Old Kentucky Sassafras Tea

This story appeared in The Marion Reporter in February 1955. 

 Tea is Good For Business.

Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Whitt of the Frances community have turned an idea into an industry. There has been much talk and quite a bit of effort of late to attract industry into Marion in order to relieve the economic slump created by the withdrawal of the fluorspar operations, and the Whitts have come up with a novel means by which they, and the town, hope to ease the situation somewhat.

Rather than sit around and wait for something to break, the Whitts capitalized on an idea that they inherited from a past member of the family. It concerns a process for refining sassafras into tea. How did the idea get going?

 Well according to Mrs. Clara Lee Whitt, her husband, Oliver, was sleeping about eight hours, working about eight hours and eating about four out of every day. What with the slack season on in the sweet potato field, Oliver decided that he had about four extra hours there that were going to waste. 

 This is a picture of the Whitt's Old Kentucky Sassafras Tea.

Starting the Sassafras idea more as a hobby than anything else, Oliver dug the roots and used the family refining process (which he has since applied for a patent on), and started distributing the new product himself.The product is called "Old Kentucky One Minute Sassafras Tea," and has been received with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in this area. 

Most everybody is acquainted with sassafras; many of the older readers will remember it well from their childhood, for not too many years ago it was considered to have therapeutic value. Even though that kind of thinking has changed through the years, the fact remains that was sassafras in a very delightful and refreshing beverage, easily prepared and inexpensive to serve.

Old Kentucky One-Minute Sassafras Tea is an example of the kind of ingenuity that can put Marion back into a position of economic stability. With the promotion of the people of the community it can grow into a substantial supplement to the commerce of the city and county. 

 Local stores and merchants now have old Kentucky on their shelves.

This is a picture made in front of the Kroger Store in Marion in 1955, when the first load shipment of the Whitt's Sassafras Tea arrive for sale.

According to Mrs. Whitt, their tea business didn't last too long, it was a lot of work  getting it ready for sale, and someone from Tennessee had copied their tea making business and packing, so they just decided to end it.

127th Annual Hurricane Church Meeting

This week June 8-14, marks the 127 Annual Hurricane Church Meeting. 

Here is an interesting article about a meeting that happened in 1913, from The Crittenden Press.

Night Riders Send Threatening Notes.  Demand That Admission Fee For Services Be Stoped at Hurricane. 

The first attempt of night riders in Crittenden County to broaden the scope of their operations from tobacco matters alone to other affairs came today when the committee in charge of Hurricane camp meeting, sixteen miles north of here, received threatening letters demanding that they drop their custom of charging admission at the gates of the camp grounds.

In order to defray the expenses of the meeting, which has been an annual affair for many years, the committee decided last year to charge a small gate fee on the two Sundays during which the meeting went on.

The plan had met with some dissatisfaction, but on the whole seemed to be working out very well.

The notices were found scattered all over the camp grounds Thursday morning, but admission was charged nevertheless.  Special guards have been installed and the committee, composed of some of the best citizens of the county, propose to proceed as before.

North Main Street Homes

On North Main Street in Marion are some beautiful older homes.  The W. O. Tucker home was built in 1921.  

Here is a picture of the home with the Tucker family on the steps of their newly built home in 1921.

Back row: W. O. "Tuck" Tucker, Mrs. C. S. Nunn, Mrs. George Eady, Mrs. T. J. Nunn, Mrs. W. O. Tucker.

Front row:  seated, John Nunn, Mrs. Miles Flanary, Virginia Flanary, Thomas N. Tucker, C. S. Nunn, George Eady and the Tucker's dog, "Puppy."

From the Crittenden Press in March 1921:

Plans have been prepared by M. V. Arnold, Engineer for a new residence for W. O. Tucker.  This new home is to be erected on the corner lot.

The new building will be of the semi-bungalow style and will contain a living room, library, dining room, kitchen, breakfast room, pantry, four bed rooms, bath and sleeping porch.  The house will have all the modern improvements and conveniences including both plumbing and heating systems.

Mr. Tucker, for whom the house is to be built is one of the firm Foster & Tucker.

Work will be started in the early  months of this spring on the new residence.  When completed it will be one of the most beautiful and complete dwellings in our city.

The home is still beautiful and well-cared for today.  I believe a family by the name of Armstrong lives there today.

Remembering On Memorial Day

A picture of the war Memorial at Mapleview Cemetery and the white marble crosses that honor our fallen hero's.  

Each year the American Legion Post 111 place an American flag by each cross, and have red, white and blue flowers placed in the urns around the memorial.  It is a very impressive sight to see with the breeze blowing the flags. 

There were ten local men killed or died related to the war in WWI, Forty-eight  in WWII, four in the Korean War, Six in the Vietnam War, and one in the Cold War.

Each Memorial Day and Veterans day, Daryl Tabor, editor, of The Crittenden Press, has a full page Honoring Our County's Hero's.  Pictures for most are included on the memorial page.  

