Back in the 1980’s my husband’s grandfather, Otis Sylvester Garrett, shared some photos with me that had belonged to his mother, Margaret Susan Hancock Garrett. The envelope contained about thirty-five photos of Margaret’s Hancock family members around Dekalb County Missouri. I would estimate that most of the photos were taken in the 1920’s and 1930’s. At the time Otis showed me the photos, I had negatives and copies made at a local photo store, and then returned them to Otis. Otis Garrett died in 1994, at the age of ninety-nine years, and I don’t know where the photos are today. But, I am so thankful for the copies I made. Recently I have digitized the copies for storage and sharing on my Family Stories website.
The earliest notes I have on the Hancock family introduce Edward Hancock and his wife Jemima White who were living in Scott county Kentucky in the 1850’s. Edward Hancock was noted as a wagon maker. By 1860 the census places them in Daviess county Missouri with four of their younger children still in the household. My husband’s family branch comes down from their son, Richard White Hancock, who lived most of his life in the adjoining counties of Daviess and Dekalb in the northwest corner of Missouri.
Richard White Hancock, and his wife Elizabeth “Betty” Taylor, were the parents of nine identified children. Six of these children, along with their spouses and offspring, are the subjects of the photograph collection. At the Family Stories website, you can find these photographs among the families of Kate Hancock (Henry Murray); Ben Hancock (Stella Peaslee); Julia Hancock (Worthy Redman); Jack Hancock (Alice Estes); Spencer Hancock (Vesta Fisher); and Fred Hancock (Fannie Baker).
The photos are representative of everyday farm life in rural Missouri – couples, children, and cousins, doing the things that families do – with horses and cars, washtubs and hogs. It is a lovely collection of photos. Besides running their farms, several of the Hancock men were involved in construction, and there are photos identifying Hancock building projects. Like their wagon-making ancestor, the Hancock’s were noted as builders. One of the more thought provoking photos remembers Vesta Fisher Hancock and her young son Randall visiting Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City, shortly after the 1928 death of her husband Spencer Hancock, at the age of forty-six.
Finding ancestor photos has been an inspiring piece of the family history puzzle. Perhaps this blog post will be the spark that reconnects a Hancock descendent with faces from their past.
For more details on Richard White Hancock and his family, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.
Moving back in time: Margaret Susan “Maggie” Hancock 1869 (wife of Isaac Sylvester “Ves” Garrett) > Richard White Hancock 1845 > Edward Hancock 1808.
Charles William Fry (1842-1922) was one of seven sons of Philip Slaughter Fry and his wife Pamelia Anderson. He grew up in Orange county Virginia, and at the age of seventeen or eighteen he set out to teach school in Chicot county Arkansas. It is not certain what drew him there, but he clearly had a relationship with the Abner Gaines family (former Virginians), with whom he lived. He returned to Virginia for the term of the Civil War, and served with distinction. But, following the war he again made his home in Arkansas, where he married Fannie Davies, the daughter of Anthony Harpin Davies and Mildred Pollard Gaines. Fannie Davies Fry died young, leaving him with two children. A more detailed biography of Charles William Fry can be found at the Family Stories website.
Charles Fry was known by friends as “Willie” Fry, and by family members as “Uncle Willie”. Many records show him as CW Fry. Willie Fry remained in Chicot county Arkansas for a number of years after his wife’s 1870 death. He never remarried. In 1878 he determined to remove to Hot Springs Arkansas, and following up on the “family tradition”, became involved in the Hot Springs bathing, health, and tourist industry. Charles William Fry was a resident of Hot Springs Arkansas for more than forty years.
In 1832 the US Congress set aside the area now known as Hot Springs National Park to preserve the springs for public benefit. Because the land was reserved for federal use, it became known as the Hot Springs Reservation. But, despite this designation, many private citizens laid claim to land, and by 1875 there were “five bath houses, twelve good hotels, and many smaller hotels and boarding houses” making use of the Springs. Finally, in 1877, the US Supreme Court ruled against the private land owners, and the government established greater control of the area.
