Early Attorney's

Attorney's played an important role in the early day's of our county's history.  They not only had many cases to try in Court at Marion but when the need arose, they would travel to the different districts in the county and would have court there.  Towns such as Shady Grove and Dycusburg had their own city courts and the attorney's would handle the cases.

Two of these young attorney's in 1895 were A. C. Moore and John A. Moore.

 A. C. Moore, a native of Crittenden County, 38 years of age, of prepossessing a distinguished appearance, he makes sad havoc with the preconceived ideas of the twelve good men and true in the jury box, provided, their thoughts of the verdict to be rendered are contrary to his side of the case.

Educated largely in our high school, supplemented by the Madisonville normal, he placed himself under the directing touch of Judge L. H. James, the eminent lawyer, and was admitted to the bar in 1888.

Alfred Clay Moore died in Dec. 11, 1946 and is buried in Mapleview Cemetery.


John A. Moore is devoted to his professional practice of the law.  He has been city attorney for the past five years.  Mr. Moore's experience has been for so young a man - 3- years - varied and extensive.

He graduated from the Marion high School in 1890 and was admitted to the bar in 1894.

John A. Moore died in 1952 and is buried in Mapleview Cemetery.

 This is their ad that appeared in The Crittenden Press in January 1895.

Barnes-Nunn Home

The Barnes-Nunn home, another one of our old historic homes is located on West Bellville St., a short distance from the Court house.  These old homes are becoming fewer and fewer.

No 'for sure' date is known for when it was built, but history shows it would have been in the 1870's.  It was built by Lemuel James, a noted lawyer in Marion, at the time.

In January 1893 the home was sold to Mary L. Barnes.  Mrs. Barnes moved to Marion, from the Dunns Springs area, and purchased the home after her husband died.

The family included Mrs. Margaret Barnes, her children, James M., Ninna, Della and Lemah.  This was truly a family home, for in 1894, daughter, Leman Barnes married Clement S. Nunn, a well-known attorney and they made this their home, all the family continued to live here until 1896, when son James, got married and moved to a home of his on.

C. S. Nunn, who was an Appeals Court Judge, and wife Lemah lived out their lives in this beautiful home and in later years the home was always referred to as the Barnes-Nunn Home.

Thankfully the home is in beautiful condition today, and holds the offices of Crittenden County Attorney, Rebecca Johnson.

Pleasant Grove School

Another one of our county schools was Pleasant Grove School.  It was located on what they called the Irma-Salem Road, and later became S. R. 723 S.

Early settlers built the first school house in this community.  It had a dirt floor, a large fireplace and a stick chimney daubed with mud.  The seats were made of logs that had been split open and had pegs for legs.

This building was located south of the Pleasant Grove Church near a spring.  This was the water supply for both places.

As the community grew there was a need for a larger building.  A second one was built on the west side of the church on the road known as the Pleasant Grove and Lola Road.  This was also a log structure, quite a bit larger and with some improvements over the first building.  Some of the improvements included a puncheon floor, glass windows and a stone chimney.

As time went along another building was needed.  This was the third building.  It was much improved over the other two.  It was frame with modern seats and windows for that time.   Slates had been used in the previous buildings but this one had a large blackboard across one end of the room.  

The fireplace had been replaced with a coal heater that had a large jacket around it.  There would be no more carrying water from the spring because a cistern had been dug and a latticed shed was built around it.

The fourth building was erected in 1909 or 1910.  It was located on the Salem and Tolu road and at that time it was a narrow dirt road.  Later it was made wider and was blacktopped and would be S. R. 723.

Due to the growing number of students the fourth building was much larger than the preceding ones.  Enrollment was somewhere near 70 or 75.  That did not mean the attendance was always that many.  Boys that were large enough to do farm work would have to drop out and help during the harvest season.  During the cold winter months, the smaller chilren couldn't make it every day. 

This was a one room school for several years, but later another room was added, as you can see in the picture above.

The last year for school here was the 1957-58 school year.  The old building burnt and the students were sent to Tolu School.

Genealogy Society Meets

The Crittenden County Genealogy Society met this past Saturday at the Library.

Member Steve Eskew presented an interesting and informative program on scanning and organizing old photographs.  He had a collection of some of his old photographs that he shared.  

On the screen behind the group he had a collection of his family photos.  Steve has created folders for the different family ancestors so they will all be in their own group, such as his Eskew family, Stembridge, Canada, and Roberts, just to name a few.  

If we could all manage to do this with our photos, it would be a great way to preserve our family history for our future family generations to have.

Left to right:  Betty Croft, Don Foster, Darlene Eskew, Anna Rhea Belt Porter, presenter Steve Eskew, Rita Owen Travis, Fay Carol Jackson Crider and Doyle Polk.

Early Marion Main Street

This old photo was made between 1890-1905, as these buildings were all burnt in the great fire of  1905 that destroyed all of Marion's business district.

The building on the right was the Marion Bank.  Built in 1890, it was Marion's first bank, and a much needed asset to the town, as the closest bank would have been at Princeton, 23 long miles away. 

The stores in this picture were Goodlow Grocery, Morris & Hubbards, Marion Hardware Co., McConnell's Dry Goods, and M. Copher's grocery, the rest of the block wasn't shown in this old photo.

Marion's old water pump is visible on the left side of the photo, which supplied the water for the town.  (you can click on the photo and it will enlarge for better viewing these objects)

Another interesting site are the ladder-like structures around the Marion Bank.  Upon closer look they must be some kind of protection that was built around each of the small trees. 

Note the absence of light and telephone wires and poles, they would come later.