Significant moments in its history, which have been documented for over 137 years, include a visit by the international Lafayette, a revolutionary of fame. A day-long visit by the president of the United States. The exact amount of time and attention given by Poland's greatest World War II general. An international Chess tournament, the birth and childhood of the American leader of the Bauhaus, worldwide international religions, eight lengthy articles in Scribner's Magazine, using its residence and activities as studies of America's small-town life.
Induction of the first concrete mixer with paddles. The production of the pick of New York City fancy coach workers at the turn of the century. In the dedication and growth lies the most interesting and perhaps the most significant adventure in primary education.
That of the vocational and academic trimmings of the second and third generations of Polish immigrants, without losing old-world culture. Not much of this, however, happened in the first 88 years following Jobe Van Court's reaction. Whatever they have been to the act of settling a new community, in building a pioneer log cabin. The first 88 years were contained in the average experience of the average community over the same span of years in the same era. The hearts of people need the warmth of contact with their races. It was natural that others joined Jobe Van Court and his son Ben; some of them were women, there were marriages, and there would be begetting and other begettings.
There were many crude occupations, limited money circulation, and other forms of wealth, and the community grew slowly.
The old Susquehanna Pike was built; more properly speaking, it was laid out. After 137 years, it has yet to be built. Starting at the so-called Town House Corners and proceeding to Cambridge Springs, only a limited amount of grading with the application of salt was done during the past year, 1937. Only this, even though, from the white man's experience, it has been recognized as the shortest and most easily negotiated route. The attached chronological table shows that the first bridge was built across French Creek at the site of Cambridge Springs in 1815. This was only a timber and board fair.
But it brought regular coach routes and travelers. After a few years, a covered bridge replaced it, which was soon replaced by a suspension bridge. This bridge stood until the present modern structure was built, replacing it around 1890.
The people engaged themselves in the occupations of the American wilderness: timber, of course; hides, pelts of wild animals, maple sugar and syrup, and rum, to be sure; wool, handcrafts, and until the first sawmill was established in 1847, later followed by a local tannery.
All this day's merchandise was loaded onto rafts during the Spring and fall. It floated down French Creek, the Allegheny, the Ohio, and the Mississippi to natural markets and on rare occasions as far South as New Orleans.
First school
Religion blessed the settlement in 1828. The first school was started in 1830, and the railroad came in 1861.
With shipping facilities, the settlement soon began to outbid its neighboring towns for settlers. By 1870, the population had grown to 452, and in 1880, to 674.
In 1890, it was 912, and by 1895, it had decreased to 700. Cambridge Springs played a leading role in the development of the critical cheese industry in 1867. However, in 1884, an unexpected event started a real boom.
It was the first feeble development of the Grey Mineral Springs. This has philosophical interest for those who sometimes feel that nothing more critical can happen to their town or themselves. The philosopher will note that Doctor Grey first discovered his Spring in 1860. It seemed unimportant to him and others at the time. A long 24 years passed, during which the little town struggled for dollars and renewal of life before the same man realized his acres of diamonds.
The last 50 years
Titusville had just aroused the industrial interest of America in 1860 by demonstrating that crude oil could be located in pools under the surface of the Earth. By drilling in the proper places, it can be brought to the surface and commercialized into a giant new industry. Men everywhere were dreaming of fortunes being made overnight.
At Cambridge, in Crawford County, part of an area known as Rockdale, certain traces of oil known as blossom were found. Doctor J. H. Grey, a medical practitioner, could dream of fortune as easily as the next man. He took a 16-inch 3/4 iron rod and went probing into the earth.
The Highlands produced nothing, and he turned to the lowlands. Quite by accident, he leaned on his rod while deciding on the next spot and noticed that the rod went into the earth without the exertion of much pressure. As a small boy might, he pushed the rod its full 16 inches into the ground to see if he could do it. But when he withdrew it, he did not expect the rush of clear spring water that followed the opening to the surface.
When the flow of water continued unabated, as if it might run forever, he returned home, found an old gun barrel, and went back to the hole. Then he practically forgot the incident, except that he noticed that the water was highly charged with iron minerals. Workmen could come out of the hay fields in the following years and drink in the Spring without any discomfort or harm.
Twenty-four years passed, and in April 1884, Doctor Grey was struggling with a baffling patient's lack of health. As a last resort, he took the patient to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where a report indicated that many patients like him were experiencing remarkable health benefits from drinking spring water. The benefits followed for his patient.
Doctor Grey is said to have them wired back home that his Grey Springs had as much to offer his patients as the Arkansas Springs from which his patients had been drinking. He would return. He was reported to have wired. He would develop his Spring, and Cambridge might reap the benefits of a boom. Doctor Grey was already an elderly man. He may have had a prophetic intuition, but his neighbors were reportedly scoffing.
