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

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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.