Mail Pouch Barns – Legacy Of A Company

Dating from the time of the Pony Express riders, the mail pouch has been a well-recognized symbol. Then, in the late 1870s, Aaron and Samuel Bloch began making their own tobacco, which they offered for sale in a paper pouch that closely resembled a traditional mail pouch. This resemblance, whether on purpose or merely by convenience, prompted the name of the tobacco company and Mail Pouch tobacco was born. The Bloch brothers produced their tobacco in Wheeling, West Virginia, and the full name of the product was West Virginia Mail Pouch Tobacco. This chewing tobacco company eventually went out of business but the name lives on, probably largely due to the fact that the brothers used barns for their billboards. The Block brothers incorporated their business and eventually made their name in the tobacco industry, but it was the marketing strategy of using the barns for advertising that has kept the Mail Pouch name so well recognized in the years past the heyday of Mail Pouch Tobacco. Mail Pouch wasn’t the only chewing tobacco that was advertised on barns, but it seems to have been the most prevalent. The WOW tobacco company – which was owned by Mail Pouch Tobacco at one time – has also been seen painted on barns. Though most of the paintings occurred between 1920

and the 1940s, there are a surprising number of the barns still standing today that sport the Mail Pouch advertisement. Many were painted by Harley Warrick who was commissioned by the Mail Pouch Company to paint the advertisements. By all accounts, Warrick was something of a character and he even painted in high winds, cold weather and against seemingly impossible deadlines – always successfully. The Mail Pouch barns are typically found in the Northeast, ranging in the south from the Kentucky area north to Pennsylvania and west to Ohio and Michigan. Mail Pouch barns are found on major highways and backroads, with apparently more regard for the condition of the barn than the location.