to this determined lady, Jessie Croft Ellis, from years ago, that Crittenden County was able to have its first library.

 

But Mrs. Ellis finally wore herself down, and the last fifteen years of her life were spent in hospitals and a nursing home near Salem. She died in June 3, 1975 and is buried in Mapleview Cemetery with her family.

 

 There is a plaque in the library that says "Honoring Mrs. Jessie Croft Ellis, Librarian and Founder.

***

Doing Our Part for World War II

 Marion and Crittenden County doing their part to help with the shortage of items during World War II.  Thankful we have the old Crittenden Presses on mirco-film to learn of these past historic events that took place in our town and county, or they would be lost forever.  I hope there are still a few of us that appreciate these old history items.

May 14, 1943

Salvage Drive For Fats And Hosiery Opens

Mrs. C. A. Hollowell, county director of fats and hosiery, is to open a campaign to collect the needed materials today. County community heads will be announced soon with the block plan of collection to be used in Marion.

Stores in Marion receiving fats and grease are Aubrey Grady and Co., C. W. Grady & Son, Krogers, Red Front, Easley, Small, W. T. King and Hillis Hunt. County stores to receive the same will be announced in a short time.

Mrs. Hollowell said that four cents a pound will be paid by the stores for the grease or fats which are to be used in manufacture of explosives by the nation. Either sweet or rancid fats are acceptable as are tallows. Place in tin cans and do not use glass containers.

Mrs. Hollowell said that housewives had been asked to discontinue making of soap at home in order that the fats and greases required may be used for extraction of glycerine content. Fats taken from cooking of cabbage or greens is an excellent source of salvage. Strain before taking to stores and save an average of one teaspoonful daily.

Mrs. Hollowell said that the state director had indicated that unless more fats were saved present allotments of lard, shortening and other greases may be reduced for retail purchases.

Hosiery

Silk and nylon hosiery are also included in the campaign with boxes for collection purposes being established at Taylor & Co., Kentucky Theater and H. V. Stone in Marion, and McDaniels & Co. Salem. The cast-off hose are to be used for purposes of making waterproof powder bags.

 

May 14, 1943

Soldiers Smokes Campaign By YBM Club Here

Each cigarette package to bear name of sponsoring organization and city – Milk Bottle Campaign in Stores to collect funds.

Young Business Men’s club is to open a drive today to secure funds for purchasing of cigarettes for men in foreign service of armed forces. J. H. Jones, director, said yesterday that representative of Camel cigarettes had met with the organization and plans were perfected for having the "smokes" mailed promptly to all foreign fronts. The contract with Camels calls for reduction in rate for the purchase.

Milk bottles properly designated will be placed in each store in Marion for purpose of collecting funds by popular contribution in addition to that of the sponsoring club.

Orville Grady said that containers for coins would appear tomorrow in Marion and later in other portions of the county if necessary.

No amount has been set as goal but all moneys so collected will used for purpose of buying the cigarettes. Jones said that each package would bear tag of Marion, KY., in order that the recipient may know, as to whom the donor might be.

 

SOME HISTORY THROUGH ADS

They tell us a lot.

CRITTENDEN ACADEMY - 1849

The Crittenden Academy, is a part of Crittenden's lost history.  One lone flyer found back in March 1922 told of the Academy and what it offered to the would be students. 

Crittenden Academy.

At Marion, Crittenden County, Kentucky.

Mr. James W. Primmer, Principal of the Male Department.

Miss Harriet M. Cary, Principal of the Female Department

The first Session of this Institution commences on Monday the 5^th day of November, 1849, and will continue 20 weeks. The Teachers are recently from New York, and have in their possession the most satisfactory evidences of their experience and accomplishments, as teachers, and of their perfect success in their profession, which they will gladly exhibit to any person who may favor them with their patronage.

 

The school will be conducted in the most prompt and efficient manner, and no diligence will be omitted, necessary to make the Crittenden Academy fully equal to any Eastern Academic School.