 Several pictures of local men have not be found yet.  They include for WWI:  Pvt. Luther H. Horning, Pvt. John E. Samuel, Pvt.William Curry, Pvt. Harry W. Threlkeld, CPL James Cecil Turner, and Sgt. Maj. Freda E. Baker.

For World War II: PFC Forest E. Brantley, Army, Sgt. Herbert A. Hoover, PFC James B. Truitt, Sgt. Denver L. Marvel, Army National Guard, Sgt. Jack L. Woody, Army Air Force, PFC John Dancy Hodge, PFC Herman Carter Shewcraft and PFC James C. Yandell.  

Korean War: Sgt. Junior Raymond McDowelll and Sgt. James Rodger Bissell

It is amazing that we have been able to find as many pictures and history that we have, it would be wonderful to complete the memorial with pictures of the above named.  If anyone can share a picture and/or history of any of these men it would be greatly appreciated.  You may submit to The Crittenden Press at 270-965-3191 or email thepress@thepress.com  or contact me at bunderdown@apex.net.

Thank you.

Duplicate Names for Marion and Crittenden County

An interesting article from the July 12, 1957 Crittenden Press.

An anonymous reader in Paducah this week sent in a clipping of a cartoon feature to the Crittenden Press that bears on Marion and Crittenden County.

It seems that the county in Arkansas across the river from Memphis is named Crittenden County. 

The counties were named for brothers, the one in Arkansas after Robert Crittenden and our home county for brother, John J. Crittenden.

On top of that, the county seat of the Arkansas county is named Marion as well as the one in Kentucky.  Marion, Kentucky., of course, was named after the Revolutionary War General Francis Marion, known as the Swamp Fox.  But it didn't say who Marion, Arkansas was named for.

Incidentally, these are the only two Crittenden Counties in the United States.

Indian Relics At Tolu

An interesting article from the files of The Crittenden Press, dated June 21, 1957.

Residents of Tolu in Crittenden County were reminded again last week that their village had been the site of a settlement long before a white man built a house there.

The reminder came as bulldozers leveling the site for a new school building near the old one turned up hundreds of Indian artifacts, mostly broken shards of Pottery but including arrowheads and other flint implements and bones, both human and animal.

The "Tolu Site" has long been known as a treasure-trove for relics of the Stone Age culture that preceded European man in the area.  Arrowheads and other items turn up frequently when neighborhood fields are plowed.

The site was thoroughly excavated and studied in the summer of 1930 by W. S. Webb and W. D. Funkhouser of the University of Kentucky and a liberally illustrated report of the study was published by the University in March, 1931.

The team of archaeologists cut into the hillside now largely owned by the school board and discovered that it had been the site of a large Indian lodge house.  Post-holes found on two different levels indicated that the mound had been used for this purpose two different times.

Mingled all through the top nine feet or so of the soil on the mound are quantities of mussel shells brought up from the river, arrowheads, bones and above all, broken pottery.  A look at the site Wednesday afternoon uncovered no arrowheads, and presumably the area has been picked clean of these already by the pieces of pottery still abound.

Among the most numerous types of fragments is that called "Textile marked pottery" in the Funkhouser and Webb study.  These shards bear impressions of coarse textiles pressed around the pottery before it was dried.

Other types of pottery found at Tolu include very hard black and red pieces used for other purposes by the Indians.

The school site is on a hill described by the scientists as the "ceremonial mound."  Another hill nearby was also investigated in 1930 at which time 22 graves were uncovered.  Another skeleton was found in the ceremonial mound.

Several of the skeletons uncovered by Dr. Funkhouser's party were taken to the University of Kentucky museums. The State of Kentucky is rich in Archaeological material, and has furnished many of the most valued specimens now on display in the great European museums, as well as those in the United States. 

It is a sad tragedy that practically all this valuable material has been taken from Kentucky, and that having given generously to the world, there are no great museum collections within her border.

A Trip To Pine Knob

Crittenden County has a beautiful country side.  Through the years people have shared their outings and hikes with the readers of the Press.  It is fun to find an old article and then locate the area where the event took place.  In March 1911, one of these folks shared their trip to Pine Knob.

Pine Knob Bluff is located in eastern Crittenden County on the Blackburn Church Road.  The Knob is best viewed from across the road at a distance so you can see the full beauty of it.

Here is the little article.  On last Saturday we decided to take a trip to the old noted "Pine Knob."  Perhaps this is one of the highest points in east Crittenden and from this high summit we could take a view of the surrounding country.

We left our "shack" at 9 a.m., and after several miles of travel across the level stretches of a smiling country, dotted here and there, with red roofs of houses and barns.  

Then in the forests, among the trees were the early bird, the blue and the jay, were singing their sweet melody all indicating life and activity.

 Now we have reached the margin of the foot hills of Pine Knob and we commenced their ascent.  Up we went, over logs, rocks, rush and boulders of every kind and description, and last climbing step by step we reached hanging rock the top most crest.

 This area of Crittenden County and on to Shady Grove is known for the the beauty of it's rugged rocky landscape.  Also known as Piney Bluffs.