Those who came before the days of Disneyland and television were accustomed of necessity to inventing their own amusements. They were an inventive group, however, and cherished the simple pleasures of life; mist on mountain sides, the sweet scent of new mown hay underfoot and the raucous cry of a hawk spiraling towards the sun.
The Shenandoah Valley and the spring hotels of Virginia The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has always possessed a generous supply of these qualities, and it was for this reason that the first Wilsons settled in the cradle of the Blue Ridge and made their home in a place that ever after came to be known as Wilson's Springs. Rambling country inns were commonplace during the latter part of the last century, and more existed for the benefit of less prosperous people than did the great resorts such as White Sulphur, which catered predominantly to the wealthy. The hotel at Wilson's Springs, along with Stribling's Springs in Augusta, Sharon Springs in Bland, Grayson Sulphur and Chilhowie Springs in Smyte, Virginia, grew up around natural mineral fountains, the waters of which were believed to be of some medicinal value.
"The major resorts were founded on the premise that their waters, no matter what type, could cure common diseases at a time when medical science really could not do much for patients. Lured by the advertising, patients came and drank the water, bathed in it, rubbed it on themselves, and the resorts prospered. Whether the waters cured anyone is highly problematical, but certainly the elevation of the mountain resorts and the clean air helped many." (Historic Springs of the Virginias, by Stan Cohen, 1987)
On the farm at Wilson's Springs, for instance, there are ten running springs, but the main attraction during the days of the hotel was the sulphur spring, which is on an island in the middle of the Maury (North) river. People flocked there to drink the foul-smelling water and to enjoy the beauty of Goshen Pass. In "A General History of Rockbridge Baths and its Community", a thesis by John R. Risch written in 1980, it is observed that "the main attraction of Wilson's Springs was the health-giving waters from a sulphur spring. This is unique, a sort of freak of nature, as it rises on a tiny island in the middle of the river." In Edward Pollard's book, The Virginia Tourist , published in 1870, it is also stated that "within two miles of the Baths is a strong sulphur spring in an inlet of the North River. There is a cap or basin of rock which holds the mineral spring, rising just in the middle of the stream of fresh water, and from the depths below it's channel. It is a bit of a curiosity, and it is visited for medicinal effects in addition to those of the Baths."
Early settlers The property at Wilson's Springs was not always in the possession of the Wilson family, however. It was was originally known as Strickler's Springs, and before that was the homeplace of William Porter. The original granted, dated 1750, was comprised of 248 acres and was awarded by George II of England. Another grant is dated 1770. The land on which William Porter made his home in the middle part of the 18th century was very different from the peaceful community that exists today. At that time it was a wilderness, but immigrants from more settled regions were willing to brave the hardships in anticipation of new opportunities on the frontier. WA Wilson recounted in a written recollection that; Daniel Stricker had added to the main house a number of rooms, which originally only a two room log cabin with a lean-to kitchen when he bought it from the William Porter estate. This cabin was built in 1755 and it is evident that it had an earthen floor because the logs are whitewashed to the ground. It was built mostly of Black walnut logs, and it is said that the first people who tried to live on the property were run off by Timber wolves. The mountain on the east side of Goshen Pass was called "Wolf Mountain" at one time.
There were also several Indian massacres in the area, and one of great notoriety which took place at Kerr's Creek. In spite of these adversities, William Porter and his family managed to survive, and on September 3, 1810, they sold their two room log cabin and land to Daniel Strickler and moved elsewhere.
Strickler's Springs Daniel Strickler enlarged the house to its present size and encased the original Porter cabin within a shell of a larger framed structure. The name of the property also changed to Strickler's Springs and for the first time the buildings were used to house a small number of guests, thus beginning a tradition that was to continue for over one hundred years. Not much is know about the Strickler's twenty-nine year tenure on the property. They were a well-known family in the area, and Goshen Pass was at one time known as "Strickler's Pass", but the history of the hotel at the springs does not truly begin until the Wilsons took possession in 1839.
