‘Chew mail pouch tobacco – treat yourself to the best’

A historical Hillsdale location, the old Mail Pouch Barn, was removed to make room for a commerical store

By Lauren Scott Assistant Editor

Mail Pouch Tobacco barns are a reminder of America’s agrarian roots — one that is slowly disappearing.

On March 27, Meijer removed Hillsdale County’s historic Mail Pouch Barn to build its new location southeast of Bullhead Lake near the intersection of W. Carleton and Beck Road.

Mail Pouch Tobacco barns have existed in America since 1891. The Bloch Brother Tobacco Company of West Virginia, the tobacco company now known as Swisher, paid farmers $1 to $2 a month to paint their barns with a Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisement.

“Chew mail pouch tobacco – treat yourself to the best,” the advertisements said.

Fortunately, the Hillsdale County Historical Society is preserving the side of the barn with the advertisement to display in its museum.

Hillsdale County had another Mail Pouch Tobacco barn in Jonesville off South Hillsdale Road, but it was removed a few years ago.

There are many things that remind us of our agrarian roots besides barns. Even though I live in a busy suburb of Dallas, I live off a highway called FM 2944, with FM standing for “farm to market.”

Although there are countless roads and highways starting with “FM” in Texas, few people know that the names originated from an agrarian society when farmers took their produce to markets.

“Today, the Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn is becoming just a memory of America’s past,” according to the Hagen History Center’s website. “Once a common roadside sight, they are almost all gone.”

Morgan Morrison, board member of the Hillsdale County Historical Society, said the incentive for farmers to advertise the tobacco company was to get a fresh coat of paint on their barns.

“They identified a need that farmers had because paint was really expensive,” Morrison said. “If farmers don’t paint their barns, they fall apart.”

Morrison said it was a brilliant marketing idea. The advertisements on barns located on main roads were seen by millions of Americans since interstate highways did not exist.

The tobacco company would send its painters all across the country, usually in pairs of two, to paint whole barns, but only one or two sides were painted with the advertisement. The company would send painters to do “touch-up” work every few years.

Harley Warrick was a remarkably dedicated Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisement painter.

“The first 1,000 were a little rough,” Warrick said, according to the Hagen History Center. “After that you get the hang of it.”

After serving in World War II, he painted and repainted more than 20,000 barns between the years 1946 and 1992.

“Warrick said he could do one in six hours,” according to the Hagen History Center. “He didn’t use a pattern or straight edge. He did it from habit.”

Even though the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company stopped painting barns in 1969, Warrick continued to repaint old advertisements until 1992. Warrick died in 2000 and is buried in Ohio.

Engraved on his tombstone is his life’s work: a barn that reads, “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco.”

“In 1965 the Highway Beautification Act allowed the Mail Pouch barns to be grandfathered in as landmark signs rather than billboards,” according to the Hagen History Center. “This allowed these iconic barns to remain, though none have been repainted for nearly 30 years, unless it was by the owner.”