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.

***

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.”

***

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.

***

Threlkeld Memorial Lake

A post card showing the newly built city water filtration Plant, located on the Chapel Hill Road.  Cira late 1930's, early 1940's.

Threlkeld Memorial Lake

In 1933 Marion's long awaited for water project was finally becoming a reality. A WPA project for the city was to beautify the water works lake site on Chapel Hill Road. 

December 8, 1933 – After the filter plant and dam were completed, Marion's next project was to turn the water works lake sight into a park and it would be called Lake Side Park. 

June 8, 1934 -Mayor J. V. Threlkeld, passed away on April 22, 1934. Mr. Threlkeld was one of Marion's most popular Mayors. Through two administrations and entering upon the third he served his city and in that capacity was instrumental in securing the R. F. C. loan for the financing of the filtration plant and water works reservoir recently completed.

Through the efforts of Dr. T. A. Frazer, a lasting tribute will be paid to former Mayor J. V. Threlkeld, by naming the grounds of the new Marion water plant the “J. V. Threlkeld Memorial Lake Park.

With the cooperation of the council, local citizens, the Marion Kiwanis Club, other interested individuals and the Kentucky game and fish Commission, the lake site will be beautified and made one of the most appropriate memorials ever imagined. At the earliest possible date the lake will be stocked with game fish and such as may be furnished by the State and Federal government . The lake site will be beautified and made one of the most appropriate memorials ever imagined.

(These park plans were not completed until the fall of 1952 when the Marion Kiwanis Club decided to make it one of their 1952 projects and placed six concrete picnic tables and brick or stone furnaces where people might go for an outing. ) But it never was the popular community site that they thought it would be. I can remember doing some child hood fishing in the lake with my dad and having a family picnic on the grounds. It is one of our forgotten passages of time as nothing is there to show it as it once was. The old treatment plant was torn down in 1983.

***

General Joseph Hughes Resting Place

This little family cemetery is located on the Mt. Zion Cemetery Road, off of S. R. 654 North in northern Crittenden County. 

Joseph Hughes played an important role in the early history of Crittenden County.  The Hughes family had deep roots in the early days, even when Crittenden was still a part of Livingston County.   He was the son of Thomas I. Hughes and Nancy Roe Williams Hughes.  

The Hughes family history states that he was a general in the War of 1812, thus the General on his tombstone.

Joseph was present at the first county court held at Cross Keys Inn, the home of Samuel Ashley, on April 4, 1842.  (Located near the present day Crooked Creek Church.  The spot is marked by a historical marker)

He was a justice of the peace in Livingston County as early as November 1823, and also served as a member of the state legislature from Livingston County before Crittenden County was formed, then when Crittenden county was formed, (Jan. 1942) he was appointed county treasurer, and he was also the first man in the newly formed county to solemnize the rites of marriage.

Joseph, at this time, was the oldest magistrate of the county(but was only 53) and by virtue of his office he would have been sheriff, but Joseph declined the post and recommended W. B. Hickman to be appointed in his stead.

Joseph married Mary Sellers on Jan. 12, 1809 in Livingston County. 

Also buried here are: 

• Louisa J. Crow, Born Sept. 16, 1839 and Died July 10, 1892.  She was the daughter of Francis and Adaline (Lynn) Gill.
• Martha P. W. Nunn, Born Jan. 31, 1819, Died Dec. 24, 1851.  Daughter of Joseph and Mary Sellars Hughes and wife of Otha Nunn.  Her full name was Martha Percenia Washington Hughes. (Could have died from childbirth, from child listed below)
• Martha P. W. Nunn, Born Dec. 3, 1851 and Died July 9, 1852.   (Daughter of Martha and Otha Nunn)

There are likely more of Joseph's family buried at the location, since no stone has been located for Joseph's wife, Mary Sellars Hughes, and she and Joseph had several more infants who died as infants and there are no stones for any of them.

 

Boaz School

Schools of today are so much different from what they used to be, there is no comparison. 

The little white school house that stood beside the road in so many communities played a very important role in the neighborhood.  It was their school, and everyone worked hard to make it a success.

 There were all kinds of activities the parents would provide, if items were needed to supply a school room or play ground with new and useful items for the students.  There would be pie suppers, ice cream socials, or maybe a night of music by the local musicians.  Not a lot of money was made, but then, it was enough to get the things needed to make the school a better and brighter place for the students and teachers.

One of these long ago forgotten schools is Boaz.  It was located in the southern part of the county and set across the road from the front of the Seven Springs Church, just outside of the Frances community. 

 

According to some old school history, Sarah (Brasher) Boaz, wife of George Boaz donated the land for the school, so the school was named for her.  The school was started in the late 1800's.

 It started as a one room building but later another room was added.  The children than called them "big room" and "little room" to distinguish between them.

When there was a revival at the Seven Springs Baptist Church near-by the teacher lined up the children and they all crossed the road to the church to attend the morning or afternoon services.

 

Some of the teachers were: Minnie Brasher, Lucy Wheeler, Marion Pogue, Mr. Hillyard, David Postlewhweighte, Nathan Ward, Myra Campbell, Lee Linzey, John Griffin, Stella Simpkins, Harley Sunderland, Alice Brookshire Sunderland, Mildred Paris, Reba Henry, Raymond Schandemyer, Allie Hodge, Juanita Linzey, Irene McConnell, Mrs. Moore, Geneva Dycus, Lette Thompson, T. A. Martin, Mayme Lott and Sally Sullenger.

In 1955 the Boaz School, with several others in the surrounding area, were closed and the students sent to the Frances school.

The Boaz School was then torn down, today there is no evidence that a school was ever there.