John Bell and Bell Mines

Who was John Bell creator of our Bell Mines and Community

 

In 1836 John Bell, a politician from Nashville, Tennessee, came to Crittenden County in hopes of establishing a new coal mining industry. He purchased thirty-one acres of land from John Lamb and John Rourk. The land being located in northern Crittenden County, next to the Tradewater River. This was the beginning of the coal mining town that would be named Bells Mines, after the man that started the mines.

 

John Bell was rarely present at his Kentucky mine projects, he relied on paid managers. After five or six years of work on the Kentucky mine project, John Bell left and returned to national political arena and the U. S. Senate as a Senator from the state of Tennessee. In 1847, Bell put his coal holdings in trust and his agents continued to run the Bell mines. 

 

 W. C. Carvell, who had as interest in the mines and who was manager for Bell while he was away, eventually purchased Bell's interest in the mines.

 Although John Bell died in 1867 in Tennessee, Carvell kept the mine going for several years, but John Bell's legacy of the beginning of Bells Mines continued to be carried on today.

 

Bell, John Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Bell entered the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827 and served there as a Democrat until 1841. He broke with Pres. Andrew Jackson in 1834 and supported Hugh Lawson White for president in 1836.

 

After White’s defeat Bell became a Whig and, in March 1841, as a reward for party services, was made secretary of war in Pres. William Henry Harrison’s Cabinet. A few months later, after the death of President Harrison, he resigned in opposition to Pres. John Tyler’s break with the Whigs.

 

After six years’ retirement from political life, Bell was elected as a U.S. senator for Tennessee in 1847, serving in the Senate until 1859. Although a large slaveholder, Bell opposed efforts to expand slavery to the U.S. territories. He vigorously opposed Pres. James Knox Polk’s Mexican War policy and voted against the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska bill (1854), and the attempt to admit Kansas as a slave state. 

 

Bell’s temperate support of slavery combined with his vigorous defense of the Union brought him the presidential nomination on the Constitutional Union ticket in 1860, but he carried only Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He initially opposed secession; however, following Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops, he openly advocated resistance and henceforth classed himself a rebel. Bell spent the war years in retirement in Georgia and Alabama returning to Tennessee in 1865. 

 

 This marker is located in Sturgis, KY, Union County, close to the town's 4-way stop.  I always wondered why it was placed here instead of at the Bells Mines Road on SR 365.  Perhaps it is safer located there.

Firing of the Last Shot in WWI (Part II)

 

On May 19, 2020 I did a post on Herbert F. Phillips and his part in the "Firing of the Last Shot in WWI."  Since that post I have acquired some more interesting information on this story about a Crittenden County boy.

Although Herbert F. Phillips moved away from Crittenden County, he is still considered a Crittenden Countian as he was born and lived his early days here.

This is from the  Journal and Courier of Lafayette, Indiana, May 30, 1960.

Last Shot Fired After War Ended

Officially, World War I ended with an armistice at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, but the last artillery round of that war - fired by a West Lafayette man who died last week - reportedly was fired five minutes later.

Herbert F. Phillips, an Army veteran of 34 years and two World Wars, was buried with military honors last Wednesday in Tippecanoe Memory Gardens.  

From personal correspondence of Phillips, most of it in the early 1930's when an effort was made to locate the gun and display it at West Point, along with the one which had fired the first charge of World War I, the following story of the events of that historic hour developed:

Phillips, then a first lieutenant, was executive officer of Battery E of the 11th Field artillery.  His battery was in position on a small ridge, near Evansville, France, and had been firing steady all day the armistice was signed.  The battery's target was a German "77" battery.

When orders came to cease fire at 11 a.m., Lt. Phillips planned to fire at 10:59 a.m. one last round at the enemy battery which had "given us quite a bit of trouble all morning."  according to Phillips' papers.

As it turned out, the last round actually went off at 11:05 a.m.,"either by accident or by design," according to a letter by Phillips to Maj. Raymond Marsh, of the Office of Chief of Ordnance, dated May 1, 1934.  He added he did not remember why the shot was fired after 11 a.m.

Phillips in his letters, said that a historic picture of "Calamity Jane," the artillery piece that fired the last shot, and of him and a corporal, was taken "several days later."  Other sources fix the date at Nov. 16.  The picture now is displayed in the Library of Congress.

Lafayette Leader Newspaper, Lafeyette, Ind. May 26, 1960

Herbert Francis Phillips, 70, West Lafayette, Indiana, who fired the last artillery charge in World War I, died at 4:05 PM Monday, May 23, 1960, in St. Elizabeth Hospital where he had been a patient two hours.  He had been in failing health the past year.  Born in Marion, KY, he was a veteran of both World Wars with 34 years of service with the armed forces.

