The Sweet Springs of Western Virginia: a Bittersweet Legacy (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780788450051)

In The Sweet Springs of Western Virginia: A Bittersweet Legacy, Dr. Gish leads readers on another early nineteenth-century stage journey, this time to the Sweet Springs of Monroe County, West Virginia. An outgrowth of her previous publication, Virginia Taverns, Ordinaries and Coffee Houses: 18th-Early 19th Century Houses of Entertainment Along the Buckingham Road, research on the Sweet Springs uncovered a story so compelling as to deserve a publication of its own. This story involves the original owners of the Springs, the Lewis family, as well as members of the Thomson family of South Carolina. The complex interplay between these two families during the economic "Panic of 1837" heightens the story of Dr. John Benjamin Lewis's struggle to save the Sweet Springs from total destruction. Dr. Gish holds degrees from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Northern Colorado. In addition to Virginia Taverns, Ordinaries and Coffee Houses

(Heritage Books, 2005), she has written Hobson's Chapel: 18th-19th Century Settlement Along Branches of Deep Creek, Cumberland/Powhatan Counties, Virginia (Dietz Press, 1997) as well as numerous newspaper and periodical articles. Numerous photographs and a full name index add to the value of this work.