A History Of Sulphur Springs And Sulphur Creek


By Nell Morisette
Camden, Tennessee

Hello Tribune readers, hope all are well, and wish you could have started your day off with God as I did. I went out on the porch at 6:30 a.m. with a cup of coffee. Enjoyed a half hour with hummingbirds and four other types of birds sihnging their melodies, and four squirrels in the yard. I could hear a rooster in the distance with his crowing, telling the world to wake up. Smoke from the B.B.Q. pit near my house in with the aroma of honeysuckle.

Then my mind drifted to "my angel," mygreat granddaughter Hailey Glasson, who will be three years old on May 24, and wondering what she has to face in this world. Now I better get on with my history. Most of this comes from my memory and has been passed down through my daddy, although I did have to ask Jack Farmer and Allie B. Belyew for a little help.

Sulphur Springs and Sulphur Creek

At one time James Jefferson Farmer owned the property on which the Sulphur Springs were on, but had sold it by 1933. I can remember when I was around the ages of eight, nine and ten, that my family would walk from Chestnut Hill to Harmon's Creek on Saturday afternoons. We would spend the night with Grandaddy. Mother would have food cooked that we carried with us. Grandaddy's second wife would also have food cooked and on Sunday morning would ride in the buggy and take the food, whild the rest of us would walk to Sulphur Springs.

In my memory is correct Edgar Bruce and Sophia Garner Farmer owned theproperty. SEveral surrounding communities would meet on Easter Sunday at Sulphur Springs for preaching, singings, and a good lunch under the big oak trees. During one of the times I was there Bro. Albert Melton preached.

At the Springs there were seven different types of water: alumn, copper, salt, free stone, white sulphur and black sulplhur. The s[romgs producing sulphur water and smelling like rotten eggs were the most outstanding, an they are th reason why these springs received the name Sulphur Springs. This property is now owned by Westvaco.

The springs were in the Sulphur Creek community. Its location was in the old seventh district. Some of the early settlers were John Cherry, John J. Lowry, James Nobles, Simon Nobles, and Charles Wheatley.

This was a farming community and the main crops were cotton, corn sorghum, and wheat. A Mr. Patrick owned a sorghum mill and Claude Wheatley was the barber for this community. Ther were two creeks in that area: Sulphur Creek and Little Sulphur Creek.

This community had five family cemeteries: Bullock, Forrest, Lowry, Wheatley, and Mr. Zion. THese cemeteries later became public. My g.g.g.g. grandmother Katherine Rook Cherry, and my g.g. granparents John and Milly Cherry Nobles are buried inthe Forrest Cemetery. The families never could understand why it was later called Forrest as the cemetery started as a family plot on the Nobles farm, with Cherrys and Nobles buried there.

Rachel Lindsey Lowry selected a spot for a family cemetery. She wa the wife of John Jefferson Lowry. The first person buried there was their child Margaret in 1864, then Rachel and her infant son in 1867. John is also buried there. This is the Lowry Cemetery. John J. and Rachel are my g.g. grandparents my great grandparents James and Mary Jane Lowry Nobles and my grandmother Rachel Ida Nobles Melton are buried in this cemetery as well.

There are two churches in the community: Mt. Zion and Sulphur Creek church. School was held in the Sulphur Creek at first. It was later moved about two miles west across the creek from Sulphur Springs. Water was carried in buckets by the pupils from the spring to the school for their drinking water.

Thought for the week:

Be slow to anger and quick to forgive.


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