Crittenden County In "Kentucky's Industrial Review". October 1949

The 'Kentucky Industrial Directory, 1949" had this to report about Crittenden County.  ( I don't believe they had a true count of our manufacturing businesses, but this is what the world saw)

The detailed listing for each community required a great deal of hard work in  collecting the data and checking it for accuracy. 

Following are the Directory's listing for communities in Crittenden County.

Marion.  Population 3,000.  COUNTY SEAT of Crittenden County on U. S. 60 and Ky. 91 and 120.

Business Organizations: Junior Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club

Transportation:  Railroad - I. C., Bus and Truck.

Utilities:  Electric - Inter-connected, Kentucky Utilities Co.,  Water - Filtered surface, municipally owned.

Banks:  Farmers Bank and Trust Co., The Peoples Bank.

Newspaper:  The Crittenden Press (Weekly).

Airport:  Jaycee Airport  (Sid Johnson's location)

Manufacturers: L. Conyer, Washing and blending fluorspar, Munt and Orr Sawmill, Winn and Tobin Milling Co.

MEXICO:  Population 300.  Located in Crittenden County on Ky. 295, 7 miles southwest of Marion, the county seat.

Transportation:  Railroad-I.C., and Truck.

Utilities: Electric - Kentucky Utilities Co.,

Manufactures:  Mott Concrete Prod. Co.

Fluorspar Companies:

• C and L Fluorspar Co., Inc., Employed - 12, Marion
• L. Conyer, Employed - 6, Marion
• Crider Bros. Fluorspar Co. - Employed 43, Mexico
• Davenport Mines, Inc. - Employed 20, Marion
• Delhi Fluorspar Corp. - Employed 32, Marion
• Frazer Mining Co. - Employed 20., Mexico
• Inland Steel Co. - Employed 98,  Marion
• Kentucky Fluorspar Co. - Employed 21, Marion
• Mahoning Mining - Marion
• U. S. Coal and Coke - Mexico

1946 Fire Destroys Old Tobacco Factory and Damages Elkins and Shebly Homes

Article from Crittenden Press, July 1946.

Fire originating in the E. Elm St. factory building of R. E. Rogers early Friday morning completely destroyed the structure, destroyed laundry equipment of P. M. Perryman and also clothes at the laundry for work; destroyed several motors belonging to Sullivan Core Drilling Co., a number of fittings and many hundreds of feet of pipe of the same company, and seriously damaged the homes of O. M. Shelby and Mr. R. E. Elkins.

                (The Old Tobacco Factory in it's earlier days, in later years it was used for a laundry and storage)

The blaze was discovered by Grave Evelyn Shelby, daughter of O. M. Shelby, who was sleeping in a room next to the laundry portion of the factory.  She was awakened by a series of blasts or explosions.  She called to her father, who rushed from his home to the factory, a distance of a few feet, and he was likewise confronted with explosions as the made an attempt to enter the building.

In addition to loss of the building, Rogers sustained loss of machinery and thousands of feet of walnut lumber.  It is reported his loss exceeded $12,000.00 and was only partially covered by insurance.

Shelby placed his residential damage at $1,500.00 with sufficient insurance to cover, but pointed to the fact that furniture and other household equipment removed from the threatened house sustained damage from both removal and exposure.

The east side of the house had all window casings and some portions of the eaves burned.  The house is of concrete and stucco construction with fire-proof roof which is all that saved complete destruction.

Fire chief Henry Sisco said that when he arrived at the building the blaze was in the laundry portion and apparently was small.  Only two firemen, John Franklin Elkins and John T. Vaughn reported and the pair were unable to properly handle the hose.  The men entered the building with a full 1ine` of hose, but the blaze became uncontrollable within a few seconds.

After sparks set fire to the Elkins and Shelby property, the entire section of the city was threatened and a call sent to Sturgis for assistance.  The Sturgis truck arrive after danger had been abated.

Hard to believe but the Shelby house is still standing today and is still being lived in.  I do not know about the Elkins residence.

The  Shelby house as it stands today on the corner of E. Elm Street.

