Fairmont unveils new mural celebrating tobacco farming history

FAIRMONT 一 The town unveiled a new mural painted to represent Fairmont’s tobacco farming history on July 19.

The mural, painted by local artists Melvin Morris and Sara Voecks, depicts a tobacco farmer standing in a field of tobacco plants with a farmhouse in the background, putting peanuts into a bottle of cola.

“We were the ‘biggest little tobacco market’ in the world,” said Mayor Charles Kemp. “We had four sales a day, which is unheard of in a town our size.”

According to ncpedia.org, the sales were tobacco auctions where people could purchase loose tobacco leaves. Tobacco auctioneers took bids for each lot via hand gestures, and the prices of the tobacco were often indicators of a community’s economic status.

Sometimes called Farmer’s Coke, peanuts in cola is believed to have become popular in the 1920s as a way for blue-collar workers to have a snack they didn’t need to stop working and wash their hands for.

The flavor is described as a satisfying salty-sweet combination.

Morris said that he and Voecks met with Mayor Kemp to learn about the history of tobacco in Fairmont.

“He asked us to come up with a design that represented tobacco and tobacco farming,” said Morris. “One special thing I never knew of was the peanuts in the Coca-Cola bottle, something that was well-known to tobacco farmers here.”

The mural is on West Thompson Street, next to the mural painted by Fairmont High School students last year.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Voecks. “I’m happy we were able to bring the vision to fruition.”