What Next?
Our story has been a dual one first of public transportation and second of Virginia/West Virginia spring resorts. We have barely touched the surface of either topic: the literature and information, both in print and images is extensive. A more detailed examination would have been depressing, for public transit (trolleys, inter-urban tram lines, elevated trains, even urban buses, and much passenger railroad transportation) has in many places disappeared, unable to compete with the privately owned automobile. The story of the decline of the spring resorts is an even sadder one. Most disappeared almost without trace. A few have a highway department marker to indicate where they were. A few suffered a long and prolonged decline. Marshall Fishwick, making a tour in the 20th century of several of the remaining ones, as Beyer had done in the 19th century while the resorts flourished, found that in 1978 the solitary female custodian of the Sweet Chalybeate Spring would give him complete use of the single surviving cottage and the bathing pool for a mere $10. Today Sweet Chalybeate Springs is no longer in business. Monroe Countians have long followed with interest the attempts to resuscitate the Old Sweet Springs.
While these attempts are ongoing, the future of our omnibus
also remains unresolved. Numerous as were the omnibuses
Stephenson produced, by the 1890's "many ancient Stephenson
products were set out to decay in weed-covered lots." (White, p. xvi)
The one in the sketch was obviously from a trolley line with
tracks, rather than a road bus like ours, though it closely
resembles ours in most other respects.
The advertisement on the right dates from about 1855. The back
and front views at the bottom of the ad are clearly close to if
not identical to the back and front of our omnibus. We learned
from John H. White that Stephenson continued to make omnibuses
on a limited scale until late in the 1890's. A more precise
dating of our vehicle has not yet been made. As research
continues, surely much remains to be learned about the history
of our omnibus. That ours has survived begins more and more
to seem remarkable. Research has so far found only three others
still in existence. Wells College, in Aurora, NY, retains a
Stephenson omnibus purchased about 1868 by Henry Wells, founder
of both Wells Fargo and Wells College. The Shelburne Museum
collection of horse-drawn vehicles at Shelburne, VT includes
the omnibus that carried passengers to and from the Steven House
hotel in Vergennes, Vermont. A Stephenson omnibus that served
the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs has been moved to the
collection of Jack and Marge Day in Monkton, MD.
This little yellow omnibus whose driver and prancing horses
have conducted us through these pages is a late 19th century
cast iron toy. It is a reasonably good replica, right down to
the deeply curved tail at the bottom of the door, of our omnibus
in the Monroe County Historical Society. This little toy sold in
2004 at the Noel Barrett auctions, for $52,800. (Many people will
recognize Noel Barrett as the colorfully clad appraiser of antique
toys on the Antiques Roadshow TV program.) A sum of about
$50,000 has been mentioned by experienced conservators as about
what it would cost to let our omnibus enjoy once more some of
its original sparkle and flash. Monetary contributions, which
are tax deductible, may be made to: The Monroe County Historical
Society, P. O. Box 465, Union, WV 24983.