Red Boiling Springs Heritage Museum

08/20/2026

The Red Boiling Springs Property 1820-1912
Part Four

We left off with the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision in 1874 saying the sale of property to Samuel Hare was legitimate and therefore all the sales that stemmed from that sale were legitimate.

In the meantime, Capt. James D. Bennatt started renting the property in 1869 at the rate of $130 per annum and running the “hotel”. He made renovations and improvements to the property. There was a string of cabins that sat “just a few feet from the creek” as well as the main building.

The Upper Middle Class began to return to the Springs for their health and recreation. As one visitor said, “the party consisted of merchants, doctors, preachers, editors and lawyers as well as others.” Among those who stayed between 1866 and 1879 was General Ira P Jones, Nashville newspaperman and Quartermaster for the Governor Harris; Tennessee Governor John C. Brown, who stayed several times during this time; Col. John A Fite, who served as Smith County Chancery Court Clerk and Circuit Court Judge, later served as Adjutant General under Gov Turney. Folks came from the big cities, Louisville, Bowling Green, Nashville, Huntsville, they also came from out of state, Texas, Missouri, Virginia and Mississippi.

How did they get here? From the North they could take the Chesapeake Nashville train to Westmoreland, from the East they could travel first by steam ship along the Cumberland River to Carthage, Gallatin or Hartsville . From those spots they would travel by “hack” or stage wagon or buggy to Red Boiling. It was a long (parts of two days) and dirty ride.

Various Correspondents reported that there was fishing, draughts (checkers), and “killing snakes”. Another letter writer noticed that there was “literary exercises, conversational soirees, music, card playing and for the more vigorous, quoits*, invented by Apollo and rendered illustrious by Chief Justice Marshall, who is said to have had a notable weakness for that amusement.” “… every night witnessed the merry dance in the splendid ball room erected especially for that purpose.” The Springs were not without something to do.

Early on Mr. Bennatt referred to the Springs as Red Sulphur Springs but as news from farther afield began, he added “Macon County, Tennessee” to his advertising and later change the name to Red Boiling Springs in Macon County as there was a popular Red Sulphur Springs in West Virginia and in Virginia.

With the Supreme Court decision of 1874 Bennatt was finally able to purchase the property from Mrs. Webb and William Walker. But that wouldn’t be the end of the court cases on who owned the property. In 1879/80 Mr. Bennatt and Thomas Russell sold their interest to Thomas McGar and again the property dispute ended up in Macon County Chancery Court.

*See comments with photos.
Next: Part Five and What About Those Healing Waters?

08/13/2026

The Red Boiling Springs Property 1820-1912
Part Three

The Supreme Court of Tennessee case John Borden & wife, et al. v. William Walker, et al. (1871) shed a lot of light of the early ownership of Red Boiling Springs Property. Much of the late 1860s and the early 1870s was spent in suits over who really owned the property. First in the Chancery Court of Macon County and then in the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Deeds and wills and depositions were all entered into the record.

Earlier, we started with Samuel Jones in 1819-1820 who left his property (about 400 (?) acres) to his son Jesse Jones with the understanding that Jesse would take care of the farm, Samuel’s wife Elizabeth and Samuel for their natural life. If he didn’t the property was to be divided with his remaining children (9). However, after Samuel died (1842) Jesse began selling off the property, sometimes with Elizabeth’s signature and sometimes not.

Jesse sold the following properties: Samuel Hare- 20 acres in 1844, Samuel Jones – 245 acres in 1845, William Hudson- 200 acres in 1847, and Ensley Wilmon – 50 acres. Jesse also borrowed money against the land and liens were placed on the property. The property was then tied up in court by creditors waiting to be paid. In just a short time property ownership became a tangled web.

Is it any surprise that “said Jesse having then sold all of said lands bequeathed as a foresaid in a few years left the country” ? (page 11) Jesse left behind the mother he was to take care of, his wife and at least three children. He was assumed dead by 1866.

So, the problem was twofold, did Jesse have the right to sell the property while his mother was still living and how do you sell 515 acres when you only possess 365-400 acres?

Samuel Jones’ other children (9) and their heirs took William Walker and Susan Webb, widow of Dr. Webb, the last recorded owners, took court as did the heirs of Samuel Taylor, a partner of Samuel Hare. All wanting to know who really owned the 365 acres.

The Chancery Court of Macon County was the first stop in 1866. The Chancellor decided that since Jesse did not comply with the terms of his father’s will, he had no right to sell the land, and the property should be offered for sale. Hare, Walker, Webb and the rest of the defendants made an appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court to be held in Nashville on the first Monday in December 1871. The Supreme Court ruled in December 1874 that the sale to Hare and the sale to Hudson were legal since Elizabeth signed off on them. All the other sales were null and void. The remaining property was to be divided among Samuel Jones’ heirs.

