10/08/2026
Red Boiling Springs Property – Part Seven
Rebuilding Once Again
December 3, 1897, at 4:00 in the morning the hotel and all but a few of the 100 cabins burned to the ground. The Red Boiling Springs Company built the hotel in 1890 at a cost of $25,000. Mr. Dedman had furnished it and now it was gone at a loss of $50,000 with no insurance.
Joseph Dedman had already made plans to move on and manage the Bethel House in Columbia and Bailey Springs in AL .
Marion J. O’Shaughnessy, nephew to J. F. O’Shaughnessy, New York Financier, temporarily took over the management. The RBS Company built a new hotel and promised to post daily bulletins about the Spanish-American War. (April – August 1898)
The society columns told of people who were going to “the Springs,” had been to the “Springs” or were staying at the “Springs.” There was one gentleman who stayed for four months. The resort was a popular “honeymoon” spot., but it was struggling.
J. H. Sabens leased the hotel for three years and then S. S. Kemp took over. Kemp advertised that they had an “excellent livery,” 20 additional cabins, a new bath house, a first-class barber. This hotel was never as large as the previous one. They were limited to about 200 guests at a time.
The railroads advertised which trains to take to get to Carthage or Hartsville and then take a hack to the Springs.* There was constant talk of getting a rail to the Springs, first one company and then another was going to do it. They surveyed land, talked about bridges, sought finances but nothing materialized. You still had to take the hack to get to the Springs.
The Red Boiling Springs Company had mortgaged the property to build and then rebuild. With a slowdown in business caused by limited space and the news of the fire they were unable to meet their mortgage payments and the company folded. J. F. O’Shaughnessy held the mortgage and in 1906, in order to protect his investment, he foreclosed on the Company and Mr. Dedman. The Court sold the property consisting in 180 +/- acres in two tracts at auction. Mr. Trabue, attorney for Mr. O’Shaughnessy, won the bid at $15,000. Mr. O’Shaughnessy already held 7/8 interest in the property, so his out-of-pocket expense was $1,875. He then in turn sold the property consisting of 196 aces +/- to the Red Boiling Springs Water Company*. B. Kirk Rankin of the Water Company offered the property for sale or lease.
In 1907 Robert McEwen leased the property. He advertised, “new buildings, new bathhouse hot & cold water, acetylene gas lights,” there was box ball* and a shooting gallery in the park where the original “little red well” was. The old log cabins were gone and a new era but short lived one had begun.
*Check the captions on the pictures
NEXT: One more fire to go
