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.