Cookseyville - Mexico School

Here is a little history about the Cookseyville School which later became Mexico.  It is not known for sure when the one-room log school for boys and girls in the Mexico vicinity began in the area surrounding the Cookseyville Church.

In 1879 G. W. Hill was teacher with 20 pupils.  E. H. Mott taught in 1891 and Oscar Wicker and Al Young were also teachers.

In 1915 the Cookseyville School was moved from the creek bank over the hill and across the road nearer to where the Cookseyville Church is now located.

The flourishing fluorspar industry and increase in population in the area caused a need for a larger building

and in 1921 about one-half mile nearer to the town of Mexico a two-room school building was build for grades one through six.

The history of the Mexico School ended with the school year of 1958-59.  When school started that fall in August 1959, the school board made the announcement that the school opening would make the discontinuance of the last one-room school in the county.  Enrollment had dropped to only 14 students. 

 The pupils and their teacher would be transferred to Frances.

Marion Business

In the early 1950's Marion was a busy and industrious town.  There were many stores and all different kinds of businesses.  Car dealership, tractor dealerships, just most anything anyone could want could be found in Marion.

One of our old businesses was the Chipps Bros Implement Company.   It was an International Harvester Co. dealer from 1896 to 1960.  The firm was started in Livingston County with a store at Bayou, Ky under the ownership of W. E. Chipps Sr.  In 1938 one of his sons, L. D. Chipps, opened an implement store in Burna, Ky.  He was joined in the business by his brother J. C. Chipps in 1945.

The Marion store, was opened April 1947 and managed by L. D. Chipps.

Employees were left to right: Pedro Conger, Robert Qualls, Marion Moore, Bill Evans, Virgil Guess, Marian VanPelt, Lewis Chipps (owner) Grover Fuller and Easley Hill.

After this store closed it was purchased and opened as the Southern States Store with J. T. May, owner.

(these pictures are from the Crittenden County Pictorial History Book, used with permission)

Marion Medicines

Marion has had some local medicine remedies that were sold here in Marion.  One was Stone's Specific.  Daniel W. Stone, produced a blood purifier and system builder.  It was called Stone's Healing Oil.  It was

good for rheumatism, chills, malaria, and other things.

He also sold orange tablets that he ordered through the mail and then repacked and sold, it said Stone's Special Tablets on the label.  He sold these to the country stores around the county and also to the Drug Stores.  They were sort of a miracle pill for anything that ailed you.

Mr. Stone lived on East Bellville Street in Marion.  His small home is still standing today,  it has been empty for many years and is in a sad state of deterioration. 

Another locally made medicine ointment was Cross Salve.

It was made by James Henry, Jr.  Was good for Sores, Burns, Piles, and skin diseases.





This ad was printed in 1930.   It was told to be a wonderful cure.

There were many testimonies in the paper of how it cured the worst of cuts and open sores on the skin.

River Traffic at Weston

Weston, located about 12 miles from Marion, was once a prosperous and bustling river port town. The Weston of today is a quiet, peaceful little village of just a few families. 

 It becomes difficult to see the town as a bustling village with several businesses lining its streets, hotels for the many travelers to spend the night, a tobacco factory,  and a very busy river dock for boats large and small.

 The is a typical paddle wheeler of the day.  The gang plank would be lowered to the bank for loading and unloading of people, goods and livestock.  Livestock would be kept on the lower lever as seen in the picture.

The river traffic was for both commerce and travel. Years ago, the Ohio River was the main route for delivering goods to Weston, then to be picked up later and taken to Marion and other parts of the county.  People for miles around used the Weston river port for receiving their supplies and also the only way to transport their livestock to Evansville for sale.

It was also the only way to travel to points North and South and even then it was surprising how many people traveled to Evansville, St. Louis, and points North, and by transferring from the Ohio at Cario to the Mississippi they also traveled south.

Vandalism At Crooked Creek Church

An interesting old article from the Aug. 20, 1896 edition of The Crittenden Press tells of vandalism at the old church.

Monday night, when the large congregation that had worshipped at Crooked Creek Church, two miles north of this place, was dismissed, those who had gone to church horseback - and there were scores of them - found their saddles in a sorry plight.

Some were gone, others were cut into pieces, and the parts scattered hither and thither.  A general search was made for the missing articles, and scattered about the woods they were found in twos, in threes, and in piles, and all more or less torn and cut.

After they were gathered up and patched up for temporary service, and the people started home, they had not gone far when there was a hundred or more gunshots heard at the church.

Investigation showed that the shots had been fired at the church building and all of the windows lights on the north side of the house were broken by the bullets of the vandals.

Services had been held nightly at the church for a week, and everything was getting along pleasantly, and there is no way of accounting for this outrage.

The people of that neighborhood are good, peaceful citizens, and there is no one in the immediate vicinity considered capable of such wanton meanness.  No pains should be spared in the effort to discover the guilty persons.

This picture of the church was made in 1990, before the handicapped ramp was built.