First U.S. Presbyterian Church

First U. S. Presbyterian Church built on the southwest corner of what are now East Belleville and South College Streets in 1881-82.

This picture was made shortly after the building's completion.

Note the kerosene street lamp and the stone  horse-mounting block for the ladies who rode side-saddle.

This building was erected by the U. S. or Southern dissidents of the Marion Presbyterian Church when that congregation remained loyal to the regular National Church Organization.

A transfer of Presbytery membership to Louisville led to the division of that Church.

The inside of this building shown is still very much as it was when it was built in 1881.  The one-of a kind stained glass windows are still vividly beautiful with all the colored glass clear and bright. 

The old gas chandeliers lights, sometime through the years, was converted over to electricity, but the original fixtures are still in use.

Today this historic old building is the home of the Crittenden County Historical Museum, and is watched over and cared for by the Crittenden County Historical Society.

Early Newspapers Experience Rapid Growth

In February 1878, the Marion Reporter was founded by J. J. Nall, R. H. Adams and James M. Clement.

It was run under this management until October, 1878, when it was turned over to C. F. Champion and R. C. Walker to see if they could increase advertisement subscriptions the lifeblood of an infant newspaper.

But unable to put the Reporter on a profitable basis by the end of the year, the paper was returned to its owners.  Murrell Adams issued number 1 in January, 1879.

R. C. Walker founded the Crittenden Press May 28, 1879 on a 5 column outside patent as a weekly.  Like the other Marion businesses it experienced an amazingly rapid growth from 1879 to 1894 and it grew to a 7 column outside patent to an 8 column all-home-print paper by 1894.

Press subscriptions grew from 200 to 500 in the first few years to 1400 in 1886 to 1800 in 1894. The Press no doubt prospered on a similar scale under Walker until it was sold to S. M. Jenkins about 1903.

On July 15, 1904, the firm of James E. Chittenden and C. H. Whitehouse founded the Crittenden Record which was greeted with almost instant success by the growing community as is shown by the subscriptions which grew from 1500 soon after it started to over 2,000 by the time of dissolution of the Crittenden-Whitehouse Firm in November, 1905.

The Concrete Building (as it was then known, now the Wheeler's antique building) on East Carlisle Street that was built just east of the mail access alley to the Post Office for the Record's office and presses.   After the 1905 fire, the building went to Whitehouse (who in 1912 sold the building to Henry & Henry Co.); while the newspaper went to Chittenden.

So the homeless Crittenden Record merged with S. M. Jenkins' Crittenden Press and Jenkins edited and published The Crittenden Record-Press through 1917.

An early Crittenden Press ad from a 1897 paper.

Marion Develops As Centralized Business Location

Most historians agree that their cities were not built with the expectation of any great number of permanent residents, but only as a center or gathering place for the people living in the territory for miles around.

Public buildings were established in these towns to house all agencies of the government of the established surrounding territory.

Markets of all types quickly sprang up around the public buildings to take advantage of the community gathering place.

So it was with the town of Marion during her first year and a half.  Crittenden was established from Livingston County in January of 1842.

The town had been established only for the purpose of a county seat or as a centralized location for the erection of public buildings to house the government and public records of the new Crittenden County. 

It's rapid growth into a mercantile and residential community was not planned or even visualized by most of the early Town Father's, many of whom were also early county officials.

There were a few log and frame cabins scattered throughout what is now downtown Marion and along the Fords Ferry Road and the Centerville Road (now Moore St. that runs behind Conrads Store).

In 1844 James M. Smith was appointed surveyor of the Fords Ferry and Belleville Roads beginning at the courthouse in Marion and extending one half mile each way. 

Smith was given privilege of calling on every able-bodied male resident along these roads to the extend of the town boundaries to assist in clearing, smoothing and cleaning all parts of those roads "so as to help confirm the plan of the town."

Despite the rumor that the town of Marion was first called "Oxford" before its incorporation as Marion, by an Act of the Kentucky Legislature, it was always referred to its official records by its proper name of Marion.

