J. T. Elder's Residence at Marion - 1892

 Built in 1892. 

Crittenden Press, June 30, 1892.  J. T. Elder is building a handsome residence on the new street to be opened, North College St.  The Elder's moved to Kansas soon after and Mr. Robert F. Haynes purchased the fine new home.

In 1903 the Robert F. Haynes family purchased the house and lived here for many years.

Later the J. C. Lilly family lived here.   The present of this historic old home is Cindy Davidson.

 

  This picture was made in 1999

 

Thomas Thomas used to love to tell the story about when his Uncle and Aunt, Robert Fulton Haynes, Jr. and Stella Tucker Haynes, lived in the big two story house.  

 

On March 28, 1905, on the night of the big fire that destroyed all of Marion's down town business district, the Haynes were having a reception for the Circuit Court members, which included lawyers, and attorney's from Marion and the surrounding area.  

 

They were just getting ready to set down and eat when they heard about the fire and by then the flames had started jumping from house to house on the wooden shingles.  

 

Some of the guests at the reception went up in the attic and cut a hole in the roof, and they started getting quilts off the beds and soaking them in tubs of water and putting the wet quilts on the roof to keep the house from catching fire.

 

They also started carrying the furniture out to the house to save it in case the house did catch fire.

 

The house was saved and the only damage done was the hole in the roof that had to be repaired and the cleaning and drying of the wet quilts.

 

Thomas and Ethel had keep all these years, up until Mrs. Tucker's estate sale a few years back, the china dishes that were being used that night.  Although some of them got broken in the hurry to get things out of the house.  They were Thomas's favorite of all their china.  White with pink rosebuds.

It is a shame the house hasn't been able to be restored to it's former beauty and glory.  Really a part of Marion's past history.

Crowell Cemetery - Some history about the old cemetery

 

Crowell cemetery is located in the North Eastern part of the county, between the areas known as Cave Springs and Nunn Switch. It's at the top of a hill off of Nunn Switch Road.

 There are several rows of large sandstone rocks that mark the resting place of unknown persons. Some of the stones are large and others not so large, but they were set in straight rows.

Who are these unknown people that were buried here many, many years ago. Someone cared enough about them to transport these heavy stones to the cemetery and mark their grave.

The earliest engraved monuments belong to two infants of Nathaniel and Angelina Brantley. The death dates show March 13, 1838 and March 1844. The earliest stones are of the Crowell, Brantley and Travis families.

We know from Crowell family research that several of the early Crowell family members are also buried here in unmarked graves. These would account for some of the unidentified sandstone rocks.

The first Crowell pioneer to come to this area about 1818 was Benjamin Crowell. He died Dec. 13, 1852 and is also buried here, but he has a marked monument.

The cemetery for many years was known as the Hugh Crowell cemetery, but over the years it was shortened to Crowell Cemetery.   Hugh and his wife, Eliza Ann, are both buried here, but they have no monuments to mark their grave.

The late Mr. J. D. Orr shared this story about the cemetery. His great, great grandfather, Hugh B. Crowell, told the story of a family in a covered wagon that was on their way west from Pennsylvania. They had a very sick child, so they stopped at Hugh Crowell's farm so the little girl could rest and hopefully get better. The little girl didn't get better and she died while they were there. Mr. Crowell told them to go up on the hill by the farm, pick out a spot and bury the little girl. To this day, in the middle of the cemetery, by a huge old cedar tree is a small stone at the base of it. This is believed to be the grave site of the little girl and the first burial in the graveyard.

Older residents of the area, who have now passed away, told of several members of the early Brantley family that first came to Crittenden County (then Livingston County) who are buried here, but have no stones to mark their graves, other than the sandstone rocks.

It is believed that James Brantley the ancestor of most of the Brantley's in Crittenden and Webster County's is buried here under one of these unmarked stones. The story was told that for many years his grave was covered with a large flat stone, but it came the nesting place of some snakes so the ones cleaning the cemetery thought best to get rid of the large stone.

The cemetery is lined with Crowell, Brantley, Orr, and Travis stones with many of their descendants and family members also buried here.

Years ago at the west end of the cemetery sat a small white church like building. Here funeral services would be conducted. It had a pulpit and wooden benches for the family and friends to sit on during the service.

Sometime between the time period of 1956-1960 the building burnt. The building wasn't rebuilt, perhaps because it wasn't needed as much now, since funerals were held in the more modern funeral homes at Marion. The building was replaced with a wooden shed with some benches to be used every year for the annual Crowell Cemetery cleaning day.

The shed was used for the dinners that were held during the annual Crowell cemetery cleaning day, which was always the 3^rd Saturday in August. On this day people from all around that had family and friends buried in the cemetery would bring dinner in a basket and work tools and they would spend the day cleaning the cemetery, visiting with people they may not have seen since the last cleaning day, and then they would rest in the shade of the shed, having a large meal at noontime. 

