photo by: Gage Vota
The V6 Barn in Beallsville is owned by Kay and Kris Campbell. Scott Hagan, better known as “The Barn Artist,” created the memorial mural to honor the six men from Beallsville who were killed in the Vietnam War.
BEALLSVILLE — Although they have been gone for more than half a century, the village of Bellaire has never forgotten its “Vietnam Six” – and now the community features a large, vibrant tribute to the men who died at war.
Scott Hagan, better known as the Barn Artist, has made a career from creating larger-than-life paintings on various structures. He got his start by painting his father’s barn for fun at 19 years old.
“I did it as a challenge to see how big I could draw and paint something out, and my grandfather took a picture of the result which was an Ohio State Buckeye logo on my dad’s barn. The local newspaper, the Barnesville Enterprise, ran an article on the painting right on the front page of their paper,” Hagan said.
The local media coverage grabbed the attention of a woman from Columbus who was visiting Barnesville who had just recently been hired as part of the Ohio Bicentennial Commission. When she saw the article, she came up with the idea to potentially paint barns across the entire state of Ohio instead of using billboards to promote the upcoming bicentennial. Once her boss gave the green light, she reached out to Hagan and hired him to paint one barn in each of the 88 counties throughout the state of Ohio.
Hagan’s most recent project is the V6 Memorial in Beallsville. The memorial is in honor of the Vietnam Six — six men from Beallsville who died fighting for the United States in the Vietnam War. The V6 are Jack Pittman, Duane Greenlee, Charles Schnegg, Richard Rucker, Robert Lucas and Phillip Brandon.
“Beallsville, Ohio, my hometown – where I went to school, is mainly known for 2 things,” Hagan wrote on Facebook. “Being one of the smallest schools in the state to field a football program and with much success. But probably most of all for being the community that lost the most men to the Vietnam War per capita.”
The owners of the barn, located along Ohio 145 near Beallsville Park, are Ray and Kris Campbell of Beallsville. The family installed flood lights after the painting was completed to illuminate the design at night. Related shirts have been designed to benefit a local cause, according to Hagan’s social media.
“I’ve been driving by that barn for a number of years, and I always wanted to paint something on it. I thought I’d paint an American flag, but then I pitched the idea of honoring the V6 and it would be something more memorable and personal to the people of Beallsville,” Hagan said.
He spent the winter designing the memorial and was able to finish the project right before Memorial Day.
Fewer than 500 people resided in Beallsville during the Vietnam War. As a result, the loss of those six men gave Beallsville the highest wartime loss per capita in the entire nation.
As of the 2020 Census, the village population was 355.
Hagan noted that he doesn’t only create murals on barns – a lot of his business is painting inside of school gymnasiums.
“As soon as winter sports season ends, my season begins. Usually, the first three months of spring are spent inside doing the gyms, and then outside is usually doing the barns. I’ve done a lot of gyms in the summer, too. I’m the Barn Artist, but I do anything that’s on a large scale,” he said.
Hagan can be found on social media as The Barn Artist and can also be contacted through his website at barnartist.com.