During World War I he served overseas in the field artillery with the rank of Captain; from 1920-35 he did ROTC work at Purdue University, retiring in 1935.  He was called to active service with the Air Corps during World War II from 1942-46. The picture of the last artillery piece fired in World War I, and Mr. Phillips; picture hang in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.  The artillery piece is called the 'Calamity Jane'.

Mr. Phillips had lived in this community for 28 years and was a member of Central Presbyterian Church and Eagles Lodge 347.  In 1924 he married Betty Davis.  Surviving are his widow; a daughter, Betty (Mrs. Robert) Weddle; a son, Robert, both of Lafayette; two brothers, Fulton of Henrietta, TX, and Isom of Villa Ridge, IL; and two sisters, Mrs. Maude Lewis of Marion, KY and Mrs. Walter Benedict of Winston-Salem, NC.

An Army escort from Fort Harrison attended the funeral service, which was held at Soller-Baker funeral home, May 25, with Dr. J. Dayton McCormick officiating.  Internment at Tippecanoe Memory Gardens,; the firing squad fired three volleys at the grave site in honor of the distinguished soldier.

   Herbert Phillips, solider standing next to the wheel of Calamity Jane.

If Herbert's niece, Marguerite Lewis Campbell, hadn't share this with me back in 2012, I would never have know about this piece of history.  I'll always be grateful to her.

Crittenden had a Barite Mill

 

Mico Mining & Milling Announces Operation

A group of St. Louis investors headed by Mr. Albert Balenson have started a new mining and milling operation just south of the state highway 91, one and one-half miles from Cave-In-Rock ferry landing.

To date they have completed an 8000 feet 6 inch water supply line from the Ohio River, a 16,000 gallon storage reservoir, and a barite concentration mill, consisting of a washing plant and a jig mill to process alluvial barite deposits located near the mill site. 

According to Mr. Ralph Pringle, the local superintendent, they are employing ten men at the present time and will probably double this number in the future.

The mill has been in operation for about two weeks and has reached an output of about 100 tons per day of high grade barite ore.

The company is incorporated as the Mico Mining and Milling Company and expects to make its first shipment of 1000 tons by river within the next week.

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A part of our forgotten past is a barite mill that was located a short distance off Hwy. 91 North at the end of Easley Rd.

From the April 24, 1958 Crittenden Press. 

A top view of the Mico Mining & Milling Co. barite mill just off Ky. 91 near Cave-In-Rock Ferry.  Taken from the ramp leading to the washing mill, the picture shows the conveyor belt at left which carries washed ore into the jig mill.  The conveyor on the other side of the building to the right carries processed barite, 95 percent pure, to the pile, where trucks pick it up for transportation to river barge loading facilities on the Ohio river.

A bulldozer at work in the alluvial barite deposit on the V. E. Cook property near the mill.   

Barite, or barium sulfate is sometimes called heavy spar, has a specific gravity of about 4.5 is used in drilling oil wells and for other industrial uses.

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I have no knowledge of how long this operation was in use, but it must have not been very long.

Hurricane Island Farmers - June 1973

 

 The large island, known as Hurricane Island, located in the Ohio River a short distance from the Tolu shore line has fascinated me for many years.  An interesting article from the Crittenden Press of June 14, 1973, by John Lucas tells some later day history of the island.  I believe the island is still used for farming.

Farming is by its nature hard work and one of the world's biggest gambles, no matter where one tries it.  But three Crittenden County farmers like to take those conditions and make things even a little more difficult.

They farm an island - the five mile long, approximately 1,000 acre Hurricane Island is the in the middle of the Ohio river below Tolu.

The three farmers are Douglas "Gene" Brazell, James Champion and Donald Champion.   While Brazell's upland ground is adjacent to the island, the Champion brothers must bring equipment from their farms which are several miles from Hurricane, this is an added problem for them.

The other islands in the county - McKinley and Cave-In-Rock - are farmable, but Hurricane is the largest operation.

Brazell farms about 200 acres on the island and the Champions 550.  They grow corn, soybeans and grain sorghum.

Timing is of the utmost importance in farming the island.  A week in the spring can mean the difference between gain or loss in the fall, according to Brazell.

Everything must be ferried to the island, and both Brazell and the Champions have their own barge and ferry tug.

Here Gene  Brazell, and his 11-year-old son, David, move equipment off Hurricane Island, part of which they crop.  

Loyd Brazell, Gene's father, keeps a watchful eye from the pilot house of their ferry, he was once a riverboat pilot.

 Brazell says he usually tries to put a tractor and fuel supply on the island in the spring before the water goes completely off the island and while he can still land at the top of the bank.

The island normally stands about 20 feet above the level of the river, and once the water goes down, it is nearly impossible to get a tractor up the steep landing cut until it is cleared of sediment.  This is the purpose of the tractor placed on the island early - to help clear the landing and assist getting the first of the other equipment ashore.

