FEED-SACK CLOTHING

Feed-sack clothing   

            Recently I was struck with a case of nostalgia, which is not a bad thing.  So I’ll tell you what I’ve been thinking about at night when I can't sleep.

            Although my father’s family was from Ohio County my mother’s family was from neighboring Grayson County.  My maternal grandfather owned a mill, the Clarkson Milling Company, that sold flour, cornmeal, and various feeds for domestic animals.  The flour and cornmeal came in 10 lb. and 25 lb. paper bags but the domestic animal feed came in 100 pound cotton bags. My grandfather purchased the cotton bags from a company in Nashville, TN, called the Werthan Bag Company, and sadly their manufacturing plant has now been turned into condo’s and a restaurant.

            Here is a photo of the Werthan plant from the 1970’s or 1980’s:

            This building was shown in the 1990’s Best Picture “Driving Miss Daisy.” The family name in the movie was Werthan and the owner of the business was played by Dan Aykroyd, who was the son of the Jessica Tandy star, the little old lady, and the other star was her chauffeur, played by Morgan Freeman.  It was a great movie and if you haven’t seen it, put it on your list.

            I also found a photo of a Werthan delivery wagon but I don't know the date of this photo:

            I was born in 1939 and worked at my grandfather’s mill on and off (part-time) until I was in mid high school, probably 1949-1954.  During this time period the cotton bags we used were printed in various colors with various designs and were used by farm families for female clothing, dresses primarily, and also curtains and such.  This was a big deal for the farmer’s wife because she could get some nice cotton cloth for no additional cost.  All the women knew how to sew.  I can recall farmers coming to the mill in their wagons and old trucks and telling us exactly which bag his wife wanted, and at times the wife would 

accompany the husband to make sure he got it right.  It was my job to find the correct bag and wheel it to the customer for loading onto his wagon or truck.

            I found a few photos of “feed-sack clothing” on the internet:

Note that this photo shows the actual 100 lb. cotton bags, just as I remember.

            I feel certain that your Ohio County female ancestors (if they were farmers) wore “feed-sack clothing” and I think that this bit of history started during the depression and picked up steam during WWII.  I don’t know when it stopped – and maybe it didn’t – but the Werthan Bag Company has either gone out of business or is doing something else.  Some think that Chinese cotton bags came on the market in the 1970's and 1980's and forced Werthan and other bag companies to close.

            My grandfather’s mill was located across the street from where we lived in a small community named Clarkson, which is about 5 mile east of Leitchfield.  Back then Clarkson had a population of about 200 people.  My grandfather’s products were sold all over the county but mostly to farmers located within five miles of the mill.  At some point the big companies, like General Mills, started selling flour and cornmeal nationally and forced the small mills to close.  But before that there were mills everywhere and most of them were powered by running water from small rivers or big creeks.  During my lifetime granddad’s mill was powered by electricity and before electricity it was powered by steam.  The Illinois Central Railroad track was behind the mill so my grandfather could purchase wheat and corn that was delivered by rail.  The mill building was built in 1900 and is now the site of an ugly gas station.  Here is a photo of the mill that was made after my grandfather’s death in November 1959:

          My grandfather was born in Duff, Grayson County, which is near Rough River State Park and while he was a child his family lived near Duff, Short Creek and Caneyville, all of which are near the Ohio County/Grayson County border.

         Here is a photo of my grandfather, Charlie Purcell, with my older brother, Sam, and me on the right. I am very proud to have been named after me grandfather. I guess this photo was made about 1947.

        

            This post also has ties to Ohio County.  While browsing online I found that the Beaver Dam Milling Company sold “Snow Girl’ and “Purity” flour and “Eureka” corn meal in paper bags manufactured by the Werthan Bag Company.  Here is an undated photo of the Beaver Dam Milling Company and three of their paper bags:

         And the Barnes Milling Company of Beaver Dam also sold bags of “Jolly Host “ flour in paper bags manufactured by Werthan Bag Company.

         The images of the bags from Ohio County were found in the Western Kentucky University "online collections."  

        If you have any deeper interest in this subject you might glance at the following sites:  

http://www.rickrack.com/wordpress/?paged=10

http://oldphotoarchive.com/stories/great-depression-flour-feed-sack-dresses

https://flashbak.com/feed-sack-fashions-and-patterns-of-depression-era-america-374786/