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Special Collections, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College
Special Collections© 2011 By Wytheville Community College. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Cathy Carlson Reynolds
Collection is open to research.
There are no restrictions.
Cove Lithia Spring Records, Mss. Collection 2008.1, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, VA
Donated by Mary B. Kegley in 2008; part of the Mary B. Kegley Collection.
Heralded as a late nineteenth century source of medicinal water, Cove Lithia Spring, a tract of sixty-nine acres in Crocketts Cove, Wythe County, was initially owned by William G. Crockett and his sons. Crockett marketed the water through pharmacist A. S. Haller in 1884. In October 1888 William G. Crockett sold the property to Crockett, Thomas and Company.
In April 1890 the Cove Lithia Spring Corporation was formed with R. E. Withers as president and Charles Benton Thomas as secretary/treasurer. The company bottled, shipped, and distributed water from the spring, touting is as "Nature's Specific Remedy." A few months later in August 1890, the property was sold to R. D. Bohannan and G. V. Litchfield by William G. Crockett and Emily Crockett, Charles B. Thomas and Elizabeth Pierce Crockett Thomas, A. G. Crockett and Mary Crockett, and Crockett, Thomas, and Company.
In 1903, Bohannan purchased the interests of G. V. Litchfield. According to Rush Crockett, from his collection at the Wythe County Historical Society, Bohannan paid $5000 for the spring property and erected three buildings at the cost of $10,000, and never realized a profit. On 2 April 1908 the property was deeded to his widow, Florence Short Bohannan and his step-daughter Mary M. Bohannan. Florence and Mary Bohannan resided in Columbus, Ohio.
Judging from a 1935 lease agreement with F. M. Crockett of Glade Spring, Florence Bohannan and her daughter perhaps leased the property between 1908 and 1935. By 1941, however, Bohannan was losing money from the property and asked Thomas about selling the property. Thomas replied that the property was overgrown, the road impassable, the spring weak, and the water contained sediment.
Bohannan continued her efforts to sell the property in 1942 and 1943; she sold the property to G. C. Roberts for $703.70 in June 1948.
The Records were found amongst papers of Wytheville attorney William Crockett Thomas. They are arranged in two folders, correspondence and deeds.
Re: 1908 deed for property and draft contract of agreement for lease of land to F. M. Crockett of Glade Spring, Virginia. Photocopy of agreement attached; original is filed in Folder 2.
Re: condition of road from Wytheville to the Cove and any variation from his 1930 report and possibility of selling the property. "As the matter now stands, we are paying money in taxes, year after year, without any prospect of returns."
Re: condition of the road from Wytheville to the Cove, "macadamized and can be traveled during all times of the year." He also suggests that there is no market for the property because of inaccessibility, and the "spring is weak and a sediment seems to form in the bottom of a bottle when it is shipped and people seem to object to this."
Re: possibility of selling property if price was "cheap enough." She also writes that tax appraisal is $300 and that "taxes are now $6 a year."
Re: her decision not to pay future taxes on property "but just let the property go."
Re; his recommendation that she not pay taxes on property that "is steep, rough land that is worth nothing as a mineral spring proposition."
Re: possibility of local sale of property and tax appraisal of property of $160.
Re: offer for Cove Lithia Spring property at price of $670.
Re: offer of G. C. Roberts; enclosure of deed, photocopy attached, original in Deeds folder.
Re: signed deed and appreciation for "happy ending to what seemed an almost hopeless situation."
Re: receipt of two checks for the sale of the Cove Lithia Spring property for $282.10 each.
Re: tax bill for property of $11.70.
For Cove Lithia Spring land. Crockett, wife Emma, and family and boarders retained right to use water from spring.
Deed between William G. Crockett and Emily Crockett, Charles Benton Thomas and Elizabeth Pierce Crockett Thomas, A. G. Crockett and Mary T. Crockett, and Crockett, Thomas and Company, Inc. to G. V. Litchfield and R. D. Bohannan. Price for property was $5,000.
Re: transferral of Cove Lithia Spring property, 69 acres. Also included is description of spring, chemical analysis and lithia water, and two testimonials by Thomas M. Jackson, Wythe County, and Isaac F. Stower, Bland County.
Agreement between Bohannan and Chubb for F. M. Crockett of Glade Spring, Virginia to lease Cove Lithia Spring property.
Re: purchase of Cove Lithia Spring for $703.70.