In 1875, Col. Leslie Marmaduke, then living in St. Louis, came to Brownsville to drink the water. On September 25, 1875, thirteen representative men of the state met in Brownsville and formed the Sweet Springs Company, a joint stock company, to bring commercial development of the spring grounds. In 1876, Marmaduke purchased thirty acres of land along the Blackwater River from Dr. John Lapsley Yantis.
Rev. John Lapsley Yantis, D.D. (1804 – 1882)
(Photo courtesy of Sweet Spring Presbyterian Church History Scrapbook written by Sarah Anderson in 1951)
In the Spring of 1841, the young wife of Rev. John Lapsley Yantis, D.D., came from her home in Howard County to visit family in the Brownsville area. Mrs. Eliza Yantis, was said to be in the third stage of pulmonary consumption and came to the area prepared to die among family.
In 1838, Steven G. Wentworth bought the Pennington land and laid out the west part of town in fourteen lots. These lots were on either side of Main Street and extended from West Street to Davis Creek. It is said that Mr. William Brown, and uncle to Mr. Steven Wentworth, paid Asa Pennington, two hundred dollars to change the name of the settlement from Clayville to Brownsville.
The history of Sweet Springs began with a settlement three miles east of town at Westbrook Ford on the Blackwater River. Edward Reavis, six members of this family, and seven Negro salves arrived in 1818 and built a house on this site. From Barren County, Kentucky, Mr. Reavis was friendly to the Indians, probably of the Osage tribe. Perhaps Mr. Reavis become best known for the salt he produced by boiling saltwater from the salt springs in large vats. With so many salt licks in the area, it seemed only natural to call the place Salt Pond.
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