The Boom
The spring discoverer, however, had high hopes. He returned to Cambridge, made his Spring more presentable, and advertised in the Cambridge News that he had a natural aid for sufferers. Outlying farmers were the first to take him at his word. The benefit they obtained is said to have been amazing. Soon, Doctor Grey had a tent structure over his Spring.
Strangers, some said to be seeking anything as a final hope, joined the ailing farmers and residents. Finally, Doctor Grey was advised to place a turnstile at the entrance to his Spring and to install an organization of two men: one to sell admissions at the turnstile, and the other to dispense the water at a stated price per glass. If some think imagination has run amok in this account, let it be noted that a picture of Grey Springs from about this time is available. It was last published in a Historical Edition of the Enterprise News at Cambridge Springs, dated November 12, 1931. There can be no doubt of the tent, the turnstile, the attendants, or the crowd. Moreover, competition immediately took center stage to become the driving force of trade.
Across the road, slightly removed from the Grey Springs, the original Magnesia Spring was suddenly discovered. As everybody knows, magnesia is valued in the treatment of many stomach disorders and other ailments, which can be aided very little, if at all, by iron water. Other springs were discovered correctly, nearly all of them offering different analyses. Hotels and boarding houses were essential for caring for visitors.
The Erie Railroad ran excursions. Doctors set up a technique that involved thorough examination studies and the application of water treatments. The old American House and several other hotels soon were doing a land office business.
A group of promoters came in from outside, one of them, W.D. Rider, to do the inevitable. A Riverside Hotel was built in 1886, only two years after Doctor Grey returned with his great fate from Arkansas. Only a little imagination is necessary to witness the current theme. Of course, residents could not stand idly by and watch this new spending stream without getting involved. Houses were built, and many of them were turned over rapidly.
New businesses were opened. The Erie Railroad built a commodious, splendid station. (Here is an advertisement.) The most notable aspect of the architecture of the day was the spacious area for hotel buses and luggage handling. New streets were mapped and opened.
There is a story that in 1895, the new activities were still going strong, eleven years after Grey's foolishness of 1884. W.D. Rider, a natural promoter, fell out with his two partners over the Hotel Riverside development. It would be necessary for one of them to buy out the other two and simplify the operations through bidding. They further agreed to submit sealed bids to an outside party. The highest bid was to take the property. It is further reported that two of the partners were not heavily backed, and the third is supposed to be in the same position. But whether or not two of them bid lower than justified.
Only to find that the third did have a backer and had entered a reasonable offer, he took the property. Baird was the backer. This backer turned out to be William Baird, then of Pittsburgh, who was ready to retire in a comfortable country business—something like a hotel and farm.
William Baird was a bridge builder. In a short time, he had taken over the entire Riverside Hotel and farm, and, realizing the natural connection with the Grey Mineral Springs, he was reported to have paid Doctor Grey $60,000 for it. He built a long boardwalk from the hotel to the Spring, which required exercise for the patients, and which stands as one of the notable features of the Spa even today.
Mineral Waters
Those who find the story of the mineral water boom at Cambridge Springs difficult to understand should inquire about the water's character, which is the same today and unquestionably beneficial. They should also interview some good doctors on the fascinating topic of fashion and medicine. The mineral water at Cambridge Springs does have a high mineral content, but not in sufficient quantities to compromise its potency.
Indeed, water has veritably life-giving qualities. This sounds like the talk of a witch doctor, but it has a scientific basis. Water is heavily charged with gas, which is different from being charged with carbonated gas, either naturally or artificially.
It also proves in strict analysis that being solely free of vegetable organisms is only a fraction of 100 percent free. Bottles of water have been kept for long periods without showing any indication of sedimentation. The resulting water can be consumed in large quantities over long periods. The usual diet described is one glass full every 15 minutes. Of course, this diet would be impossible to execute unless the water has unconditional qualities that enable the body's organs to eliminate it most freely.
Discovered in 1884 and reaching its most extensive use from 1890 to 1910, the Cambridge Springs water cure declined with the end of the wealthy era in the United States, just before the advent of the automobile. When families followed the custom of spending the summer somewhere and found Cambridge Springs, a deal with the added advantage of health was regained. In the era of medical fashions, people turned most easily to rest and water cures. America might be much better off today if fashion had continued to evolve. However, the automobile and numerous other strenuous influences have entered the picture, and no doubt, the most crucial step towards physical rebuilding is an accurate diagnosis.
Thus, the medical fashion of the past several years has been the clinic.
Hotel Rider
W.D. Rider found himself outside the Hotel Riverside; he had staked out an objective that most of his neighbors considered ugly and impossible to accomplish. How could they know that they had not yet seen the peak of America's mineral water resort in 1895?