In the almost 25 years that Brazell has been farming the island, he says that he can recall only one year that water did not completely cover it during the winter.  By the time the river reaches a stage of 34-38 feet, it usually covers a large portion of the island.  

It is covering the island during the winter and spring rises that the Ohio acts as the farmer's friend.  The deposits that the river leaves are so rich that nitrogen is really the only fertilizer requirement, although starter fertilizer is usually used.  

The ability to get the crop off the island is also a limited factor when it comes to cropping Hurricane.  It isn't feasible to take each wagon or truck load of grain to storage bins immediately after it is harvested as one would do on upland ground.  Brazell says, too, that neither is it possible to store grain on the island the year round.  

The introduction of the sheller combine changed all that.  Today he said that he simply harvests all day, filling all his trucks and wagons and then moves them across the mainland at the end of the day.

In farming the island today, the practice is to alternate between the upland ground and the island, working them as the ground drys.

It hasn't always been such Brazell recalls when it was the practice to move over to the island in the spring, taking family chickens and cows, and stay until the crop was planted.  The target date, he said then was to have the crop planted and be moved back across by July 4.  This was continued until as late as 1938.   

At that time all the farming was done with a team or by hand.  Fifty acres were about all that a man and a team of mules coup crop during a growing season. And with the first tractors, 100 acres were enough for one man.

(I don't know who owns the Hurricane Island today and if it is still farmed or not.  With that rich soil, I'd say it is still farmed today.)

1918 Influenze Epidemic in Crittenden County

Recalling the 1918 Influenza Epidemic In Crittenden County

The history breaking event was getting worse in the late summer of 1918, hitting military installations first with epidemic influenza. As soldiers traveled home, they unknowingly carried the flu across the U. S. 

 

 In September in Louisville, nearby Camp Zachary Taylor (WW I's largest army training camp, with its 45,000 men, reported over 2,000 cases. There were several of Crittenden County Soldiers that died with the disease.

 

Most agree the disease affected over half the world's population as the most devastating epidemic in world history. Consider the thought that more died in 1918 of what was called the "Spanish Flu" than in four years of the Bubonic Plague (1347-1351). 

 

Kentuckians became aware of the deadly flu toward the end of September 1918 when troops from Texas debarked from an L&N train to check out Bowling Green. The soldiers unintentionally infected townspeople before returning to their coach.

 

This flu spared no one it could struck the weakest of the young to the stronger and most vigorous of the population. In October 1918 Kentucky Board of Health closed all Kentucky schools, saloons, and soda fountain stores. Mines closed due to the virus spreading in close quarters. Those not ill were kept busy digging graves until late at night. Deaths often occurred within hours or a few days. Undertakers ran out of boxes, even quickly constructed ones of rough lumber. Those in rural areas sometimes buried their children under a tree of in a field after constructing their own boxes. 

 

In January 1919, 2,143 had died. By April, death dropped to 509. Many deaths were not reported as flu, but as pneumonia which resulted from the flu or to other similar symptoms. 

 

If you are a genealogist, you probably have found that multiply family members died in 1918 and early 1919. Many children's deaths would only be days apart. As you walk through the cemeteries you'll notice the dates 1918 and 1920 appear on many older stones.  These two children's stones, sisters, are in the Crayne Cemetery.

 

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We are very limited on the history of events that affected Crittenden County during this devasting time period. The local paper at the time was The Crittenden Record Press and there are no issues available and none mirco-filmed from September 1918 (when the Flu epidemic was at it's worse) through (Crittenden Press) August 1919. The events and obituaries for that devastating time in our history are lost. 

 

From the State Board of Health Report for Crittenden County for the year 1918. The following information was found. This information would be from death certificates that the Drs. filled out and reported. There were probably several deaths that were not accounted for due to improper reporting of the information. 

 

Estimated population was 13,296. Total deaths - 171; Infants under 1 year - 27; Children age 1-4 years, 15; Aged 65 and over - 43; 5- 56 years old - 86. 

 

Preventable Diseases: Tuberculosis/Consumption - 14; Other tuberculosis - 3; Typhoid - 1; Diphtheria/Croup -1; Scarlet Fever - 1; Measles - 1; Whooping Cough -5; Pneumonia/bronchial - 18;

(sometime Pneumonia was named as death cause but was flu related) Influneza - 39; Meningitis - 3; Diarrhea disease- 6;

Other: Cancer - 7, Stillborns - 14; Other deaths due to old age, accidents and  murders - 58.

 

As far as I can find out, none of the Doctors that signed the death certificates caught the flu or died from it. It must have been a trying time. Some of the Drs. in the Marion area were, Dr. Frazer, County Heath Supervisor, Dr. J. R. Perry, Dr. C. G. Moreland, Dr. John L. Reynolds, Shady Grove had Dr. Jeff McConnell, Dycusburg, Dr. J. M. Graves, Tolu area Dr. Wm C. Davis.

