Spring House

Back in 2005 I somehow got in touch with John Martin Schoeknect in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He was an art teacher at Morgan Butler-Middle School there.  He was also dedicated to preserving the history of Waukesha. He wrote a book entitled " The Great Waukesha Springs Era" which tells the story of about 60 mineral springs there from 1868 to 1918, This history included a long tale about the Bethesda Spring. John was very generous and sent me a copy of his wonderful book, which I will use to outline, as good as I can, the history of the Bethesda Spring.

It all began in 1834 when the United States sent a crew to survey the north country. Near the mouth of the Fox River some of the men took sick and an Indian guide informed them of a spring of great value to them. They followed his direction and soon found a spring where no less than 100 Indians were drinking, bathing in and carrying away its waters. That was the first recorded mention of the springs in Waukesha.

Spring House

John wrote " there is not a single man who changed the course of Waukesha history more than Richard Dunbar.  He gives a history of Col. Dunbar which is not of great interest here, but he notes that he was told that he had incurable diabetes and only had six weeks to live. This was around 1868. His condition made him very thirsty so he drank a lot of the Bethesda Spring water.  In reading some of the Col.'s words I find that he was the first to call the spring by that name and he said: “I called the Spring Bethesda, because the Lord was merciful to me in leading me to the healing font.  The word Bethesda signifies the House of Mercy and was the name of a pool at Jerusalem, which had fine porticoes, piazzas or covered walks around it". (John, verse two and four) He also added " I drank of the modern Bethesda. I was healed of an incurable disease, one that baffled the skill of the most scientific men, at home and abroad." The first accounts of Dunbar's cure appear in 1869. The spring was first
unnamed until Dunbar returned from New York and bought a home in Waukesha. After a few years he won out on the name. Soon the water filled wooden barrels began leaving the city. The skeptics were soon as cured as the Colonel.

Dunbar built a wooden structure over the spring. On September 2, 1878 a cornerstone was laid for a large hotel near the spring. Besides wooden barrels, the water was sold and ceramic containers and bottles. One newspaper article mentions that "at the Bethesda Springs, last week some 50 barrels were being filled with water; also some 10 cords of boxes said to contain 9,000 bottles to be filled for shipping." Business increased and on January 9, 1872 the paper reported that Dunbar was shipping 10 times the amount and it was being shipped to every state and to Europe. In June of 1872 Mrs. Abraham Lincoln came to relieve the depression she felt after the death other husband. All was not always good at the spring as there were some vandals to destroy statues, etc. There is a lot of detail that I will skip over, lots of detail not necessary to the story. Col. Dunbar died on December 15, 1878. His widow carried on until 1881 when she sold the spring to a group of men headed by Honorable Winfield Smith of Milwaukee. The business changed hands a few times. In 1889 the bottling operation was conducted on a gigantic scale. The company ordered 40 carloads of bottles from the Streeter Glass Company for four months of that year. Five thousand quarts of water were bottled each day. Each carload consisted of 125 cases of quarts or pints, each case-holding 50 or 100 bottles. John's book shows many pictures of the Bethesda products, ginger ale included, but mainly spring water. There are also pictures of the spring-house and others, like the bottling plant. In 1900 the water won honorable mention at the Universal Exposition of the French Ministry of Commerce and Industry. On July 15, 1997 the company closed.

That was a quick story of the history of the Bethesda Spring. Now I will pick up the rest of the story in New York State, as I know it, but before I start that I will tell you about a more modern Bethesda Bottle that I recently acquired from Neil Moore.  It is a ½ gallon rectangular bottle with a full label on the front and an embossed image of the spring house in Waukesha, Wisconsin on the reverse.  The label is of the old-fashioned type that shows the many medals awarded to the spring and those dates. The name Bethesda is in the large letters and in an arc across the top area. Below is a picture of the spring house and on each side of that is a story of the spring and a list of the chemicals it contained. The lower part of the label reads: PURE-NATURAL MINB8AL SPRING WATER, bottled and sealed at Bethesda Spring and Bethesda Mineral Spring Company, Bethesda Park, Waukesha, Wisconsin.  The metal screw cap shows the spring house and the words. Bethesda Spring, Waukesha. (See photo.)

There is a 2 gallon pottery jug that I got years ago from Jerry Strubel. It was made by the West Troy Pottery and has in blue, across the front, BETHESDA WATER.

There is also the C. R. Brown Bethesda Spring Water, Saratoga Springs, New York that I have. The story of that bottle has already been told. I will try not to repeat myself as I complete this story.

We know that the water was shipped to every state and that Brown, probably through the dealer CJH Bostwart of Troy, New York, tried bottling the water in his converted quart bottle for sale locally. The 2 gallon jug is also proof that the water was sent and used, at least to some extent, here in New York.

From the pictures I've seen in John's book, one could collect a lot of those bottles too. There is no end to the possibilities! It appears that C. R. Brown was smart enough to sell his Crystal Spring Water Company and try to sail the then very popular water.