Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Sweet Chalybeate Springs Records, Accession 38-16, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

These records were given in 1935 to the Library by W.M.E. Rachal.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

The records of Sweet Chalybeate Springs , a summer resort in Alleghany County, Virginia , managed by B.F. Eakle, Jr. , consist of ca. 4500 items (5 Hollinger boxes, 2 linear shelf feet), 1892-1916, and chiefly comprises ledgers and business correspondence pertaining to the resort.

The correspondence file of B.F. Eakle, Jr. , 1895-1913, contains business letters and a few personal letters to Eakle. The correspondence of 1914-1915, also largely business, includes numerous letters to his children and friends.

The nine volumes of ledgers include check books issued by the Bank of Union , an inventory of goods with a record of miscellaneous charges, and day books showing petty disbursements, orders for horses, saddles, and buggies, and sales of candy, tobacco, and other small items. Another day book, a fragment of a single page evidently kept by B.O. Blackford , assistant manager, and George K. Anderson, Jr. , clerk, shows miscellaneous charges for eggs, potatoes, plaster, and a spigot.

The collection also contains about 700 accounts and bills, 1900-1915, and undated, and some printed matter, including brochures advertising the Springs.