WEST ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —
EDITOR’S NOTE: Everyone has a story — some more well-known than others. Across Western North Carolina, so much history is buried below the surface. Six feet under. With this series, we introduce you to some of the people who have left marks big and small on this special place we call home.
Cornelia Catherine Smith Henry (1836-1917) is buried in Acton United Methodist Church Cemetery, and her husband, William Lewis Henry (1823-1900), is buried in Historic Sulphur Springs Cemetery.
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The Henrys, led by patriarch Robert, were the hub of the Sulphur Springs community in the early 1800s. In about 1827, Henry and his slave, known as Buncombe Sam, discovered a sulfur spring around which he built what has been called Asheville’s first health resort.
Robert and Dorcas Henry’s daughter Eliza married Reuben Deaver, who became his father-in-law’s partner in the Sulphur Springs Hotel.
After Robert and Dorcas divorced in the early 1850s, Deaver and his father-in-law became embroiled in a fight over the resort property, according to the Project Muse website. Then Deaver died unexpectedly in 1852, casting more doubt on the Henry family’s ownership of the land.
“William Henry, Robert’s son, solved the problem when he bought it at auction for almost $1,400. The purchase included the hotel and ancillary land holdings, which made Cornelia’s husband a significant entrepreneur and landlord in the Hominy Valley,” the Project Muse website said.
The two-story hotel is said to have had piazzas running all around for guests to enjoy views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Mount Pisgah. There were also bowling alleys, billiard tables, shuffleboards and a large ballroom, the Asheville Historic Inns website said.
In 1861, just before the start of the Civil War, the hotel burned to the ground. William Henry’s wife Cornelia called the fire suspicious.
The Sulphur Springs property also had a mill, post office and school — Sulphur Springs Academy. Deaver had been the community’s postmaster. William Henry assumed the job after his brother-in-law’s death.
The Sulphur Springs hotel was not rebuilt until 1887 when Edwin Carrier bought the land and built a large brick hotel on the spot, calling it Carrier’s Springs. It was later called the Belmont, and in 1892 it, too, was destroyed by fire, ending the resort era on that piece of land, although the springs remained, according to the Asheville Historic Inns website.
In the 1920s, the concrete pavilion that surrounded the springs was used as a base for the Malvern Hill’s Country Club, the historic old Sulphur Springs property giving rise to today’s Malvern Hills community.
Cornelia’s journals
Cornelia, who married William Henry on April 5, 1855, kept a diary from 1861 until 1868. Karen L. Clinard and Richard Russell collected and published her writings as “Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journals and Letters of the Henry Family.”
The book revealed Cornelia’s thoughts and fears as she described her daily routines, rumors and news of the war, raids by Union soldiers, occupation of Asheville by Union troops, activities of newly freed enslaved people and troublesome times after the war. The book also contains other family letters, documents and photos.
William Lewis Henry died in 1900 and is buried in Historic Sulphur Springs Cemetery, found on a wooded hill on the Asheville School campus.
Cornelia Catherine Smith Henry was laid to rest at Acton United Methodist Church Cemetery in West Asheville.
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