Next: But What About the Resort?

08/06/2026

Mural in downtown Red Boiling Springs by Shirley Anderson, 2017:

08/06/2026

Progress in Downtown Red Boiling Springs! Work has begun on the inside of the old bank building! Stay tuned for updates!

08/06/2026

On the Way to the War
From the editorial column of the Bolivar Bulletin (Bolivar, TN) July 7, 1866 p.3

“A friend of ours – an eyewitness by the way – related an amusing incident which transpired during Gen. Bragg’s raid into Kentucky, at Red Sulphur Springs*, somewhere near the line between that state and Tennessee. The “hero” of the occasion was a tall, lean, lank, crude kind of fellow – a native of Bedford County, Tennessee – perfectly illiterate but possessed of some marks of wit, which he poured forth sometimes to the great amusement of his comrades. He was generally first to hear and bear tidings of any important event that was about to transpire, especially concerning the movements of the army; and always “knowed” everything after it transpired. He was always ahead o everything and last out – except a battle, to which he was an entire stranger.

One day the column halted at the Springs above alluded to, and bivouacked. The men weary and tired with marching through themselves down on the ground to rest. Not so with our hero: he always availed himself of the advantage of such occasions to look around after “su’thin’ t’eat”, or whatever his greedy nature prompted him. Water was the extent of his ambition this day, however, and he espied a neat little spring house in the vicinity of the bivouac, and foremost he posted to partake of the cooling draught.

On reaching the spot he dipped his “tin” deep in the fount, and carried it to his mouth, almost taking the whole cup full at a draught. He had barely closed his ugly mouth around the edges of the cup before he threw up his head, his eyes and mouth flew open to their fullest extent, and with the most awfully distorted features exclaimed “Bo-bo-boys, he-he-hell ain’t a mile from here!”

Upon examination it was found that the water was so strongly impregnated with sulphur that it was not used for drinking at all. The spring was used for bathing.

*In old newspaper accounts and public records the property has been referred to as Red Boiling Springs, Red Sulphur Springs and even Red Boiling Sulphur Springs. It is important to check location as there are several Red Sulphur Springs in other states and counties.

08/05/2026

The Red Boiling Springs Property 1820-1912
Part Two - An Interlude for the Resort

We left off in 1860 with Dr. Webb and Walker having purchased Newby and Hearn’s two-thirds interest in the property. That same year the Taylor heirs were offering for sale their one-third interest in the property.

Webb and Walker advertised their business every week in the Nashville Union from March through August of 1860 and then everything went quiet for the “watering place’. The month of May 1861 was full of speakers coming to town and promoting both the union cause and the confederate cause. “At the approach of the civil war the people of the county were about equally divided politically, and the dividing ridge through the center of the county seemed to divide them geographically—those on the north being in favor of the “stars and stripes” and those on the south being in favor of the “stars and bars.” (Goodspeed) Tennessee ceded from the Union in June of that year. By the fall of 1861, the Confederate Army had set up an enlistment station at Webb and Walker’s property. Many of the men who enlisted did so outside of Macon County.

John Webb was a doctor, but he was also a slave holder. The 1860 federal slave schedule for Macon County records him as having ten slaves that worked at the resort. This might explain why when the Union Army set up a “hospital” on the property they conscripted Dr. James C. Weir, who was a Union sympathizer as surgeon.

Goodspeed, 1887, said “Being outside the line of the passing armies, the citizens of the county did not suffer much from the depredations of the soldiers”. However, according to William B. Moren (1808-1890), who lived here during the war: “First one party and then another occupied the area around the Red Springs, . . . It was a kind of crossing place during the war and there was scarcely a day that either one or the other party was not passing and a man’s life was considerably in danger.” *

In 1865 the Springs suffered from a flood that heavily damaged the property, according to William Moren: “The improvements (on the property) have become considerable out of repair. Four rooms or cabins have burned since the war Two houses washed away by high water.” Andrew Johnson declared the war over in Tennessee in August of 1865. Mail service began to run again in 1866 and in 1867 the Red Boiling Springs Property was put up for rent.

During the 1860s, a number of lawsuits occurred over who actually owned the property. Judgements were made and then reversed. The property was offered for rent in 1867 and again in 1871 by order of the court. Capt. James D. Bennatt started advertising in 1869 that the Springs were again open for business.

NEXT: On the Way to the War* and then Part Three of The Red Boiling Springs Property

08/04/2026

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Agnes. She and Bobby were vital members of the Red Boiling Springs Community.

View Agnes Carter Bush's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

07/28/2026

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉 Randy East, Pamela Fleming Russell, Jean Gregory Fairchild, Michael Meador, Mary Pryor, Dale Franklin, Melissa Lee Gulley