The Founding William A. Wilson II was born in the Oxford community near the Forks of Buffalo on Feb. 1811. He was the son of Thomas Wilson and Rachel Welch, and was the grandson of William Alexander Wilson, who immigrated with his brother James from Scotland to America on May 16, 1760. They came into Philadelphia, Pa, which was at the time a major point of entry for the waves of Scots-Irish immigrants who entered the United States in the middle of the 18th century.
After the death of his father, young William left home with a friend and walked to what is now Jamestown, Ohio. They carried with them a kit of carpenter's tools with which to earn a living. A few years later, he returned to Virginia, married Mary Ann Hull and began to look for a home. He found a likely prospect in the Daniel Strickler estate, and was able to negotiate a purchase price of $7000. The transfer seemed ill-fated from the beginning, for as he was carrying the money over as payment, he lost it by the side of Collier's creek while watering his horse. As W.A. Wilson III told the story: He was coming over here on horseback, and he had the money in his pocket to pay for the place. He had the money in his inside pocket and when he reached in to get it, it wasn't there. The only thing he could think might have happened was it might have dropped out of his coat pocket when he was watering his horse, when he came across Collier's Creek, so he rushed back over there, and he found his money beside the creek, where it had fallen out. William Wilson cleared the land, added to the main structure and prepared to operate the house as a summer hotel. In 1852, further improved the property by the purchase of an additional 116 acres purchased from Samuel Clark, a trustee of the heirs of Benjamin Borden's estate. W A Wilson wrote: This estate was bought by William A. Wilson II from Joseph Strickler, executor of Daniel Strickler on Nov. 16th, 1843 and comprised three tracts of land numbering 465 acres. On August 24, 1852, William A. Wilson II bought of Samuel Clark, trustee of Benjamin Borden's heirs, 116 acres. William A. Wilson II paid $7000 for this estate which a part consisted of a tract of 248 acres purchased by Daniel Strickler from William Porter Sept. 3, 1810, this part being a grant from the King of England. This grant remained in the desk of D O wilson until his death, along with a newpaper with the obituary of George Washington. (Note: In 1989, the original of the grant with the seal of George II was donated by the heirs of W A Wilson to the Washington and Lee Library. They have it on display in the library, and it is held in the archives collection as a research reference. Copies of the original are in the possession of family members)
The Hotel William A. Wilson II operated the Wilson's Springs Hotel from about 1843 until the time of his death in 1882. At the height of its popularity, the main structure could accommodate seventy people, and the cabins on the "Green" could facilitate an additional 250. The original hotel building was twice the size of the present house, with two wings joined together by a three story ell. The downstairs of one wing contained a large rectangular "ballroom" with sleeping quarters for men above. This wing was called "The Den" and as W A Wilson observed once; You had to be a very good friend of Mr. Wilson's if a male, even though your wife might be along, if you got to sleep anyplace other than "the Den".
For this room William Wilson purchased a Knabe piano to provide music for his family and guests. Men and women were strictly segregated in those days, and it was customary that the ladies go down to the river to bathe only during certain hours of the day, while the men were requested to go at another time. A guard was discreetly posted to see that this custom was adhered to. Women stayed in the adjoining wing of the hotel.
Wilson's Springs attracted the simple folk of the surrounding farming communities, but there was one famous person who stayed there. John Philip Sousa, otherwise known as the "march king" stayed overnight, accompanied by his wife. He was in Rockbridge Baths for the opening of the new hotel in Goshen in the 1880's. They both signed the guest register.
