Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-06-04
MEDICINE LODGE BARBER CO. KAsy FRIDAY, JUNE 4 18
A HEALING SPRING.
Tho Discovery Made by q Country Lad In
North Carolina.
iCor N Y Tirneal

lCor. N. Y. Timesl
A curious spring has been discovered in
Ashe County, North Carolina. In July,
1885, q wood-outter working some distance
from his home told the lad who accom-.
panied him to search the neighborhood for
n spring, as the water carried from their
home was too warm to be refreshing. Fol-
lowing the stream by the roadside, the boy
reached point where the stream made
sort of horseshoe curve as it again came
out by the roadside. This spot was a tan
gled mass of briers and overhanging shrubs,
but the boy penetrated the thcket and,
following the curve, found near the edge of
the stream, but literally in its bed, a spring.
He cleaned out the dead leaves, twigs and
other rubbish, and put the spring in "run-
ming order" In so doing he had to thrust
his arm almost to the elbow into the water.
This arm was in a swollen and infiamed
condition from poison oak, and had been
so for some time. The next morning it was
noticed that as much of the arm as had
been in the water was improved. The
change had been so sudden that its relief
had been attributed to its having been so
long in the water on the preceding day.
The boy determined to try u second appli-
cation of his new remedy, and on the next
morning his arm was well. The boys
father then tried the efficacy of the water
upon sores which had annoyed him for many
| weeks, and in n marvelously short timo
was entirely relieved. He then concluded
| to keep secret the locality of the spring,
allowing no one 10 go to it but himself, but
always keeping a supply of the water at
his house. The neighbors swarmed to his
house to try the magic water. Many were
/ healed of various maladies, and all were
eager to know where the spring was sit
uated. The old man kept his secret, how
ever, going under cover of night to fetch
The water. Finally he was followed to his
| life-giving fountain. In less than twenty
! four hours every brier and bramble for
many a yard around had been beaten
down by the feet of men and hoofs of
horses, so great was the throng coming
and going. "basket meeting" was APP
pointed by the circuit rider, to be held at
| the spring on certain Sunday. 1t is es-
timated that seven hundred persons were
! present The preacher told of his wife's
wonderful cure. In consequence of kick
from COW one of her legs had been in a
| painful condition for four weeks. Within
| fifteen minutes after the first application
OF this water she began to experience re-
| lief from pain and after twelve or fifteen
hours treatment the pain was entirely
gone. This was one of many instances
related by the preacher to his eager
listeners. From that day people came
from far and near, driving sometimes thir-
ty or forty miles in wagon and waiting
| several days for a chance to fill their bar
| rels. On Sundays from three hundred to
four hundred persons were to be seen on
the spot. There is no house within half
mile OF the spring and no hotel for several
miles, so the neighbors, much to their an
noyance an Inconvenience, are frequently
obliged to take in the weary sufferers seek
ing these healing waters.
The average number of persons visiting
the spring daily until the bad weather of
the winter began is estimated at two hun
dred. During the winter the water has
been hauled at considerable expense to va
rious places, where ready sale is found for
it at five dollars a case In fact, the de-
mnnd has been greater than the supply;
the distance from railroad making a trip
considerable of an undertaking. Only a
partial analysis of the water has as vet
been made. A New Orleans chemist saws
its specific gravity is 1.001, and that it is
largely charged with carbonic acid. It
contains iron, the su!phates, chlorides a ii
carbonates of calcium and magnesia
The country surrounding the spring is
extremely rough, but not without the pict-
uresque element which has made all West
ern North Carolina famous. New river
runs within few hundred yards of the
place, and the roar of IT'S waterfall adds to
the weirdness of the scene.