Bear Lithia
Spring is a natural feature that figured in the earliest chapters
of the European settlement of Rockingham County.
Shenandoah Valley historian John W. Wayland records that in 1741
the spring was acquired along with 820 acres by the German-born
Adam Miller (circa 1700- circa 1780), whom Wayland regarded as
apparently “the first settler of Rockingham and adjacent sections
of the Valley.”
Adam Miller,
who appears to have been the first settler of Rockingham and
adjacent sections of the Valley, was probably born at
Schreisheim, Germany about the year 1700. He came early in life
to Lancaster County, Pa., with his wife and an unmarried
sister. Later, going to Williamsburg, Va., he heard of the
beautiful valley between the mountains from some Spotswood knights,
and followed their path westward, crossing the Blue Ridge at Swift
Run Gap.
He secured
first the “uppermost of the Massanutten lots,” near the present
Page County line. Adam Miller was living on this tract in 1764 when
he sold 280 acres thereof to his son-in-law, Jacob Bear. Here Adam
Miller lived till he died about 1780. Adam Miller was a
soldier in the French and Indian War, as shown by the military
schedule for 1758 in Hening’s Statutes. In religion he was a
Lutheran, and was probably buried at St. Peter’s Church, four miles
north of Elkton.
By the late
1860s the spring had come into the possession of Jacob Bear’s
grandson Adam Clark Bear (1820-1906), who owned it as part of a
tract of just over 289 acres. The tract was described as “Bon Air”
or “Bon Air Springs”, named after the nearby house known as
Bon Air (circa 1870). The spring was known as such until the
1890s when the name changed to “Bear Lithia
Springs.”
In 1887 Adam
and his wife, Susan (Long) Bear, leased Bear Lithia Spring to
Harrisonburg attorney William B. Compton and an associate, John R.
Jones. The arrangement with Compton and Jones was one of several
the Bears made to market the spring water, which was sold in
vessels labeled with a bear insignia. In 1899 Adam Bear granted a
thirty-year license to the Bear Lithia Water Company to sell the
water.
The company,
headed by A. G. Dickenson of New York, erected a bottling plant
beside the spring and began shipping water out in 1906. According
to Elkton historian R. B. Hutton, “A special glass lined tank car
was made to ship the water to New York.” The proximity of the
Norfolk and Western (now Norfolk & Southern) rail line, which
was constructed through the tract in 1881, was key to the success
of the operation, and in fact a spur line was built up to the
spring to facilitate shipping.
A 1936 Works
Progress Administration report on the spring and its “pure limpid
crystal water” described it as a treatment for “different diseases
such as kidney and bladder trouble and dyspepsia, nervous
dyspepsia, gout, rheumatism, bright disease and several other
diseases.”
The nearby
house, Bon Air, was home to summer boarders, the most famous of
which was Confederate General
John Singleton Mosby (1833-1916). Mosby was a frequenter of
spring resorts and, like many of his contemporaries, believed in
the therapeutic properties of water. At the end of his life he
suffered from a skin complaint and constipation, conditions that
were treated by imbibing or bathing in mineral-rich water. In June
1913 he lodged at the Elkton Hotel in Elkton and wrote to a
grandson “I am improving in health every day.” The hotel stationery
on which he wrote claimed that Lithia water from a spring in Elkton
was “used in the Hotel for all purposes.”
Also nearby is
the Bear family cemetery, in which Jacob Bear is said to be buried.
He died May 17, 1827 aged 61 years, 5 months, and 17 days. Also, 20
privates and one officer of the Union Army are said to have been
buried there, having died in the Battle of
Port Republic in June of 1862.
Bear Lithia
Spring was covered by a low cylindrical concrete enclosure built by
then owner Coors Brewing Company. The enclosure was constructed
above a circular stone curb dating to the historic period. Today
the spring, which is generally reported to have an output of about
three million gallons a day, and the cemetery are owned by the
Town of
Elkton.
Bring your own
bottle for an on-premises drink or for some to go. Many locals
still do. I remember well my Grandfather, Basil Miller, taking
trips from Shenandoah to the spring in his 60-something Chevy
Impala to fill the glass bottles of spring water that always graced
his icebox. Try it for yourself. It's permissible and
refreshing.
There may be
some daytime activity of local water haulers, but there's enough
for you to look at while they fill up. Why not sit a spell on
the old bench and sip the aqua geo.
You will need a
pen or pencil. This is a nano. The trick to getting the log back in
is to put the log in the lid first, not the
container.
A bonus history
gem is the cemetery located at 38o 26.083
N 0780 37.107 W. Buried there
are descendants of the Miller and Bear families. It looks risky to
trod through the field, but the Town of Elkton owns a right of way
to it directly from the cache site.
This cache
is off limits after 11:00 p.m.