First Sunday School Convention in Crittenden County

First Sunday School Convention

Our churches have always been an important part of our past history. From the archives of the Crittenden Press we learn of the first Sunday School convention held in Crittenden County.
Rev. James F. Price was there and shared this history with the Press.

June 7, 1888 - History of the Kentucky Sunday School Union In Crittenden County. By James F. Price.

One of the first Sunday school mass meetings in Crittenden County was a denominational mass meeting held at Piney Fork Church about 1875 or 1876. The schools were represented as classes, and each class sang by itself.

 The next meeting of this kind was held at Bethel Church in 1879. It was called a Sunday School Celebration, and was non denominational.

The next one was held at Union church in the summer of 1880, and was very successful. These meetings were prior to any organization of the Kentucky Sunday School Union in this county.

The next meeting of this kind was held at Piney Fork church in the fall on 1880.  At this meeting at Piney Fork which was a very enthusiastic and full meeting, Rev. Crumbaugh stated the relation in which he stood to the county as the representative of the Kentucky Sunday School Union, and the name of the bi-annual meetings were changed from Celebration to Convention.This was the origin of the organization of the Ky. Sunday School Union in Crittenden County.

The next convention was held at Chapel Hill in the spring of 1881. Both of these meetings were largely attended and full of interest.

At the Hurricane Convention the county was divided into four districts and a district superintendent appointed for each. This districting the county is due to the efforts of Uncle Wesley Minner.

The next convention was appointed for Marion, but for a want of cooperation the convention was not held.

The county convention having failed to meet in Marion, Oak Grove gave an invitation for the Convention to meet there; this was in the fall of 1882. This was a good meeting. At this convention it was decided to have only one convention a year.

The next convention was held at Crooked Creek church in the fall of 1883. The county was now reported in the minutes of the State Convention as a banner county; this is, completely organized. This organization had been perfected at Hurricane, two years before. 

The next convention was held at Lily Dale in the fall of 1884, and was one of the fullest conventions we have ever held, about 1500 persons present.

The next convention was held at Post Oak in the fall of 1885. It was a very unfavorable day, but the State visitor, S. F. Wishard, who was present, pronounced it a success.

In the fall of 1886 the Convention was held at the Lead Mines, and was marked for its earnest work and enthusiasm.

The last convention was held at Chapel Hill, in the summer of 1887. It was well attended and productive of much good.

The Panther, By Miss Ruby Dean

In the early days of our county, the panther and catamount silently roamed our virgin forests, ever once in a while making themselves known to an unsuspecting traveler. Sometimes the story would be handed down through the family.

Another wonderful story from the Dean family collection.

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It was a dark afternoon in early February, about 1875. A few snowflakes fluttered through the air but not enough to stop John Lamb from chopping out fence rows and cutting bushes.

In the shelter of the big family room warmed by a log fire, Sara Ann was knitting. Annie Maria, now more than four had been playing with her brothers, Bob and Edgar, until suddenly their activities were not in accord with her mood. So she pulled up a stool at her mothers feet and said. 'Ma, tell me about the panther.”

Well, said Sara Ann, when your grandmother, Evaline Phillips, was a young woman she had to ride quite a distance one afternoon on horseback to take care of an errand for her father. She was riding through a thickly wooded section and before she reached home the shadows began to lengthen, then all of a sudden it seemed almost night.

Oh, Well! She wasn't afraid or Was she? For there on the branch of a tree just ahead she saw a darkish figure sprawled. It was not a raccoon, nor a possum, nor a mink.

No, no it was much too large. It looked more like a cat had it not been quite so big.

She would have preferred to turn her horse and ride back in the other direction, but there was no other way home.

Suddenly she had no choice. The horse wheeled and changed directions. At the same moment, the animal disappeared. Although she had difficulty persuading her horse to right about face, she finally did. But what was that touching her from behind? It felt soft. Then she felt nothing. In both mind and body she seem to become numb.