CW Fry served the Hot Springs community in a number of capacities - real estate agent, circuit court clerk, and early bath house operator. He may have been attracted to the area by his mother-in-law’s brother, William Haney Gaines, a significant figure in the development of the Hot Springs bathing and tourist industry. In 1888, CW Fry was identified as the manager of the newly built Horseshoe, along bath house row. Albert Belding Gaines, son of William Haney Gaines, was one of the primary owners. The Horseshoe was named for its Moorish, horseshoe shaped windows – and it charged $3.50 for a series of twenty-one baths. An 1890 report to the Secretary of the Interior states:
It [the Horeshoe] obtains water from the spring at the northeast corner of Big Iron. There is no cut off valve. This being one of the new houses, it is in a fair state of preservation and with proper attention and repair will probably last from eight to twelve years yet. The management seemed to be better than the average.
By the 1880s much of the bathing was overseen by physician who prescribed detailed regimens for the “invalid”. The hot baths were usually taken once a day for three weeks, when a rest was necessary . A second three weeks' course was then taken, followed again by an abstinence from bathing for several days. The usual stay at the springs was from one to three months. Drinking the water, taking supplemental medicines, resting, and participating in light exercise were all a part of the healing process. Vapor cabinets also became popular. Beyond the bathhouse activities there were all kinds of amusements and entertainments to enliven the visitors.
Willie Fry eventually managed two of the largest Hot Springs establishments, the Majestic Hotel Baths and the Arlington Hotel Baths. The Arlington, which still graces the Hot Springs Historic District, was originally opened in 1875, and was rebuilt in a much grander style in 1893. The finance partners were Samuel Fordyce, William H Gaines, and Samuel Stitt (married to William Gaines sister). The 1893 building was under the management of CW Fry around the turn of the century.
The history tab of today’s Arlington Hotel website gives this description of the 1893 structure:
The original building was razed to make way for a new 300-room Spanish Renaissance structure in 1893. The new Arlington was referred to as “the most elegant and complete hotel in America” in Charles Cutter’s 1892 Guide Book. Designed in three sections, but with five levels, the “new” Arlington featured a spacious veranda with arcades running the full length of the hotel. Photographs and records in the 1894 and 1896 Cutter’s Guide show a rotunda, grand ornamental oak stairway circling a beautiful glass dome, the lobby, a pink parlor, and grand ballroom. The building was destroyed by fire April 5, 1923.
Charles William Fry died on the 6th of September 1922, seven months before the burning of the Arlington Hotel. He is buried in Hot Springs’ Hollywood Cemetery.
For more details on Charles William Fry visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.
Further Reading:
The Hospitality of “Bathing” – The Fry Family, part 1
Bath House Row; from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
About the photos:
Bath house row, Hot Springs, Arkansas; Detroit Publishing, c.1900; Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress.
note – This lovely photo from the LOC collection is of the Horse Shoe Hotel on Bath House Row. It has been identified from a less accessible photo that describes the horseshoe shaped window.
Moving back in time:
Charles William Fry 1842 > Philip Slaughter Fry 1801 > Reuben Fry 1766 > Rev Henry Fry 1738 > Joshua Fry c.1700.
Charles William Fry is my 2nd great-granduncle.
In the early years of my family history searches it was mentioned that my greatgreat-grandfather’s brother, Charles William Fry, operated a bath house in Hot Springs Arkansas in the 1880’s and 90’s. This seemed an intriguing story, and I thought I would pursue it someday. Eventually I did learn a bit more about Uncle Willie Fry’s bath house, and as I studied my more extended Fry family I discovered that “the hospitality of bathing” was rather a family tradition. Actually, Charles Fry’s great-uncle had operated a bath house in Virginia in the 1830’s and 40’s, and Charles’ father and a cousin were invested in other Virginia bathing projects.
The first bath house to come under the Fry family influence was located at Warm Springs in Bath county Virginia. John Fry, “proprietor”, was born about 1775 in Albemarle county Virginia, son of Rev Henry Fry and Susan Walker. He married Deborah Haywood (Heywood), and by 1820 they had taken up residence, with their eight children, in Bath county.
It is difficult to say exactly when John Fry took over the running of the Warm Springs, but it was probably during the 1820’s. Perceval Reniers’ 1941 account of the Virginia Springs area gives delightful “snapshots” of Colonel Fry and his Springs:
People loved the Warm as they did the companionship of an old friend, for its very homeliness, for the luxury of the pool, for the food and particularly for Colonel John Fry. As long as that short-legged, fat, joking, jumping-jack of a man was on hand, the huts and mean pillows could be overlooked . . . Even Harry Humbug . . found handsome things to say of Fry: “one of the most polite, accommodating and facetious landlords that ever lived”.
