BELMONT – As much a staple of the rural drives through the Midwest as anything, Mail Pouch Tobacco barns remain as the mark of a now-defunct Wheeling business. Now, the children and fans of the barn painters work to keep the signs alive, whether physically or in memory.

Dedicated to the preservation of the memory of the aging signs, the Mail Pouch Barnstormers formed in 2002, when current President Roger Warrick said the association of enthusiasts became a serious pursuit.

“It sort of started in western Pennsylvania; people that knew my dad got together because they liked the same things,” he said. “Officially, 2002 is when we sort of organized it to be a club with officers. Before that, it was just a bunch of people meeting to look at Mail Pouch stuff.”

Roger Warrick is the son of Harley Warrick, the last painter of Mail Pouch signs. Harley Warrick was a resident of Belmont until his death in 2000. Though his son said Harley officially painted his last barn in the mid-1990s, he continued to touch up aging signs until 2000.

Roger Warrick said much of the club’s activities now focuses on the preservation of the barns, which number 2,421 across the United States, and one in England.

In late July, the Barnstormers had their annual meeting in Belmont, where Warrick estimated 60 people attended, about half of the club’s total membership around 120 people.

At the meeting, an auction of Mail Pouch memorabilia was held, to raise funds for the continued preservation of the signs. This is an uphill battle, Warrick noted sadly.

“In general, it’s tough, people just don’t restore old barns. They just kind of get weather-beaten down and fall over eventually,” Warrick said. “Our thing is to find signs on solid barns, and we’ve been able to help out on a couple projects with donating our money and time to get them repainted. It’s been the biggest benefit of our club.”

Restoration efforts began in recent years, but he said the process of restoring so many barns is a chore, as efforts have so far been able to treat one barn each summer.

Even the newest signs show signs of wear, while the first signs were painted in 1925.

“Nothing’s been painted since my dad stopped in the mid-’90s, and then they did a few here and there. Last one he did was in 2000. That thing’s 15 years since it’s been touched, and it looks like it. There aren’t too many that look too good.”

The Mail Pouch signs got their start in August 1925, when six men were hired by Bloch Brothers Tobacco Co., the Wheeling-based manufacturer of Mail Pouch.

The Barnstormers’ website recounts the history of the men, including Bill Hart, Bill Bucks, Kenneth Walkerman, Carl Wunelle and Maurice Zimmerman, who during the next 35 years claimed to have painted more than 12,000 barns, a fraction of which survive to this day and are cataloged by the Barnstormers on a daily basis.

While more than 1,000 signs were housed in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the west coast was also a popular spot for the signs, which Warrick attributed to the laborers making their way to California and taking their chew of choice with them.

In the expanses of the midwestern states, however, not much heritage with the barns exists. Despite this, Warrick said they get visitors from as far away as Canada, still fondly remembering the barns.

The Barnstormers can be found at mailpouchbarn

stormers.org.