In early 1882, three would-be entrepreneurs from Illinois, Dr. Henry Clay Fish, Richard P. Dobbs, and James G. Christian, tested the waters of several springs in Perry County. Two springs known today as Lithium Springs proved to contain a variety of minerals, including a small quantity of Lithium, that some experts credited with healing properties. Thus, the commercial venture that became Lithium Springs was born.
Charles F. Lawrence, a German immigrant, purchased the land in 1880. With the discovery of the springs’ mineral content, he established the village in 1882. The name proposed was “Magnetic,” but when another Missouri post office proved to have that name, Lawrence put forth the name “Lithium.”
The development of the town progressed rapidly from the laying of the first building foundation on April 26, 1883. Soon a hotel, three boarding houses, a store, blacksmith shop, sawmill, butcher shop, livery and feed stable, grist mill, and distillery followed. Publicity credited the water with curing rheumatism, chronic sore eyes, nervous complaints, and other illnesses. The booster spirit had taken off!
By August 1883, three hotels and a bathhouse with five bathrooms, each furnished with hot and cold spring water and a needle shower bath comprised the resort. Newcomers intended to build residences, and one group investigated building rental cottages. Curiosity seekers converged on the town from nearby communities, to take the waters or just to sightsee.
The developers issued a prospectus in October 1884 touting the heathy and pastoral features on Perry County, which they painted as “indeed a land flowing with milk and honey with scarcely a population yet to claim it.” They invoked a fictional tradition that the site was a camping ground of the Shawnee and Delaware who used the waters for recuperation and health. They touted the picturesque surroundings and streams filled with fish, and caves in the area with a history of romance and native legends. Moving from the humbug to reality, they outlined the newly built accommodations for visitors and plans for future development.
However, the initial effort at development stalled. The relative isolation of the site, lack of funds to maintain necessary conveniences and advertising, and fewer clients than expected resulted in the resort being unprofitable. The hotel functioned under several consecutive ownerships, but the bathhouse fell into ruin by 1890. A railroad finally reached Lithium in 1892, initially the Houck-owned Cape Girardeau and Northern, but later styled Chester, Perryville, and Ste. Genevieve.
Periodic efforts tried to resurrect the venture. A refitting of the bathhouses occurred in 1893 and an 1896 proposal to bottle and sell the water and raise a bathhouse never materialized. An organization formed in early September 1906 to develop and advertise the spring. It secured a 20-year lease and tunneled back to the bluff to improve flow, built a basin, and proposed a new hotel and sanitarium. Piping and concrete work at the spring made it more convenient and scenic. A granitoid walk was to be built to the spring. None of these efforts improved the resort’s performance.
The final attempt to operate the resort was in 1923, when Lawrence’s grandson Clarence A. Weisbrod and others proposed leasing the hotel and erecting bottling works and bathhouses. This proposal never gained any traction. Today Lithium is a small village, with a cupola in the park over the springs and 100 residents. St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, established in 1906, closed in 1985, and Lithium Baptist Church, established in 1885, still holds services for its active congregation.