Further extracts from Reniers’ book, related to Warm Springs, can be found under John Fry at the Family Stories website. Long after John Fry’s death in 1844, the Warm Springs resort became known as Jefferson’s Pools. The Gentlemans and Ladies Bathhouses still stand today, but in a poor state of repair. In the 1960’s the bathhouses were placed on the National Historic Register, but in 2017 they were closed from public use. Preservation efforts are under discussion.
The second Fry family “bathing” story centers on John Fry’s nephew, Philip Slaughter Fry (1801-1859). He was the son of Reuben Fry and Anne Coleman Slaughter, and he served as Clerk of the Orange county Virginia courts for more than thirty-five years. Philip Fry never operated a bath house, but he was an investor in the development of Rawley Springs in Rockingham county Virginia. Rawley Springs saw its first commercial use as a spa in the 1820s, mostly under the hands of the Waterman and Sites families. Then, “in 1836, Sites sold a one-half interest in the property to Philip Fry and John Blakely, from Orange County, for $1250.” It is not clear what involvement Philip Fry had as an investor, but over the next twenty-five years the area saw many changes. Rawley Springs was never large, or grand, but it prompted plenty of visitors to its “healing waters” in the 1840’s and 50’s. Following Philip S Fry’s death in 1859, his ownership was sold off to several newer investors who carried it forward to its “heyday” in the 1880’s.
About the same time Philip Fry was promoting the Rawley Springs enterprise, a Fry cousin was discovering his own water connection - Fry’s Spring – today a historic neighborhood in Charlottesville Virginia. In the 1850 Virginia census, James Francis “Frank” Fry owned substantial real estate in the area of Fry’s Spring valued at $15,000. Frank Fry (1799-1880) was the son of Henry Fry and Mildred Maury, and the great-grandson of old Joshua Fry. He came into possession of the Fry Springs property in the 1830’s, when it was conveyed to him by his father-in-law, Nelson Barksdale. About 1839 he built his home there, known as Azalea Hall. There is no clear story of when the nearby spring – actually two abundant natural springs - became known as Fry’s Spring. There is no evidence that Frank Fry ever operated a bathing establishment connected to Fry Springs, but in the latter part of the 19th century his successor (and likely cousin), S Price Maury, set out a plan under the guise of the Jefferson Hotel and Land Development Company. His grand plans for a hotel, lake, and summer cottages never met with much success, but it did lay the ground work for what latter became the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. Today Fry’s Spring neighborhood is a National Register Historic area.
This Fry family penchant for bathing carried forward. Uncle Willie Fry’s bath house in Hot Spring Arkansas is the subject of an upcoming blog post.
For more details on John Fry, Philip Slaughter Fry, and James Francis Fry visit their pages at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.
Further Reading:
Taking the Cure - Colonial Spas, Springs, Baths, and Fountains of Health; Harold B Gill Jr; published in the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, 2002.
19th Century Watering Holes – From Infirmary to Social Itinerary 1820-1870; from the Newport Mansions website; includes a drawing of the Warm Spring Spa.
The Springs of Virginia: Life, Love and Death at the Waters, 1775-1900; Perceval Reniers, 1941.
Historic Jefferson Pools Suffering from Neglect, from the blog of The Cultural Landscape Foundation; 10 December 2012.
Mixing Pleasure and Profit at the Springs: The Harrisonburg-Rawley Connection; Diane Rafuse; published in the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society News, Spring 2009. (available online)
Fry’s Spring Historic District; adapted from Maral S. Kalbian and Margaret T. Peters’ nomination document, 2014, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
About the Photos:
This photo of the Gentleman’s Bathhouse at Warm Springs (Bath County Virginia) was probably taken in the mid-20th century. It appears on many websites and blogs around the internet, but I have not been able to apply original source information. Today the Warm Springs resort area is known as Jefferson’s Pools.
Fry Springs Neighborhood sign, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Moving back in time:
John Fry 1775 > Rev Henry Fry 1738 > Joshua Fry c.1700.
James Francis Fry 1799 > Henry Fry 1775 > Rev Henry Fry 1738 > Joshua Fry c.1700.
Charles William Fry 1842 > Philip Slaughter Fry 1801 > Reuben Fry 1766 > Rev Henry Fry 1738 > Joshua Fry c.1700.
Philip Slaughter Fry is my 3xgreat-grandfather.