 

Particular attention will be paid to the morals, manners and habits of the pupils.

THE TERMS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• For Common English Branches, including Reading, Writing, Antithetic, Grammar, History, Geography, Philosophy, &c. $6.00 per session

• For Higher English Branches, including Botany, Rhetoric, Chemistry, Algebra, Geometry, Astronomy, &c. $8.00 per session

• For Latin, French, German, Greek, &c., extra $5.00 per session

• For lessons on the Piano Forte, $15.00 per session

• For use of the Piano and Music Books, $5.00 per session

• For lessons on the Melodian, with use of instrument, $15.00 per session

• For Drawing, Painting, Embroidery, &c. $3.00 per session

This School is arranged in two departments, Male and Female, each Teaching taking charge of their respective department; the academy building being constructed with a view to such an arrangement.

 

The location of this academy is in the most healthy portion of the Green River country, and from its close proximity to the Ohio and Cumberland rivers, (ten miles) possesses all the advantages of a river town, and at the same time is free from all the objections – such as epidemics, diseases, and a continuous changing population, &c., necessarily common to all river towns.

 

The Teachers of this school, from their intimate acquaintance with the system of instruction pursued in the New Your State Normal School, are peculiarly fitted to give instruction to those who may design themselves for teaching; and they would give assurance that particular attention will be given those who may desire instruction in this science.

 

Food board, in excellent private families, can be obtained for, from one dollar twenty-five, to one dollar fifty cents per week, including washing, lights, &c.

 

The second session of this Institution will commence on the second Monday in April next.

 

All communications respecting this Academy, addressed to James W. Primmer, Marion, Crittenden County, Ky., will receive prompt attention.

Marion, Oct. 30, 1849

**********************

Although the flyer gave a sketchy location, it never was known where it was located.  In March 1922 after the flyer was found, the Crittenden Press put an article in the paper asking for any information about the school and it's location.    No one ever came forward with any information.  Even in 1922 it had been 73 years since the academy's flyer had been published.  We have no way of knowing if it ever became a reality or just someone hopeful plans for a wonderful school.

But it is another part of our forgotten passages of time. 

Here is copy of that flyer.

 

Weston In The Saddle

Lets take a ride with the Press agent, John A. Caldwell, on one of his trips in the county to sell the subscriptions for The Crittenden Press. This time his destination is the busy bustling river town of Weston. We learn of the people, times and happenings along the way over 140 years ago.

 Imagine if you will, saddling up on a cold winter day in February from your office in Marion, and riding your horse to Weston.

Feb. 23, 1881

I took the road, if road it can be called, for there is no rougher one in the county, to Weston in company with Cal Elder, who was visiting tobacco growers in the interest of his firm. I saw a five-mule team badly stuck in the mud and only one hhd of tobacco and assisted the teamster to unload and get out of that snap and the need of good roads again impressed me. 

Next we came to M. G. Gilbert's the boss tobacco farmer. Uncle Mike is getting old but he is a determined farmer and was busy at work. Then on to John Gilbert's another one of our good farmers, who raises tobacco with the many other crops, such as grasses, corn and wheat.

 

 

We soon arrived at the town of Weston, we were the guests of the Weston Hotel, kept by J. L. Hughes, and no one knows better how to care for the wants of the weary and hungry, his table is supplied with the very best of eatables, his rooms comfortable and neat, and beds with snowy linen and elder down. You at once feel that you are at home. Connected with this well kept Hotel is a good table, a grocery store where staple and fancy groceries, as well as the choicest wines and liquors, cigars and tobacco are kept.

Weston is a very unpretending little place, but is surprising at the amount of goods sold there, all lines of goods are very well represented and no complaint of dullness in trade, all the merchants assuring us that trade was very good. Our your friends the Haynes Bros. are going to increase their business by adding groceries to their neat drug store.

