“Enjoy some history about Mail Pouch Barns: “Mail Pouch Tobacco” means bright yellow letters on a barn whose red planks have weathered to dark brown against an Appalachian hillside. In the 1870’s the Bloch Brothers, whose name appears on the sign’s masthead, had a small side business rolling stogies in Wheeling. At some point, they began bagging flavored stogie wrapper clippings as “scrap”, or chewing tobacco, and sold them under the names of the stores who handled their product. Soon the brothers launched their own brand, “West Virginia Mail Pouch Tobacco”. Although it is not specifically mentioned in the company’s 75th anniversary history, for a time the product was also promoted for smoking.”
I found this barn in southern Indiana a few years back. Something about the photo keeps calling me back. It lived as my wallpaper for a while after I took the picture and I keep printing it for different reasons. It was early spring and the light was washed out. The trees were just starting to leave out and the daffodils were blooming all over the countryside. The above paragraph is from the Greene County Pennsylvania Tourism website and they have a bit more to say about the history of the barns, so check it out. My photo has had a bit of Photoshop magic applied… 