I would like to determine the locations for Bagby's Mill, Sweet Spring, and Sweet Spring Baptist Church. I've just started my search, but if anybody has any info that can help me, it is much appreciated. I have nice maps of the area, so section numbers, etc. are good for me, and lat/long is even better. I suspect all 3 are just a little south of Huntsville, maybe near Wright School, or maybe west (or east) of there. I've just changed my mind on this. I now think it was where HW 3 crosses Sweet Spring Creek, just NE of Union Church in section 17. Here is the info I have on each one: Bagby's Mill - This was one of the oldest mills in the county, built about 1830 on Sweet Spring Creek near the old plank road between Huntsville and Glasgow. Before the Civil War it was an important trading point. It was named for Wm Bagby, who with Sam Davis operated it. It remained standing until a few years before 1933. Sweet Spring - All I have is what Kathy has listed below. Sweet Spring Baptist Church - This church was in Salt Spring Twp, near Huntsville and was named from its location on Spring Creek. It was originated in 1879, and was defunct by 1933. Mike Flannigan > Thursday, 3 Feb 1927, Vol 40, No 39, Pg 2 Col 1&2--OUR HUNTSVILLE LETTER, > By W. T. Dameron--I have received a clipping from some newspaper containing an > article or rather excerpts from some letters or article written by Dr. Victor C. Vaughn > touching the benefits derived from "cold baths," and how such baths saved his life when > young. To read some of the Doctor's statements how he liked to plunge into ice-cold > water almost made me shiver. > Dr. Vaughn is one of the most eminent physicians in this country. He was born > and reared at Mt. Airy, this county, within a mile of where I was born and reared. When > small boys we attended school at the "John Vaughn school house," a small frame > building located on his father's, John Vaughn's, farm, within a few hundred yards of his > house, and it is still standing, I believe. The Doctor is a few years older than I. > In that school house one night is where I saw my first show, being four or five > years old. It was a "Punch and Judy" exhibition given by a ventriloquist. My father > carried me to the show. I thought the black faces of Punch and Judy, as they quarreled > and fought with their decorated heads above the curtain was the real stuff, and it sure > amused me. But back to "cold baths." > The Doctor is quoted as saying that "when a young man I developed symptoms > which led to a diagnosis of consumption." This is news to me. From a boy up, the > Doctor's physical appearance and general makeup indicated nothing but robust health to > my young mind. But the writer continues: "Two miles from my home there was a large, > deep sulfur spring. Every morning I rode to the spring before breakfast. I stripped in the > open air and jumped into the spring. I stood for a few minutes in the ice-cold water up to > my neck. As cold weather approached frequently found think ice in cow tracks around > the spring box. Soon I began to gain flesh and unfavorable symptoms faded away, and > since then the only sign of consumption has been an old scar tissue at the top of one > lung." He does not advise consumptives to follow his experience. Their treatment is a > matter for their physician to decide. He does not think that he was cured by the sulfur or > anything else in the water, but thinks the daily cold baths built up his resistance, > stimulated his body vigor and thus indirectly cured him." The writer further says of Dr. > Vaughn's love for ice cold baths: "His Ann Arbor, Mich., home had a large grass > covered lawn surrounded by a high brick wall. At bedtime the boys and he would go into > the yard, strip and turn the hose on, up and down their spines. I have broken the ice to > take a plunge, diving into the cold water of Lake Superior, rush from a steam bath into a > cold pool, rolled into a bank of snow and fled to a hot bath, but I know nothing more > cooling than a garden hose played on the spines in a hot night. I believe the frequent > employment of cold baths saved my life." The doctor and I are kinfolk and he is a > truthful and a famous physician and all that, and I have great faith in him but when I take > a bath in snow or ice cold water somebody will have to throw me into it. It even makes > my teeth rattle to think of it. > The Sulfur Spring alluded to by the doctor, is situated in the flat between Bagby's > Mill and Sam C. Davis' residence. It was known and is now known as Sweet Spring, > because of a sweet taste it has. Sweet Spring Creek derived its name from this spring. > Long prior to the civil war Robert Smith, Dr. Vaughn's uncle, purchased the spring, > including an acre of ground, with the intention of making a health resort there. But he > never attempted to carry out that purpose, though lots of people drank the water and > bathed there in that day. > Dr. Vaughn has traveled extensively in foreign lands. He did his best in the > Spanish-American war and the World War. Besides his Ann Arbor home he owns a > winter home in Florida. He has two brothers and one sister living in Texas--John P. and > Marvin Vaughn, and Mrs. Bettie Stapleton. The last time I heard from John P. Vaughn, > about a year ago, he had lost his eyesight, or practically so. > To show the grit of Dr. Vaughn when a young man, I relate this circumstance. > Some years after the civil war he attended school at old Mount Pleasant College. J. W. > Terrill was president of the college at the time. Victor roomed at the home of his uncle, > John B. Taylor, in south Huntsville. On this occasion a deep snow was on the ground, > and it had not been shoveled off of some of the sidewalks in Huntsville, and there was > only a footpath on the walk. One morning Victor met a young buck negro in the path. > The negro was evidently feeling his freedom and he refused to give any part of the path, > and being larger and stronger than Victor, deliberately shoved him off the walk into the > snow, scattering his books, and then beat it. Before going to school next morning Victor > procured an old cylinder pistol, loaded it, then took it apart and put it in his coat pocket. > One his way to school he saw the same negro coming towards him. By the time the > negro got within twenty or thirty feet of him he had gotten the parts of the pistol together, > and he leveled the gun on the negro and commenced firing. The negro ran and fell over > in the snow and Victor picked up his books and went on to school, thinking he had killed > the negro, but the negro proved to be only slightly wounded, or not seriously so. > (Kathy's notes: It never ceased to sicken me, to realize how easily people in this time > period believed that a minor slight to a man or woman's honor or person, was > justification for killing someone. If he had killed this man, he probably would never > have served a day in jail.)