 

Otho Nunn and Son intend building a storehouse soon to accommodate their growing trade. They carry an assorted stock of general merchandise. Lambeth Bros. are doing a thriving business. Billy is going to Cincinnati soon and if you will read the Press when he gets back you will see what he has for sale.

John Nunn and Co., has a nice lot of hardware, saddlery, furniture, plow, and field seed for sale. They keep the best line of cooking stoves I have ever seen in the county, and they sell for prices to suit the times. The store is presided over by the junior member, Bob, that enterprising, modest and gentlemanly young man, will charm you and you will be pleased and sure to go again.

Our Marionites will be surprised to find the trade leaving their town, but low prices and good stock, with liberal advertising will win, and our Weston merchants understand this.

Here we met old friends we knew in Marion years ago, Dr. Cain and Charley Higginbotham. The Doctor gets a good practice and is the same kind, worthy, noble hearted friend of old.

Charley keeps a hotel and it is useless to tell you that he knows his business, he entertains and supplies his table with the best the markets affords.

Weston is one busy river port town; steamers and placket boats keep the port busy with their dockings. 

All kinds of merchandise for Marion are brought to the Weston dock to be picked up and hauled to their destination in Marion. Here, also, are local goods loaded and sent to other destinations. T. R. Johnston is loading a boat with potatoes to send down south. G. R. Jenkins & Co., have shipped a large load of lumber to St. Louis.

The H. T. Dexter steamer passed up this morning plying her way for Evansville. Several folks boarded the steamer, Joseph Williams, on their way to Pittsburgh. R. C. Hill, W. E. Lambett, and Ed Hubbard, all went to Evansville on the Josh V. Throop.

Captain Walt Cook arrived during the day on the job boat Oil City bringing a barge loaded with tobacco.

The Pittsburgh from St. Louis laid up at the Weston port nearly all day and put off Cave-In-Rock- freight.

After visiting with friends and watching the river traffic, we struck out for the Bells Mine country. 

Street Names Carry On Our History

 

Many of our streets and roads today still carry the name they were given over 100+ years ago. Many of them were named after the families that owned the land, or prominent businessmen of the time, and a few named for businesses that were located on them, such as Mill Street.

From the archives of The Crittenden Press we learn some of this history.

April 23, 1934, Corum Brothers, of Madisonville, have completed spreading a rock surface on the highway from Tribune to the high school building beyond Shady Grove. With efficient men and ten modern trucks they have demonstrated what can be done in highway building, having done about eight miles in less than twelve days. 

We are informed by highway officials that the balance of the highway to Providence will get a rock surface this year.

 

Of the many splendid people who live on, or do business on Belleville Street, in Marion, we doubt if there is a score of them who could correctly answer the question, Where did the name Belleville, originate? (Sometime later the 'e' was left out of the name)

 

The story goes back perhaps a hundred years or more, to a time when a Mr. Bell established a trading point on Tradewater, about three miles west of Providence, near where Belleville bridge now stands.

 

A village grew up about him, which was called Belleville, in his honor. A state road was established which led out west from here across Tradewater bottoms and up into the hills, and on to, and down Big Piney Hill across Piney Creek and thence up and down the hills toward Marion.

 

This road then, and for many years afterwards, was known only as the "Belleville" road. It led on to and through Marion and later the name of the Tradewater village, Belleville, was also applied to the street.

 

Mr. Bell, long years ago, passed on and this once thriving little village in now but a name; the old Belleville road has earned a rest and is now superseded, mainly, by a new state highway. However, may the name, Belleville, continue to be honored in the future ages, by as fine a people, whom it shall serve, as those who work and abide on it today.

 

Belleville Road and the small Belleville area are still remembered today, they are still listed on the maps of Webster County.

 

If you would like a scenic drive through our beautiful Crittenden County countryside, take Hwy. 120 to Shady Grove, turn left at the Stop sign onto SR 1917, then turn right onto Providence Rd. 

