| Notes |
- Ref: History of Wayne & Clay Co., IL, Illustrated, Chicago, Globe Publishing Co., Historical Publishers, 1884, pg. 189
Thomas M. Sailor, of Sailor Springs, Hoosier Township, was born in Clark County, Ohio, November 1, 1825, and is a son of William Sailor (deceased), a native of Virginia. His mother, Hannah (Sewell) Sailor, was born on the farm famous for the site of the hanging of John Brown, near Harpers Ferry, VA.
Mr. Sailors father was a tanner and currier by trade, and he also worked at that business until he was twenty-six years old. He then engaged in the stock trade in Central Ohio, and did much business there for twenty-two years. During six weeks one season he shipped 20,000 head of hogs. Then, in 1866, he engaged very extensively in the lumbering and building business in Michigan and Ohio, which he followed successfully until 1869. He lost all by the great forest fires. He then came to Clay County, and carried on farming a few years with but small returns.
But he has spent his time for the most part in developing the merits of the wonderful medical springs situated on Mrs. Sailors land on Section 25. At first, and for several years, he met with the sternest opposition. The people laughed him to scorn, and some thought he was insane. But among all the jeers and scoffs of his neighbors, he toiled on, as also did his noble wife, faithfully, until the fact had been demonstrated beyond a doubt that these springs are magnetic and wonderful in their healing virtues.
The springs were opened to the public in 1877, and Mr. Sailor with his family, in 1878, removed from the farm on the prairie to the beautiful site of these springs.
On the 3rd day of June, 1850, Mr. Sailor married Miss Rebecca J. Wilson, daughter of John Wilson, deceased. She was born, April 23, 1832, in Champaign County, Ohio. The fruits of this union are four children William W., the enterprising liveryman of Sailor Springs; Maria B., now Mrs. Manliff M. Coggan, residing on the homestead; Sarah J. and Eva D.
Ref: History of Wayne & Clay Co., IL, Illustrated, Chicago, Globe Publishing Co., Historical Publishers, 1884, pg. 299, 300 Mineral Waters
No county in Illinois is probably so well supplied in this respect as Clay. The fame of the Sailor Springs has already extended all over the country, and the healing and restoring properties of these waters are constantly working wonders. Only fifteen years ago, these now celebrated springs, where has sprung into existence splendid hotels and a prosperous village, and where, during the summer months thousands of visitors flock, were considered and called the poison springs, and the people preferred to go a long way around rather than pass them. They were supposed to be so strongly impregnated with milk-sick that they poisoned the air for a distance around. And the people fenced them up to keep their stock away from them, and by common consent they were called the "Milk-sick Springs.
In 1869, Mrs. Thomas M. Sailor exchanged property in Urbana, Ohio, for 400 acres, on which these springs were. Her husband visited the place, examined the waters, tested them and became satisfied they were valuable mineral waters, that gave only health to those who might use them and not disease. There are sixteen of these springs grouped together. Mr. Sailor had one of the largest analyzed, and, without giving the proportions, he found contained in the water sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, chlorine, sulphuric and carbonic acid. There are nearly as many different varieties of water as there are springs; and this constitutes one of the great values of them. Some of them are as fine artesian springs as have been found in the country. There is a constant emission of strong gases, which can be caught, and burns with a strong white light, much resembling the electric lights.
Two large hotels, containing together about 100 rooms, are filled during summer moths, and hundreds of people are in tents all about the grounds. New and important improvements are projected and are much needed by the constantly increasing public patronage that flows toward these celebrated waters.
|
1825 - 1902 (77 years)
