Mark's Photo Travels

Previously, I detailed the results of my research into the deeds of Chick Springs. This time I show the newspaper coverage I found in Google's news archives. The results are surely not complete due to imperfections in Google's character recognition, but it is a great start for someone looking for more information than the usual summary of the history of Chick Springs. June 10, 1859, The Charleston Mercury, Chick's Springs : This may come as a surprise to you, but advertisements play with the truth at times and this one is no exception. In this case, "mountain air" is overdoing it bit since resort's elevation is about 900ft at best, and the resort is nowhere near a mountain. But it makes good copy. December 16, 1907, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chick Springs Hotel Burned : The free preview reveals the hotel burned with a loss of about $60,000. May 8, 1913, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, To Chick Springs By Trolley Soon : A short article speculating that ...

This glory days of Chick Springs and its hotels have been told many times and better than I can do anyway. But where do they get their information? One source (and a good one) is Greenville County's Register of Deeds pre-1990 digital archive . While deeds are often an uninteresting, dry read, they can also provide useful bits of trivia about historical places like Chick Springs. I've found and listed as many of the Chick Springs hotel-related deeds that my search skills could find. 1834: Book R, page 266 : Burwell Chick buys property in the area that will become known as Chick Springs.  1851: Book W, pages 455 and 456 : Burwell Chick dies in 1847. Burwell's sons, Pettis and Reuben Chick, buy Chick Springs for $3000 in accordance with their father's will . 1857: Book Y, pages 173 and 174 : Pettis and Reuben Chick sell Chick Springs to Franklin Talbird of Beaufort and John Henry of Charleston for $15,000. 1867: Book AA, pages  686-687  and 688 : The Chick br...