The rumor was based on the fact that early mail from Marion was postmarked "Oxford", but this was from the fact that since the new town was not yet on a main mailstage road until after its incorporation, it's mail was shuttled eastward to be mailed from the post office at Oxford Academy on the Flynns Ferry Road.

W. C. Carnahan, Pioneer Merchant

Many of Marion's once familiar names are gone now.  The original family members passed on, and if there were children, most moved on to other parts of the county.

One of Marion's early pioneer names is that of Carnahan.  The name Carnahan doesn't appear in Marion today, but some of the older ones remember it, as it was a very prominent name at one time.

Without doubt, the man who earned the title of Marion's Godfather of his industry and farsightedness which sustained the rapid growth of Marion in its first two generations is William "Bill" Chandler Carnahan.

Bill Carnahan came to the newborn town of Marion in 1844 from Madisonville where he had been a saddler's apprentice for three years.

The Saddler profession was one of the indispensable businesses of the mid-19th century pioneer communities.

For  he was the manufacturer of all leather goods, including saddles, bridles, saddle-bags, harness and often boots and shoes.

Hearing of the establishment of the new town, and realizing the marvelous business opportunity of the first saddle shop, Carnahan came to  Marion in 1844, bringing with him, all that he possessed in a two-horse wagon.

A 35 year old father of two young children and soon to be a widower, W. C. Carnahan bought a double log-cabin which sat near the center of Marion (the now parking lot of Marion Commons.)  and there he sat up his saddlery shop.  

He continued at his saddle, harness, etc. making with David Bourland as his apprentice until 1854 when he sold his shop and entered politics.

Some of the offices he held during the years were: Constable; a Marion trustee in 1855; Crittenden County Sheriff in 1866.

The early Carnahan family has a lot in the Old Marion Cemetery, located next to Hwy. 60 East.  Here W. C. "Bill" is buried.  He died April 2, 1892. 

I've often said that this old cemetery should be honored and cared for, it definitely is the resting place of Marion's Founding Fathers.

Rise and Fall Of An Industry

 Pictured above are two subjects of Crittenden County's past - the fluorspar industry and the railroad which was removed from the county in 1999 after 113 years of history.   The picture shows a man on the left shoveling spar into an empty train car.  Spar was hauled in to Marion from the county mines, unloaded in bins and then loaded into the train cars for shipment to places all over the US.

Perhaps the most significant event to occur in Crittenden County during the last 100 years is the rise, and subsequent fall, of the fluorspar industry within the county.

The earliest attempts to mine fluorspar were made by a company headed by Andrew Jackson in 1835 at the Columbia Mines near present-day Marion.

However, it was not until 1873 that the first shipment of fluorspar was shipped out of Crittenden County.

The industry then grew and grew until 1896 when Crittenden County became the largest producer of fluorspar in the world.

The growth of the fluorspar industry also prompted the installation of a railroad in the county in 1886.  Fluorspar could now be easily shipped by the ton.

In fact, at one time, Crittenden County spar miners had a payroll of $2 million per year and employed over 1,500 workers at more than 100 mines.

Many fluorspar magnates became millionaires, many men fed and provided for their families on spar mine paychecks and a strong economic base began to attract countless retailers.

Fluorspar helped Crittenden County's population grow to over 15,000 people in the early 1900s.

As unions strengthened in the United States, it became increasing difficult for fluorspar giants to maintain the high profit margins of the turn of the century. 

Another blow to the once-great industry was the onset of the Great Depression in late 1929.  Profits began to shrink even more which required more and more layoffs to offset losses.

The last blow was when fluorspar finally became cheaper to import than produce in rural area, the mine shafts of Crittenden County closed and the hopes and dreams of hundreds of families faced serious peril.

Dozens of hometown families left the county for jobs in the steel mills in Indiana, also the car factories in Missouri and Detroit.

Today the legend of the fluorspar industry in our community continues to live through the efforts of remembering and sharing stories of those past days, and the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum on North Walker Street that is a living history of those wonderful fluorspar days.  Anything concerning the fluorspar industry you will be able to find here at the Clement Mineral Museum.