They could contrast that day's sudden activity and growth with what they had experienced up to 1884. Mr. Rider had been making many trips out of town after he left the Hotel Riverside management in February or about 1895, and in June, he announced that he would build a million-dollar hotel and resort on the South Hill overlooking the town. It was to be called Hotel Rider, he said, and would be the finest and largest resort hotel between New York and Chicago.
The natives gasped, but true to his word, on July 4 of that year, he invited the residents to the top of the South Hill. Where stood awaiting them Delroy Bircherd with a span of horses attached to a plow ready to turn the furrow, the foundation staked out on a scale larger than anything they have ever seen. Cambridge Springs records tell the whole story of the Rider Hotel that day in black and white. However, the testimony of many residents who worked on the project and later watched it develop into exactly what W.D. Rider said it would.
But space here will not include it. It developed a polished society of its own. Rich and famous people were attracted to it. The sun of day and nightlife of numerous families with summer residents in the town were those who brought private cars to the sidings of the Erie Railroad. In those days, rich families brought their horses, coachmen, and their entire household to Cambridge Springs to stay the summer through.
With a flair for promotion, W.D. Rider had a large lithograph of the handsome hotel to be hung in the waiting rooms of every large railroad terminal in America and many foreign countries. None of us knows what the future might hold for the Hotel Rider and its promoters. The book was suddenly closed on September 13, 1905, when W.D. Rider passed away. Successful management seemed unable to catch up to his genius in stride. Finally, the Hotel Rider property went into receivership, from which it emerged to become the site of Alliance College, thanks to the efforts of the Polish Alliance of America.
Each of the three thousand members contributes 5 cents per month to support the vocational and academic training of young Polish Americans, both financially and emotionally. A new institution that goes on from year to year into brighter futures was dedicated in 1912. With William Howard Taft, president of the U.S., delivering the dedication address.
With the decline of the Hotel Rider, the Spa, which some may have called flamboyant in its characteristics, succeeded from a peak of mineral water greatness. In succeeding years, the advent of the automobile changed the people's customs, and the medical profession changed its fashions. More stress has been placed on Cambridge Springs as a resort. Stretchers and wheelchairs, which were once seen in significant numbers at the turn of the century, are now largely absent from hotel lobbies and on incoming trains.
Revival Tried
A revival of emphasis on water has been attempted several times, notably around 1925. Then, the Chamber of Commerce became an active organization that finally succeeded in raising a strictly local fund of about $14,000. Several advertising agencies were consulted.
The volunteer promoters were divided into two groups: one favoring summer promotions and advertising at the high tide of the annual immigration, and the other arguing for the development of winter sports to make resort trade year-round. The winter sports contingent won the vote in the steering committee. However, as everybody now knows, the movement was ten years ahead of its time, and discouragement and a measure of failure ensued. Today, with winter sports enthusiasts by the thousands in the larger cities, the plan might have been wildly successful.
The peak health institution of today at Cambridge Springs was developed from the Highland Hotel property by the Sisters of Divine Providence, an order of nurses who have been privileged to perform excellent service in some large centers, notably Pittsburgh. San Rosario was dedicated on December 18, 1934, and is enjoying a growing patronage. It occupies a whole block in the South part of the Spa and has extensive facilities.
It is located on the main line of the Erie Railroad and receives attention from the management of that transportation system. With a fully developed retail district, large payrolls from the college, a milk plant, the concrete mixer works, and other lesser industrials, paving on all principal streets, a school with college entrance recognition, fine churches, splendid homes, low taxes, and a large volume of farmer trade, it is attractive to a deserting public.
In 1916, the Mohawk Milk Company built a large evaporation milk plant at Cambridge Springs and initiated a dairying development on nearby farms, which has evolved into a significant industry. The Mohawk Company sold its interest to the Carnation Company some years ago, which has since expanded the plant's capacity twice, finally doubling it in the summer of 1937.
The plant is now handling an average milk intake of well over 200,000 pounds daily, but it is equipped to handle 400 pounds. Payment is made to the farmer every month, adding significantly to the flow of money in the community. A dairyman's league is now strongly organized here, shipping at Union City, and its patrons enjoy monthly checks.
Cambridge Springs envisioned itself as an oil boom town in 1937, with an intense interest in Harry Favor Right. He leased large areas and drilled to a depth of about 5000 feet on the present John Chapin's farm east of town. This was notable for two reasons. Oil experts believe that significant quantities of oil would be found by deep drilling in the Cambridge Springs vicinity. Additionally, this was the first drilling to such a depth. Although encouraging showings of both oil and gas have often been found at Cambridge Springs.
With a few homes in the borough and a few farms drawing their supplies of gas from wells, the deep well on the Chapin farm turned out to be a duster.