 

As you travel along this road through some beautiful countryside, you will pass by Tradewater Baptist Church, which is now a family dwelling, and on your right will be the Hood Family Cemetery, where Chastine Hood is buried, one of our early Crittenden County pioneers. Continue following the road and you will come into the area in Webster County which is the village of Belleville. 

 

West Bellville Street as we know it today, was then called Salem Street.  In the first days of Marion it was expected to become the principal business street of Marion, but by 1902 the Main Street in front of the Court House had became the main avenue of shopping and business houses.

Bits of Information from 1894

 In a Special Illustrated Edition of The Crittenden Press, dated August 9, 1894 here are some "Bits of Information" that was published about our town and county.  Today, Feb. 3, that was 131 years ago.

• In 1893 we produced 2,315,070 lbs of tobacco.
• We have a church for each 289 inhabitants.
• The county has 76 acres of land for every voter.
• We have 6,668 white voters and 154 colored.
• The average price of land, as listed for taxation, is $6.50.
• We have sulphur and chalebyate water in great abundance.
• There are three saloons in the county, only one to every 4,520 people.
• Forty of the teachers in Crittenden have first class, first grade certificates.
• Last year we had 8,481 acres in wheat.  The '93 corn crop amounted to 600,000 bushels.
• There are six Masonic in the county; Marion, Shady Grove, Mt. Zion, Hurricane, Liberty and Dycusburg.
• The Ohio Valley rail road runs diagonally across the county, a distance of twenty two miles.  It has six stopping places in the county
• Crittenden has had one legal execution; that was forty years odd years ago, and one man has suffered death at the hands of a mob.
• There are 67 school houses in the county.  If they were all collected into a village and people with the four thousand children who annually attend school, wouldn't it be a merry time?
• While the Ohio river forms our entire northern boundary, more than twenty miles, the Cumberland affords ample shipping facilities on the south west, and Tradewater navigable part of the year, takes out coal, and other products on the east.  These water high-ways affords the cheapest transportation in the world.
  
• There are forty-eight churches in the county, divided among the denominations as follows:  Fourteen Missionary Baptist, four General Baptist, one Primitive Baptist, eleven Southern  Methodist, four Methodist, two Campbellites or Christian, eight Cumberland Presbyterian, three Presbyterian and one Universalist
• Recently coal has been discovered in two places within three miles of Marion, and if the veins prove profitable we will have very cheap fuel, although our coal now costs but little.

 One of the best evidences of the fact that we have a good county, is the return of so many who go out to grow up with country. 

• Early in the spring a party of twenty went to California, all are now back except one family.
•   Two years ago Manuel Stephens, Charlies Haynes, Sam Thurman, J. M. Cain and Ed Haynes, young men, all sought the Eldorado of the golden gate; all are not back in good old Crittenden except one.  
• Ex-circuit clerk, W.J. L. Hughes, went to Kansas and remained some years, he is now happier in Crittenden than he was in Kansas. 
•  Silas McMurry went west to come back and is now a prosperous citizen of Crittenden.  
• Mr. C. S. Nunn went to the State of Washington to locate.  You will see his handsome face in this paper as an admirer of our plain, good old county. 
• H. M. Cook sought a fortune in Tennessee, but somehow he was pleased to get back to Marion.  
• Then there is Mr. R. E. Pickens, after a sojourn of six year in Texas, he again became a good citizen of Marion.  
• Mr. S. F. Crider got back from Kansas a few years ago, completely broke; now he owns one of the best farms in the county. 
•  Then we might mention W. D. Haynes; he went to Kansas with his family, but he didn't stay by a large majority.  
• W. B. Yandell, the dashing chairman of the Republican county committee, spent a few years in the northwest, came  home and married and settled down in God's country. 

 Scores of others might be mentioned, but these stand as living monuments, epistles to be read by all men, testifying to the worth of our county.