Advertisers once painted their messages on the sides of barns

Before there were billboards, there were barns with painted messages on the sides facing a road. One of the earliest “barn-side advertisers,” was Mail Pouch Tobacco, a product of Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company, based in Wheeling, W.Va.

 

Jake Park of Bridgeport, Pa., who has an interest in vintage barns, said: “These eye-catching pseudo-billboards were painted initially by men hired to travel the country and paint ‘CHEW MAIL POUCH TOBACCO. TREAT YOURSELF TO THE BEST’ signs on as many barns as possible.”

 

Originally, the Bloch brothers – Samuel and Aaron – were merchants, operating a wholesale grocery and dry goods store in Wheeling. In 1879, they branched out into the tobacco business, producing stogies that were rolled by hand and clipped.

 

After the cigar products were finished and wrapped, factory workers scooped up the leftover tobacco leaf cuttings. Someone determined there was pleasure to be gained by chewing on the scraps. The light bulb went off. 

The Bloch Brothers were pioneers in the chewing tobacco business. They were the first to manufacture flavored chewing tobacco, using licorice, molasses and other ingredients. Their chew was nicknamed “West Virginia Cole Slaw.”

 

Mail Pouch Tobacco became a staple for working men employed in occupations where smoking was hazardous – in coal mines, steel mills, textile plants, furniture factories, oil fields and even farming. 

As early as 1891, farmers across 22 states began welcoming the Mail Pouch sign painters who offered them a small leasing fee, a free pouch or two of chewing tobacco and a fresh coat of paint for a portion of their barns. 

One farmer who participated in 1946 was Joseph Warrick of Belmont, Ohio. His son, Harley Warrick, a 21-year-old Army veteran, had just returned home after World War II. Harley was helping out at the family dairy when the painters arrived. By the time they finished the job, Harley had hired on as a new member of the Mail Pouch painting crew. 

For Harley, this was a “let’s run off and join the circus” moment. He said: “It’s got to be better than milking 27 head of Jerseys every night and morning.” 

Harley went down in history as “the most prolific Mail Pouch barn painter” of all time. He worked 55 years for Bloch Brothers Tobacco and painted or retouched nearly 20,000 barn signs during his career, working six days a week.

 

Harley painted without using a guide, always starting with the “E” in CHEW. “The first 1,000 were a little rough; after that, I got the hang of it,” he once said.

 

He became a celebrity. Harley’s work was featured on television in “On the Road with Charles Kurault.” Harley painted a Mail Pouch sign on a building for the movie “Fool’s Parade” in 1971, where he met leading actor James Stewart.

 

After Harley Warrick died in 2000, at age 76, a group formed to preserve the Mail Pouch barns as American folk art. The Mail Pouch Barnstormers organization has more than 140 members, and they are dedicated to preserving the remaining Mail Pouch barns. The group gathers annually in Harley’s hometown for a picnic.

 

One of Harley’s nephews, William DeVine, wrote a poem in 1980, titled “The Barn Painter.” Here’s a bit of it: 

The weathered barn was in decay / Its ancient back was bowed / But early on the warm Spring day / Its savior happened by the road. 

His canvas this day was weathered poplar wood / Untouched by paint or brush for a century / Thirsty boards drank paint, fast as they could….