Dr. John Robert Perry

Thanks to the wonderful old obituaries in the Crittenden Press a lot of history and family information was shared and now makes a good source of family genealogy information.  Here is one on a prominent Crittenden County citizen and physician.

Dr. John Robert Perry

1833 - 1930

Dr. John Robert Perry was truly a Crittenden County, physician. He was born on a farm twelve miles northwest of Marion, February 23, 1883. His grandfather, a pioneer Methodist minister, had come into this area as a circuit rider, having served in various sections in Kentucky but chiefly in Crittenden County, where he reared his family and spent his last years. 

Dr. Perry grew up on his home farm, attended the local schools, graduated from the grade and high school of Marion, and in the fall of 1903 entered the medical department of the University of Louisville. He received his M. D. degree June 30, 1907. He returned to his native county and practiced for a short time at Ford's Ferry and Tribune before opening his office in the county seat of Marion.

Realizing the need for better medical facilities for mother and babies, Dr. Perry took special training in this field, but he returned to Marion to live and practice among his many friends in his home community. Returning to Marion he set up his practice in the William Fowler Building on West Carlisle Street.

For many years Dr. Perry was the attending physician for the County Farm; he was a member of the County and State Medical Associations, Kiwanis Club, Bigham Lodge, and Marion Methodist Church. He also served on the city council in Marion.

In 1907 at Louisville, he married Miss Beulah Franklin, also a native of Crittenden County and member of one of Crittenden County's oldest families. 

For thirty-two years Dr. Perry devoted his talents to the people of Crittenden County. After attending to his patients all day, he died with a heart attack at his home September 26, 1939. He was only 56 years old but was regarded with the highest esteem paid the older successful practitioner.

Barnett School

The first Barnett school, was a one room log building built in the 1800's and was located in southwestern Crittenden County near Tolu.   It stood on the property of William Barnett.

Later Mr. Barnett gave the school trustees enough land to build a new school building.  It was located just east of the original log building in a corner of his land.  

                                                 Barnett school before it as torn down.

In 1879 the school census showed 22 students attending.  Julius Newman was the teacher.  Some family  names in the area were Ferrell, Hardin, Dooley, Belt, McMaster, Tinsley, Lawrence, Curry, Davis, Kemper, Hardesty, Hale, Glore, Croft, Stone, Kimsey, Stone, Barley, Lynn, Wright and Turner.

In 1913 a church was built on land deeded by Buckner Croft and joined the Barnett School lot.  The church was named Barnett Chapel due to the Barnett School being there and widely known.

In 1948 the school ceased operation, along with several other one-room schools in the area, and consolidated with the Tolu School.

In 1949 the members of the Barnett Chapel church voted to build a new church where the schoolhouse stood.  

The school building was sold to Russell Hardesty for $300 and the Barnett Church, as is is now, was built on the old school lot.

As with so many of our old schools, they are almost forgotten now, a thing of the past, and most all who attended gone also, leaves nothing to carry on the wonderful memories of these one-room schools.

Business's in 1958

Marion, Once a busy place with several industries providing many jobs for our local county.  The growth of the city and county looked promising for the future.  Things have changed a lot in the past 59 years.

April 24, 1958

• Moore Business Forms, Inc. which started operations in Marion in November, 1950 is Crittenden County's leading industry.  The firm employs about 125 people, 55 percent of them women.  The local plant's principal product is what is known in the trade as "salesbooks."  This actually covers all kinds of bound printed forms as well as those used in selling.  Moore Corporation, Ltd. of Canada, the parent company, is the world's largest producer of business forms.
• Mi-Marker makes stamping kits widely used by men and women in all branches of the armed services.  The little plastic boxes containing the kits and marked "Marion, Ky." are familiar sights on post exchanges around the world.  The kits basically contain an alphabet of rubber letters and numbers, a wood block for mounting the letters on, a stamp and a pad of ink.  It employs about 20 people.
• Watson Produce, in business here for 10 years, deals in poultry and eggs, furs and hides, and walnuts.  It buys throughout West Kentucky and southern Illinois and makes deliveries throughout the Midwest.
• Henry & Henry Monuments on Sturgis Road in Marion produces fine quality monuments and has been operating in the same family since the 1870's.  
• Winn & Tobin Milling Company mills flour, meal and feed.  it serves customers in Crittenden, Livingston, Webster, Caldwell and Lyon Counties.  It has been in business since June 1949.
• Marion Silica Company on the edge of Marion is now on a stand-by basis.  Formerly locally owned it was bought in 1956 by Continental Uranium Company, a subsidiary of the Helene Curtis cosmetic firm.  Its property includes a large quantity of some of the finest quality sand available.
• Alexander Stone Company, the large quarry on U. S. 60 north of Marion, employs about 35 men during is peak season and has an annual payroll of $90,000.  It produces agricultural lime, concrete stone, all sizes of road stone, rip rap and ready mixed concrete, its latest line.

Henry and Henry and  is the only one of the above that is still in business today.  Alexander Stone is also still in operation, although at a different location and was bought by Rogers and Company.

Watch Charm Mystern, by J. N. Dean

One of my favorite families of Crittenden County is the Dean family that lived at Deanwood. 

What a colorful and interesting family.  Mr. Joseph Nathan Dean was a wonderful story teller and was also a wonderful historian.  He kept all kinds of interesting items written down for future generations to enjoy and learn from.

Here is one of his true short stories, it's titled "Watch Charm Found After 70 Years".  It was written in 1956.

Late one afternoon in the year 1880 (when the writer was 12 years old) a government official, who was taking the U. S. census for that year, called at Madison Dean's home nine miles east of Marion, now known as the Turner farm, to take my father's census list and spend the night.

At supper our visitor told us that as he rode down Piney Hill, one mile east of us, his watch charm in some way came loose from the chain and fell to the ground in a rocky, sandy place.  He got off the horse and searched for some time but failed to find it.

Early next morning, at his request, two of my older brothers went t the hill with him and searched with no luck.

If I remember correctly the census official was a Mr. Cruce of the same family as the late Mr. Dick Cruce.

A few years ago, about 70 years later, Mr. and Mrs. Edd Clark, formerly of this community but now of Providence, rode up in front of my store at Deanwood, and called to me and said, "Joe as we were riding down old Piney hill a bit ago I saw something bright in a rocky place in the road. I got off my horse and found it to be a nice diamond shape watch charm. - I don't need it and make you a present of it."

It was some time later that it dawned on me that it was the one lost by the "Census taker," in 1880.

It just goes to prove that nothing in the old world in ever really lost, no matter the circumstances - somebody will someday find it.

                          The old Deanwood General Store that Mr. Dean owned.