Hopkins Co. TX - History of the Early Hotels in Sulphur Springs From: B & J ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any historical facts in the article. History of The Early Hotels in Sulphur Springs. A letter to Mr. John C. McDonald from Mrs. E. H. Coffey of Muskogee, Okla. Printed in the News-Telegram, Sept. 1927 Esteemed Friend: I am attempting a reply to your letter of recent date asking me to contribute to the News-Telegram special an article reminiscent of the early hotels of Sulphur Springs, Texas. My first entrance to the Little City of Sulphur Springs was as a young school girl in the year 1868. I think the El Rancho Hotel was run at that time by a Mr. Vansickle (I am not positive,) it stood on Davis street, between Connally and Main streets, fronting south. I do know it was a good sized frame building and there was a small grave yard at the back of the house on Davis street. Mr. & Mrs. T. J. Glasscock used it as hotel while their family hotel was being built about 200 yards west on the Spring branch, fronting Main street, where they moved and lived until they died. So far as I know the building was never again used as a hotel, don^Òt know who owned the lots, the old house was torn down some twenty-five years ago and business houses erected on the lots. Aunt Sallie Atkins and a family by the name of Turner was in the hotel business up on Mill street for a while, it is now Main street. My uncle, Jos. W. Dabbs, and a Mr. Williams, known as Specie Williams, were in the dry good business about that time, 1868. Their stores were opposite the Mitchell Bottling Works. The Turner and Atkins Hotels were nearby. One among the first hotels must have been the Harris House on the southeast corner of Main and Davis streets. The house did not look new sixty years ago. Col. Charles Hoskins, a fine old Southern gentleman of Holly Springs, Mississippi, was in charge when I came to the city in 1868. The old timers will remember how the old Col. walked up and down the gallery and rang a loud toned bell announcing the meals were ready to be served, he also stood a the head of the table and called the bill-of-fare. To my great surprise, my husband, John S. Coffey, came home one day in the fall of 1876 and announced he had rented the Hoskins Hotel, in a short time we moved and a littler later bought the Hotel and changed the name to the Coffey Hotel; started a business we neither one knew much or anything about - but fairly succeeded. The traveling public seemed very appreciative of our efforts to please. Mr. Coffey was too timed to ring the bell or announce the bill-of-fare, so both was discontinued. In those days the coal oil lamps were the principal means of illumination and the family wash tubs brought into service the negro boys who did general service and made many honest quarters, serving the bathers. Water was carried from the Sulphur Springs for all purposes, no telephones, telegraph, waterworks, electric lights or railroads. George James Livery Stable next door furnished good teams and faithful drivers for the general public. I have often been awakened in the wee small hours by hearing the heavy trunks tumbling on the old gallery, the belated drummers coming in from Birthright, Sulphur Bluff and other places. Many fine times we had with the old time politicians like dear Old Col. D. B. Culberson when looking after their political fences, and the grand old time traveling men, the very salt of the earth. Most of them have gone to The Happy Hunting Grounds. I remember when your mother was a young lady, Miss Lou Nelson, spending the night with us on her way from Mississippi to Reily Springs to teach school , where she met and married your father, Mr. McDonald. This hotel burned in the year 1888; later it was used as business property. Next the McClimons Hotel, just north of the public square, was built and run as a hotel by Mr. & Mrs. J. H. McClimons. I think this house was opened about forty years ago or more. They were a fine successful couple. The Nunn House, belonging to and run by Uncle Hope, as he was lovingly called, located on Depot street, has been the home of many for more than thirty years. Uncle Hope left us sometime ago for the better land. Mrs. Nunn still lives in the hotel. The hotel known for a few years as the Whitworth Hotel was owned principally by John W. Whitworth, now of Waco. It was located on the south side of the public square. My husband, John S. Coffey, operated it about four or five years and it was closed as a hotel on account of high rates of insurance to the tenants on the lower floors. Hotel occupied the upstairs of several buildings. This was during the time somewhere between 1880 and 1885, I think, am not positive. Mrs. Hiram Garrison built a brick hotel on Church street somewhere about 1883 or 1884, known as the Garrison Hotel. She occupied it for a while and then rented it to different tenants. My husband rented it in 1887. Mr. Garrison and Mr. Coffey both died and were buried from the hotel in August 1888, in a week^Òs time of one another. I moved out in September 1888. Mrs. Garrison rented it for a year and later took charge and died while in charge. These dates are entirely from memory but I think approximately near correct. Yours truly, Mrs. E. H. Coffey, Muskogee, Okla.