Sweet Springs Historical Society Blog

MRS. MARY SCOTT CRABBS’ “SWEET SPRINGS YESTERYEAR”

: 10 April 2024

Campbell Cottage edited

Published June 1, 2006

Forward and closing by Samuel Blain, Jr.

The Saline County Historical Society held its Annual Picnic on our “Spring Grounds” in Sweet Springs on June 23, 1957. On this historic occasion, a paper titled “Sweet Springs Yesteryear” was presented by Mr. Leo Crabbs of Kansas City. The author of the paper was his mother, Mrs. Mary Scott Crabbs, who was an internationally renowned journalist and world traveler - and a former resident of Sweet Springs. This piece by Mrs. Crabbs offers one of the clearest insights into the everyday life and activity here at a time when Sweet Springs was a mecca for America’s vacationers and resort enthusiasts – during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. As it is so very rare to have such a finely written first-hand account of life in Sweet Springs during this period, Mrs. Crabbs’ paper is offered here, in its entirety:

“BELLES AND BEAUX OF OLD SWEET SPRINGS” - Recollections written in 1909

: 04 April 2024

Sweet Springs Hotel Etching c.1877

The following is an interesting account of our town by an unknown writer. It appeared in the Friday, May 14, 1909, issue of The Sweet Springs Herald under the title “Belles and Beaux of Old Sweet Springs. Traditions of Missouri’s Famous Resorts.”

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPRING GROUNDS IN BROWNSVILLE

: 27 February 2024

“Saratoga of the West”

In 1875, Col. Leslie Marmaduke, then living in St. Louis, came to Brownsville to drink the water. On September 25, 1875, thirteen representative men of the state met in Brownsville and formed the Sweet Springs Company, a joint stock company, to bring commercial development of the spring grounds. In 1876, Marmaduke purchased thirty acres of land along the Blackwater River from Dr. John Lapsley Yantis.

DISCOVERY OF THE SPRING GROUNDS

: 27 February 2024

revjl yantis

Rev. John Lapsley Yantis, D.D. (1804 – 1882)

(Photo courtesy of Sweet Spring Presbyterian Church History Scrapbook written by Sarah Anderson in 1951)

In the Spring of 1841, the young wife of Rev. John Lapsley Yantis, D.D., came from her home in Howard County to visit family in the Brownsville area. Mrs. Eliza Yantis, was said to be in the third stage of pulmonary consumption and came to the area prepared to die among family.