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Lamar There was a newspaper published in Lamar Newspaper and Date Unknown Lamar, where it is located today, had a newspaper, *The Industrial Tattler, published in the 1870s and 1880s. Waddie Hudson was the editor in 1884. Copies of the paper from July 1884 until December 1884 are now on file in the Benton County Chancery Clerk's office in Ashland. The paper contained advertisements of merchants in Lamar and Holly Springs, as well as some from Memphis. Lowenstein's Department Store and The Peabody Hotel advertised in the paper weekly. Mr. Hudson included articles about political issues at home and abroad. The Tattler section of the paper was much like the community news of today. He also wrote a Young Folk's Department. The classified ads in the Tattler were dominated by ads about the editor's other business, a mill and gin located on the outskirts of town. In the 1920s when Lamar was a prosperous town, there was Curtis' Gin, which went out of operation in the 1950s. After the fire in the 1930s, the town began to dwindle away. Mrs. Nina Treadwell Leak is one of the living descendants of Timmons Treadwell, who was a landowner in old Lamar and was mentioned earlier as being buried in the cemetery at old Lamar. Mrs. Leak and her children, including her son Kenneth Leak, Benton County's District Two Supervisor, still live in Lamar today. Lamar, like many other rural towns, fell to the grips of the great Depression of the 1930s. In addition to the plague of the depression, a huge fire erupted in what was downtown and destroyed all but a few businesses. Lamar was never allowed the opportunity to recover to its once busy state after the fire. Residents sought refuge and jobs in the larger towns, thus keeping Lamar from returning to its "boom" town status. Submitted by Martha Fant*
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Lamar

There was a newspaper published in Lamar
Newspaper and Date Unknown

Lamar, where it is located today, had a newspaper, The Industrial Tattler, published in the 1870s and 1880s. Waddie Hudson was the editor in 1884. Copies of the paper from July 1884 until December 1884 are now on file in the Benton County Chancery Clerk's office in Ashland. The paper contained advertisements of merchants in Lamar and Holly Springs, as well as some from Memphis. Lowenstein's Department Store and The Peabody Hotel advertised in the paper weekly.

Mr. Hudson included articles about political issues at home and abroad. The Tattler section of the paper was much like the community news of today. He also wrote a Young Folk's Department. The classified ads in the Tattler were dominated by ads about the editor's other business, a mill and gin located on the outskirts of town.

In the 1920s when Lamar was a prosperous town, there was Curtis' Gin, which went out of operation in the 1950s. After the fire in the 1930s, the town began to dwindle away. Mrs. Nina Treadwell Leak is one of the living descendants of Timmons Treadwell, who was a landowner in old Lamar and was mentioned earlier as being buried in the cemetery at old Lamar.

Mrs. Leak and her children, including her son Kenneth Leak, Benton County's District Two Supervisor, still live in Lamar today.

Lamar, like many other rural towns, fell to the grips of the great Depression of the 1930s. In addition to the plague of the depression, a huge fire erupted in what was downtown and destroyed all but a few businesses. Lamar was never allowed the opportunity to recover to its once busy state after the fire. Residents sought refuge and jobs in the larger towns, thus keeping Lamar from returning to its "boom" town status.

Submitted by Martha Fant

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