Alfred Moore, Mattoon's First permanent Settler

The remains of the first log home before in was remodeled. 

The first permanent settler of the area of old Mattoon was the Alfred Moore family, who built a large, L-shaped 1 ½ story, hewn-log dwelling, on the west side of the Flynn's Ferry Road on the crest of the first small ridge or hill that marked the southern limit of the Mattoon flats or "skillet," about one mile south of the present highway junction.

 

Alfred Moore was commissioned Captain and Drillmaster of the 24th Regiment of Kentucky Militia in 1819. Captain Moore turned his large rolling field, directly in front of his home across the Flynn's Ferry Road, which was called Calvert Field, into a muster and drill field of the 24th Livingston County Regiment of state militia. Calvert Field was, from 1820 until 1842, one of the two foremost Militia muster places in west Kentucky. 

 

Part of the Alfred Moore's home is still there today. Jim Fornear purchased this property and restored the cabin. In 2006, his daughter, Becky Fornear, owned the property and had more rooms built onto the cabin and has changed the appearance of the old log home.

 

Calvert Field, which is directly across the road from the home's front yard, when it is in pasture, as it usually is now, must look very similar to it's appearance a century and a half ago. As the field's original size and shape have changed but little, if at all, over the years, it therefore takes only a little imagination to see row after row of men in predominately brown and buff homespun semblance of uniforms, strutting jauntily in their groups, and their wide-brim slouch hats giving them a certain sense of military bearing.

 

Alfred Moore’s son, Robertus Love "Bart" Moore, took advantage of the much used Flynn’s Ferry road and built a general store at the Mattoon cross roads. Moore’s store handled dry goods and hardware as well as the usual stock of food stuffs, and farm implement that was much in demand. 

 

Alfred Moore was born Feb. 19, 1790 and died Feb. 17, 1870 and is buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery.  His wife, Jane Love Moore, is also buried there.

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Arthur Love, Silent Story Teller

 Cemeteries, silent story tellers lie in our many cemeteries.  This story is from the Hurricane Cemetery, located a short distance off S. R. 135 in western part of Crittenden County.  It is about Arthur Love, and more about  his father, Col. Andrew Love, who has a tragic ending to his life and has not a stone to mark his burial place. 

 

This picture made in Nov. of 2014.  The stone had just been recently cleaned by a local boy scout as project for his Eagle Scout badge. It included cleaning and resetting fallen stones.

 

 

Arthur Love, born Jan. 15, 1785, died Feb. 19, 1853. He was the son of Andrew and Anne Latimore Love. He was born in South Carolina. His parents were early pioneers of then Livingston County.

 Arthur owned a farm in the Hurricane area. In 1842 he one one of the men appointed commissioner to view out and mark the best way for a road from the Hurricane area to Tolu. 

 Most remembered for being a neighbor and family friend of the Ford family and was in charge of the funeral services for James Ford. He gathered together a crew of slaves and had the grave dug in the Ford family graveyard and was a member of the funeral procession escorting Ford to be buried.  When the slaves got scared and tried to run away during a fierce thunderstorm, Mr. Love demanded they come back and reset the casket into the grave.

***

Arthur's father was Col. Andrew Love, born Sept. 12, 1747, in Pennsylvania, who migrated on to South Carolina, and then later came to Livingston County in the early 1800's around 1805, as some of his children had previously moved here.   The Love's family plantation was located somewhere in the same area as James Ford's near present day Tolu. (also known as the Hurricane area)

Andrew Love was a solider in the Revolutionary War and fought in South Carolina.  He served with General Sumter, and rose to the rank of Colonel, and was wounded at the battle of "King's Mountain"  He was, in common with the rest of the Americans of Scotch-Irish ancestry, particularly severe on those who remained loyal to the British Crown, and were termed by their neighbors, 'Tories.'

For many years after removing to Kentucky, he was actively engaged in farming, on March 26, 1821, he went out to work on his farm, not returning when he was expected, search was made for him, and he was found in one of his fields, dead. On this day, the day before the trail where he would be a witness for the Plaintiff, in a case against James Ford, he was found in a field on his farm, dead, and bearing marks of violence.  Nothing to prove the deed, but some thought he was killed to be kept from testifying again Ford.

He was buried on his farm, about fourteen miles from Marion.  (How I wonder where this area was, also for his wife Anna Latimore Love who died May 18, 1814, did they once have sand stones for markers? or they still there covered by years of dirt,  have they been moved or destroyed?  my mind wonders?)

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Hopefully in the near future, Col. Andrew Love, with nine other local Revolutionary Veterans, will be remembered by a special Memorial Marker that is being worked on to be ready by the year 2026, for American's 250 Anniversary.  God be with us through these trying times.