This picture, dated September 19, 1907, shows the Carlsbad Well at 415 NW 1st Avenue, and west of the Crazy Well drinking pavilion. It was one of the first drinking pavilions in Mineral Wells, and boasted that the water "Makes a man love HIS [sic] wife, makes a wife love HER [sic] husband/ Robs the divorce court of its business/ Takes the temper out of red-headed people/ Puts ginger into ginks/ and pepper into plodders."
Shown here is a picture of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. On the back of picture is written "901 N.Oak [.] Sold to Church of Christ [.] Demolished and rebuilt." The streetcar tracks, which ran from 1907 to 1913 are visible on N. Oak in front of the church. The denomination takes its name from Cumberland Street, Philadelphia. A sub-sect of Presbyterianism--based on an Arminian interpretation of Calvinism--was begun at the church there. A Cumberland Presbyterian church is advertised as being in Newberry at the present [2014] time. The picture was taken before North Oak Avenue was paved in 1914. The Church of Christ still [2008] occupies this location on N. Oak Avenue.
A (gambling) Casino at Elmhurst Park was located in southwest Mineral Wells, Texas, at the turn of the twentieth century. The structure was a large stucco building facing Elmhurst Lake (created by a dam on Pollard Creek) in the foreground. The lake was sometimes referred to as "Pollard Lake." Elmhurst Park was served by the Mineral Wells Electric Railroad (Street Car), with whom it seemed to have had a symbiotic relationship; both came into existence about 1903, and both went out of business about 1913.
This is a photograph of James Alvis Lynch, who founded Mineral Wells in 1881, is wearing a suit, sitting on a donkey, and holding a bottle of mineral water on an unknown rocky hill.
Two people are shown standing on the wooden bridge at Elmhust Park, Mineral Wells, in 1907. A holograph inscription on the photograph that reads "Old Elmhurst Park, Allen & Charles, 1907", probably refers to the man and boy in the picture. Elmhurst Park, a very popular recreation area during its heyday, was located in southwest Mineral Wells at the end of the streetcar line. Patrons walked from the streetcar (in the background) across the wooden bridge to the Casino and other attractions.
Photograph of a group of men posing for a photograph on a firetruck. Front Row: Guy Croft, Henry Russell, J W (Buck) Thomas, Jube Warren, Holland Cogdell, Bill Deck (mask on), Bob Bozzell, Oscar Bish -Chief- , John Moore. Top Row - John Gill, Ben McGowen, D.E. Odell, Henry Briley, Arthur Ford, Arthur Howard, C.H. Alexander, Henry Hester, J.W. Birdwell, Ernest Wallace, Reginald Cogdell (driver). 18 are known to be deceased." Then, in Mr. Weaver's handwriting again, "All but three deceased."
The Carlsbad (also known as the Texas Carlsbad Well), one of the early drinking pavilions in Mineral Wells, was located at 415 NW 1st Avenue, directly across the street and west of the first Crazy Well pavilion. It was openled in 1901 by Lycurgus Smith, one of the people who claimed improvement of his health by drinking the mineral water. . The Carlsbad slogan was: "Makes a man love HIS [sic] wife/ Makes a wife love HER [sic] husband/ Robs the divorce court of its business/ Takes the temper out of red-headed people/ Puts ginger into ginks/ And pepper into plodders." The pavilion was prominent in several pictures around the turn of the century; this picture--labeled "Sept. 19/07" in ink--was from an advertisement by the Yeager Drug Company. This early pavilion had been demolished by 1911, and replaced by a larger brick structure.
Shown is a group of seven women (riding "sidesaddle" as was the fashion for women at the time), two men and a boy, all riding donkeys. A handwritten note on the photograph's mat identifies it as: "Daniel Photo 1907." The identities of the people are unknown, but the caption suggests this could have been a Daniel family outing. Riding donkeys over the "mountains" of Mineral Wells was a popular pastime of the day. The picture appears to have been taken atop East Mountain in Mineral Wells, which was a popular destination. Souvenir photographs of of the donkey trails survive from the early days. [There was a Daniel's Studio located in the 200 block of N. Oak Avenue in the early days of Mineral Wells, and this photograph is likely to have come from that collection. In which case, the group shown here could have been unrelated.]
A Major Beardsley, a Canadian who fought for Maine in the Civil War, (And reported by the Abilene "Daily Reporter" of 1905 to be of Gibstown, Iowa) was granted a franchise to construct a railway street system in 1906. He was also granted a 99-year franchise for the generation and sale of electricity in Mineral Wells. He also bought about 600 acres of land, and established three additions: Lowe Place addition, Lawn Place, Lawn Terrace, and Elmhurst Park, which came to sport a dance pavilion and a Casino. The Beardsley enterprise ended with the notice that the workers for his interurban (from Mineral Wells, Peaster, Millsap, and Weatherford) had not been paid. Beasley himself was in New Orleans at the time. Beardsley's trustee, a Mr. W.B. Smith,and the City of Mineral Wells, sued Beardsley's creditors. A judgment awarded Smith the sum of $15,000, and gave the City of Mineral Wells some sixty acres--which included Elmhurst Park. The legal battle continued beyond 1917, when the decision was reversed and remanded by the Court of Civil appeals for Texas. Number 23 trolley car is illustrated here.
This illustration is numbered "30". It appears to be a picture postcard of the entrance to Elmhurst Park, an amusement park on Pollard Creek, about five miles southwest of Mineral Wells. The park operated from 1907 to 1913 by the Electric Company,, and was a major attraction in "The nation's most popular health spa" at that time. A lawsuit was entered by he City of Mineral Wells in 1912 against the Electric Company by reason of the Company's refusal to pave its right-of-way for trolleys in the city streets, and to pave its right-of-way to Elmhurst Park. The company tried to remove all trolley tracks in reprisal, but continued to supply electric lights to the park--and to City Hall--by way of compromise.
A "Major" J[ohn]. D[avis]. Beardsley (1837-1911)--a Canadian who fought for the Union (for Maine) in the Civil war--built an electric trolley line that ran from North Oak, south to the train depot, west to Pecan Street (NW 4th Avenue), south on Pecan Street, to the ridge in the Lowe Place Addition, west to Pollard Creek, where Mr. Beardsley (as Head of the Electric Company) laid out Elmhurst Park (q.v.). A cross-line on Hubbard street ran east to Elmwood Cemetery. By the end of 1906, Beardsley owned sixteen cars, running on approximately ten miles of track right from the start. The route for this interurban was laid out by"Major" Beardsley. A man named Gid R.Turner proposed a rival line. A Weatherford newspaper of 1906 reported that an interurban, but "Major" Beardsley denied the report. (In August 1907, Turner was required by Weatherford to tell his intentions. He made no answer.) Neither line was ever built, perhaps due to the Panic of 1907, because by December of that year, the Beardsley enterprise was declared "Dead." Portions of the tracks were removed near the water wells dug by Mr. Ed Dismuke (q.v., in the description field.). Beardsley was unable to execute the re-purchase options of his he investments of "Major",Beardsley were bought by a syndicate of his creditors, including one D[avid] T[yler] Bomar, as "Major" Beardsley had obtained a loan of $200,000 from that syndicate, using his (Beardsley's) land and railroad holdings as collateral. The Fidelity Trust Company (with Bomar as president) was then set up. Beardsley was unable to execute the re-purchase option that he had set up, and the syndicate bought his properties. The quotation marks around "Major" might appear invidious, but research has not yet discovered when--or if--he was ever promoted to the level of Major. He had built two …
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