Mr. Shinnick thinks if the weather is at all favorable, he will have the building done by the 1st of June.
The spring has been moved twenty feet farther north, where a beautiful pagoda will be built over it, a cost of $2,000. Just below will be a fish pool; also, a steam pump erected to force the water to the top of the hotel, and every part of the house will be supplied with water, both hot and cold, for bathing purposes.
The hotel will have an ice house attached that will furnish all the ice desired.
The dining room will seat 400 persons at once; and every preparation will be made to accommodate all who may come. The main building will contain at least 100 rooms. A fine livery stable, one hundred and fifty feet long, will be built.
The lawn contains thirty acres of beautiful forest land, bounded on the west by a small river, furnishing nice boating and fishing. The Sweet Spring, that wonderful fountain of health, gushes out of the rocky bluff at the rate of 26,000 gallons of clear, sparkling water every 24 hours. We are told that a fuller description will be sent out in the short time in pamphlet form, settling forth the great medicinal virtues of the water, with testimonials.
The lawn has been laid off with beautiful carriage drives and walks nicely graveled. Besides the natural forest trees, hundreds of ornamental trees, evergreens, and shrubbery are being put in the ground under the supervision of Mr. W.P. Shaw, who has been engaged to take charge of that department, and who has displayed fine taste in laying off the gravel drives and walks in the Spring grounds. Mr. Shaw requests us to ask a donation of shrubbery and flowers from any and every friend of the enterprise. By sending something of this kind, you will show to the Sweet Springs Company a token of friendly regard that they justly deserve.
(St. Louis Republican, April 6)
We are pleased to make known to that numerous classes of our citizens who leave the city during the summer that the very convenient resort, Sweet Springs, have been purchased and are now being handsomely improved by Leslie Marmaduke, Dr. G.M.B. Maughs, and Marmaduke and Brown. The healthfulness of the climate and the superior medicinal virtues of the water in numerous diseases, combined with the fact that it is within ten hours’ run of the city, will cause it to be largely resorted to. The following indorsement of the medicinal value of the water will be of general interest to our readers.
1316 Olive Street, St. Louis, March 28, 1877
I have known Dr. Thomas J. Montgomery of Sedalia for a number of years, have met him professionally when he was vice-president and then when he was president of the Medical Association of the State of Missouri, at his home in Sedalia, and at my house in St. Louis. I have great pleasure in testifying to his superior knowledge, judgement and acquirements as a physician, and to his sterling honor, honesty and integrity as a gentleman; I therefore consider his evidence in favor of the Sweet Springs of Saline County of the very highest and most trustworthy character; indeed, from his recommendation alone I shall not hesitate to advise my friends and patients to visit the Sweet Springs for amelioration and cure.
Edward Montgomery, M.D.
Sedalia, Mo., March 21, 1877. – I have been for the last five years familiar with the waters of the “Sweet Springs”, near Brownsville, Mo. I have been there as much as six weeks at a time, have tested the virtues on my own person and on that of many more. For various forms of dyspepsia, kidney or bladder disease I regard these waters as unsurpassable. I believe from my own personal experience cure that generally fatal disease, “diabetes mellitus”, at least in a majority of cases. They have also proved of great benefit in a great many cases peculiar to women. I have been informed by mothers, that, while nursing children and drinking freely of these waters, the children are unusually robust and healthy and teething children, after they begin to drink the water are as a rule free from those diseases accompanying that critical period of life, even in the hottest of the summer season. The water is pleasant to drink, and soon becomes so refreshing both to the taste and the stomach that the best of well-water becomes insipid and unsatisfactory. Thos. J. Montgomery, M.D.
Sweet Springs Hotel Letterhead c.1878
Wittenberg Sorber Etching