This tradition of cemetery cleaning day is gone now, as cemeteries that are fortunate enough, have a fund to have them taken care of during the summer months.

There are several pioneer families of Crittenden County buried in this cemetery as well as several Civil War Veterans.

Lock and Dam 50 Being Constructed - 1926

 

June 27, 1924 - Construction Work Started At Dam At Fords Ferry

Work has begun on Dam. No. 50 on the Ohio River, just above Fords Ferry in this county. The work of clearing off the land on which to erect the camp buildings was begun last week, and actual construction will begin as soon as lumber and other materials can be secured, which will be in the course of a few days.

This dam is being built by the United States Government, as are the tree other dams located on the lower Ohio at Uniontown, Golconda and Brookport. The purpose of the dams is to ensure a nine-foot boating state in the river at all seasons of the year. This work will give employment to hundreds of men, and four or five years time will be required for its completion. Mr. R. B. Tinsley is the superintendent in charge at Fords Ferry.

 

This picture shows the inside of the cofferdam as the work is going on.  You can see the river being held back by the coffer dam to the left.

 

May 14, 1926 – Construction Work Begins For Season At Dam

Construction work at Dam 50 has been resumed and has been in progress for nearly two weeks. Work on the dam was ceased during the winter months because of the high water.

Captain H. R. Dumont, United States Assistant in charge, says: "Work for the season at Dam 50 was definitely started on May 2 with the commencement of pumping down the water within the coffer-dam. "Two 15-inch and one 12-inch centrifugal pumps were employed in the process of unwatering the work. (I did not know what a cofferdam was, the short definition for cofferdam is a temporary watertight enclosure that is pumped dry to expose the bottom of a body of water so that construction, such as piers, may be constructed.)

Something in the neighborhood of 13k000 cubic yards of solid rock were blasted from the cliff above Cave-In-Rock on May 6 for use in the cribs to be placed below the Dam. 7,400 pounds of dynamite were used. No damage was done to anything except the rock.

Actual work on the project at Dam 50 is now in its second year and several more years will probably be required for its completion.

***

May 28, 1926 – Now Have Full Quota Of Tow Boats, School Closed

The following statement has been given to the Press by Capt. H. R. Dumont, engineer in charge of construction at Dam 50, in regard to progress being made there:

Due to difficulties in unwatering cofferdam, work up on the foundation of the dam at Dam 50, has been delayed several days, it being necessary to install additional pumps and to build a small coffer within the large one to cut off the worst leakage.

At present writing, May 19^th, two 8-inch, two 10-inch, one 12-inch and two 15-inch pumps are being run night and day. Work should commence on the rock foundation Friday or Saturday. Advantage was taken of the slowly receding water in the main cofferdam to drive piling for that part of the dam to be built on this type of foundation so that the time is not being lost.

***

May 6, 1927 – Lock and Dam 50 News

The Ohio River has come to a stand following a fall of 11 feet since the 19^th of April. It is hoped that the end of May will find the water low enough to allow work in the river, where an attempt will be made to complete the dam this season.

Thomas E. Sublett of Owensboro has been awarded the contract for building the permanent power house, a three story structure of brick and concrete, which furnishes the power for operating the lock gates and lighting the various building on the reservation.

***

Dec. 7, 1928 – Work Done on Lock and Dam

Since the completion of Lock and Dam 50 near Fords Ferry, work has been in progress on clearing off the reservation. Sylvester Allen is now in charge of operations at the dam, Paul McGinnis is lock manager.

Ten government employees are to be retained. Most of the small dwellings have been removed. The residences are to be left on the grounds in addition to the powerhouse and the warehouse. There is also 100,000 cubic yards of permanent concrete work.

H. R. Dumont was in charge for the first two years and the work was completed under the supervision of Alfred Sorg, who now has charge of the construction of dams on Green and Barren Rivers.

A total of $3,500,000 was spent by the government in the construction of Lock and Dam 50. Material used included 1000,000 cubic yards of stone, 3,000,000 feet of lumber and 400 tons of steel. During the three years about 3,000 carloads of material for use in building the dam were unloaded at Sturgis, six miles above the dam, and floated down on barges.

Lock and Dam 50 is one of a series being constructed on the Ohio and other waterways. Dam 49 is located at Uniontown and Dam 51 at Golconda.

***

This historic dam, a vital part of Crittenden County history, which was started in 1924, would become an impediment to river traffic after 68 years of service. The old wicket type dam, regarded as spectacular when it was being built, was now considered old and worn out. It would be demolished one section at a time to clear the section of the river pool maintained by high-lift dams at Uniontown and Smithland.

On November 3, 1980 the first explosive charges were detonated to demolish Dam 50 on the Ohio River, and a part of Crittenden County history went up in smoke. Dam crews went out to lower the wickets one last time to allow free navigation of the river again. All clean-up of the destruction site was scheduled to be completed by Nov. 1980.