The Green Although many of the short-term guests preferred the relative comfort of the main structure, many of the local folk desired a more secluded spot to spend their vacation. Of equal importance to the patrons of Wilson's Springs were the cabins which were nestled under shady oaks on a piece of land which came to be referred to as "the Green". This spot was located about a quarter mile from the hotel. During the Civil War, a row of ten cabins with a fireplace between each one were built opposite the sulphur spring and at the east end of the Pass. This was later called the "Wilson Row" and around this grew the many summer homes of the rural people of Rockbridge County. These cabins were built on Wilson land without a written contract. A gentleman's agreement was all that was required. Indeed, all year the families who owned cabins on the Green looked forward to the summer when they could escape for a while from the responsibilities of the farmstead. They would hurry and get the harvest completed so that they could embark with a wagon load of necessities and sufficient food to sustain them for a certain period of time. A newspaper article of the period described the activities; When the harvest was over, visitors would come in covered wagons drawn by four horses and containing a bed or two, provisions and sundry paraphernalia. All the family went except for one or two who stayed behind on the farm to attend to chores and bring supplies to camp. The cooking in camp was done under an arbor covered with pine brush. Some slept in the wagon, some under the arbors. (Lexington Gazette, 1874) For amusement, the old folk would gather in groups and talk and laugh about what had happened last summer, and young people might find an opportunity for flirtation in some secluded spot under the shade of the trees. The old ladies assembled in some cabin and talked, the old men met in squads under the large oaks. The grown girls made parties, swung, went after huckleberries and cast eyes at the young men. Children played in the sand or waded in the river. (Lexington Gazette, 1874)
A dance platform was built on posts about ten feet above the ground with a railing all around, and in the evenings someone would secure a banjo and fiddle player so that young and old could join together in the Virginia Reel. There was even a ten-pin alley that was built for the amusement of the people on the Green and at the Hotel. John Seymour Letcher writes in Only Yesterday in Lexington, Virginia : Beside the path which skirted the foot of the mountain and connected the "Green" with the Hotel there were several structures. There was a bowling alley that had fallen into disrepair, and further on the dance hall, which was a large one story building perhaps fifty feet long and thirty feet wide with numerous large window openings along the sides. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights during the summer, dances were held in the hall and were well attended by scores of people not only from the Hotel and the Green, but from Lexington and the neighboring villages, particularly from Brownsburg, Fairfield and Raphine. One of the things that I look back upon as being rather remarkable in regard to these dances was that the dancers ran in age in about equal numbers from boys and girls in their teens all the way to very elderly men and women in their sixties and there were quite a few of the latter dancing with as much enthusiasm and apparent enjoyment as the young people.("The Country and the Springs", from Only Yesterday in Lexington, Va, chapter 11, by John Seymour Letcher, 1976, McClure Press) Upon the death of William Wilson II, the Hotel and land passed to his son, David Orville Wilson, known to friends and family as "Uncle Orve". He operated the property until his own death in 1920, and his will stipulated that the succeeding generation of Wilson's to live at Wilson's Springs should be that of his nephew, William Alexander Wilson III.
The day that Uncle Orve told me that he was going to give me this place is a day that I'll never forget" said WA Wilson, "I was over here when he was sick, and he asked me if I'd do him a favor. I told him I would if I could. He said to bring Stuart Moore out here, and tell him to come prepared to do some writing. Aunt Jenny was fanning him at the time, but when he said that she just dropped her fan and walked off. She wouldn't even look at him, because she wanted him to leave the property to her nephew, Page Shoulder...I don't want you to tell any of the other members of the family about this, but I'm leaving the place to you because you are the only one who's ever called my wife 'Aunt. I guess the rest of the family felt that the old lady was beneath them, and Uncle Orve remembered that I had treated her with respect. I looked after her for twenty years until her death, fulfilling my promise to my uncle (Reminiscences of William Alexander Wilson III, as told to his granddaughter, Catherine Gauldin, summer 1983)
Alex Wilson and his wife, Carrie Babcock Wilson, lived on the land and kept the family lore alive for forty-eight years until his death in 1988 at the age of 89. They were survived by their two daughters, Barbara Wilson Carroll and Elizabeth Wilson Gauldin and four grandchildren.