Sara Ann continued, what light there was had now faded into darkness. Her horse took the imitative now and galloped off.

When he reached the big gate which led into the barn lot, he stopped short. Evaline came to herself in time to hear a THUD behind her. Looking quickly she thought she saw something shiny and black slink away into the night. Just then she saw her father coming toward her carrying a large lantern.

“Evaline, Evaline! What happened,” he said, “Why are you so late?”

Father, she said, I think a panther rode behind me all the way from Dawson's Wood.

Annie Marie said, Oh Ma! Do you think it really did?” Sara Ann replied, “Well, we'll never know for sure.”

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Little Annie Maria Lamb grew up and married J. N. Dean. This article was written by Ruby Dean, daughter of J. N. and Annie Dean. 

The Dean family were great writers, and have written several wonderful colorful stories about the Deanwood area and things that happened in their lives.   

An Ancient Road

This interesting piece of Crittenden County History was published in a little booklet that was prepared for the Frontier Festival that Crittenden held in September of 1961.  

An Ancient Road

One of the oldest roads in Western Kentucky, Flynn's Ferry Road, is probably the oldest in Crittenden County.

Geologically a natural break formed by parts of Camp Creek (entrance of this creek is located at the little river town of Weston), and Piney Creek in the eastern part of the county (near Piney Fork Church) in very early times formed a basis for a North-South trace or trail from the Tennessee country into Southern Illinois. 

The road, after being developed by the Indians and early settlers, formed an almost straight line from Weston on the Ohio River to Princeton.   

George Flynn opened a ferry at this end of this trail at the Ohio River and established a good road from there to the home of William Prince, who lived at the big spring which later became the site of Princeton.

This road was heavily traveled for many years before the formation of Crittenden County.  Goods were unloaded at Weston, then an important river port, and were transported south by wagon as far as Princeton  and to many other inland settlements.

Settlers going north to Illinois and beyond, plied this road almost constantly.

So important was this road that it gave access to and was important in the formation of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.

New City Lake gets Named - 1969

 

Crittenden Press article - April 1958

New City Lake Park Attractive. With the return of spring local people are again turning to the park on the shores of the newest city reservoir, Lake George, a little over two miles from the city limits. 

The park, never officially named, was completed last year. It is the result of a cooperative effort by the Marion Business and Professional Women's Club and the city government.

To get to it is a drive of about three miles from Marion. You drive by the city waterworks on Chapel Hill Road, proceeding along the road, one crosses a bridge, climbs a hill, then turns left onto a grave road. This road goes past Earl Patmor's farm house to the earthen dam of the new lake. A right turn here takes you to a parking lot by the park.

The site is shady and restful. Sturdy concrete picnic tables and grills are available, and a shelter house is there in case of rain. Half the money for the facilities, $700 was provided by the Business & Professional Womans Club. The money came from prizes awarded for the Community Development Scrapbook that was entered by the club in the statewide contest in 1954 and 1955.

 The club, after considerable debate, offered the money for a park if the city would match it. This the city did. The site is now in use and is one of the best picnics ground in the area.  (This picnic area was never used as it was meant to be, there were no bathroom facilities and no electricity to the area and actually awkward to get to.   It is seldom, perhaps, never used today and has set unused for many years. 2019.  But the lake is a popular fishing location for local fishermen.)

The new lake has been stocked by the state Fish and Wildlife Department, as has the older lake nearby and excellent catches have been reported in its waters.

In March of 1969 a marker was erected near the entrance to what was usually just referred to locally as "the new city lake". It was erected in tribute to the man who made the original survey for the lake back in the early 1950's. 

George Strickler moved to Marion in 1951 from Auburn, Kentucky and was with the soil conversation service here until 1954. Mr. Strickler is now deceased and the marker is a tribute to him and his dedicated service to the people of Marion and Crittenden County. Mr. Strickler received no remuneration for his work and the marker is a fitting tribute to the man and a job well done.

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