There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide

New Frontiers

There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide

By Charles Shiver

Last week, I wrote in this column about Missionary Lola McCrae and Evangelist Ernestine Miller, Mrs. McCrae’s daughter, a local faith-healing team who seemed to be continuing the miraculous legacy of Ray City seeress Molly Reddick Hall and her younger sister Stella Wright from the early 20th century.

Strange connection that may bring chills:

I honestly had no idea when I published my column remembering Mrs. McCrae’s healing gifts last week on April 9, 2025, in the Adel News that Mrs. McCrae had passed away on March 31, 2025, at the age of 100!

And her burial was a few days later (after the column was published), on Saturday, April 12, 2025.

Obituary For Mrs. Lola M. McCrae

OFFICIAL NOTICE OF TRANSITION:

It is with deep reverence and heartfelt gratitude for a life well-lived that we announce the transition of Mrs. Lola M. McCrae, who was blessed with 100 remarkable years on this earth.

Born on Monday, November 10, 1924, Mrs. McCrae was a cherished resident of Lakeland, Georgia, where she spent a century touching lives, imparting wisdom, and embodying grace.

On Monday, March 31, 2025, she peacefully passed from this life, leaving behind a legacy of love and faith. As she takes her heavenly rest, we find solace in the thought that if Heaven has a rose garden, she is now among its most beautiful blossoms.

FUNERAL SERVICES FOR: The McCrae Family invited the community to join them as they celebrated the life and legacy of Mrs. Lola M. McCrae. on Saturday, April 12, 2025, at 11 a.m., at Truth Point Sanctuary in Lakeland, Georgia – (formerly Southside Baptist Church) 326 US-221, Lakeland, GA.

Following the service, Mrs. McCrae was laid to rest at Charles Knight Cemetery. The family welcomed friends, family, and loved ones to come together to honor her memory and share in the celebration of her life.

The Harrington Funeral Home, Inc. was honored to serve the McCrae family during this time of remembrance and celebration of her extraordinary journey.

May her soul rest in eternal peace

True story! A fitting tribute. God does work in mysterious ways.

When interviewed way back in August 1995, Mrs. McCrae and Mrs. Miller appeared to have brought about the recovery of Ebony Sealey, a 9-year-old Lakeland girl who had been bitten by a rattlesnake.

Mrs. McCrae, 70 at the time, of Camon’s Temple Holiness Church, told me that God had been healing people through her since 1955. She and Mrs. Miller based their work upon the Bible verse Mark 16:18, which quotes Christ as saying: “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Besides olive oil to help the infirm, Mrs. McCrae prayed over water (which the ill people drank) and handkerchiefs. Over the years, through her prayers and the blessed items, God had healed her sister in Minnesota of cancer; her husband Ernest of diabetes and an ulcer; and many more, Mrs. McCrae said. “One white man who had a stroke was healed. … A little girl stepped on a nail and (got) gangrene, and (after a session with Mrs. McCrae) the girl walked out of the house with her daddy carrying her crutches under his arm.”

Mrs. McCrae said she first used her gift after having a vision about laying hands on a baby that was “real low sick” and watching the baby perk up.

She said she was hesitant in the beginning to try to heal because she was afraid what people might say. However, an old lady, the mother of her church, warned Mrs. McCrae if she didn’t use the gift, God could take it away and give it to someone else.

The first person she says she helped was a lady whose hands were crippled by arthritis and were so drawn up that she couldn’t comb her hair.

“I rubbed her hands … and God straightened them out,” Mrs. McCrae said. “Miracles still happen today. If you want to be healed, God will heal you. God loves people, and I love them, too.”

Retelling the story about Ebony’s miraculous recovery from the snake bite reminded me of another local story from a much more distant time, when a folk remedy appeared to save a little boy from a serpent’s venom.

The Page 3 article from the Tuesday, May 31, 1898, issue of The Valdosta Times reads:

BITTEN BY A SNAKE.

Boy’s Life Saved by a Young Lady’s Timely Aid.

Cecil, Ga. (Saturday) – Luther, the little son of Mr. W.B. Lassiter, a farmer living about four miles northeast of Cecil, was bitten by a rattlesnake yesterday afternoon.

The little fellow had been doing some kind of light work in the field, and becoming warm, stopped to rest in the shade of a tree, which had been left in the field for that purpose.

Just as he was in the act of sitting down, the snake struck him on the left thigh just above the knee.

The child ran to the house and explained what had happened to his sister, a young lady of 17 years, who showed great presence of mind in quickly applying the remedies to draw the poison. All other members of the family were away from home at the time.

Miss Lassiter killed the snake, split it open with a knife, and applied it to the wound. As soon as it became cold, she caught a toad and applied it in the same way.

These, with the aid of a bottle of spirits of turpentine, withdrew the poison from the wound and today, the little fellow is resting very well.

I am NOT endorsing home remedies over antivenin in response to rattlesnake bites. I have no idea whether the bite was “dry” or not. All that information may be lost to the past.

Just trying to share some interesting articles about South Georgia’s forgotten history and folklore.

(Thanks to Barbara Langley Smith for her research.)

Still, could places in South Georgia be touched by God to offer palliatives and even cures for diseases and injuries, too? We are of course aware of Warm Springs, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt and thousands of others over the years went to seek relief for their suffering from polio. I wonder if long-vanished spring resorts, such as those in Sparks (Dixie Lake) and Brooks County (the Blue Hole, near the legendary Spook Bridge), had similar positive properties that benefited patients.

Dixie Lake was a popular entertainment center in Sparks in the 1900-1920 era. It consisted of a swimming pool with a two-story balcony and supplied by a sulphur spring, and a skating rink. Train excursions from throughout South Georgia were booked, so Dixie Lake became a place for all-day outings by groups and individuals. Did the spring’s mineral-rich waters – now long gone – have healing properties?

The Ray City History Blog refers to a Dec. 17, 1876, article headlined “The Elixir of Life” and subtitled “Consumption and Scrofula Cured” in the

in the Atlanta Constitution.

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According to the article, way back then, there was a mineral spring in Milltown (now Lakeland) in what was then Berrien County, not far from Rays Mill (Ray City), with “amazing restorative powers.” The blog asks, “One wonders if the spring was promoted strictly for the tourist trade, or was it visited by the locals of Milltown, Rays Mill, and Berrien County?”

In 1876, Dr. Charles S. Herron of Washington, D.C., brought his brother James B. Herron to Berrien County. Dr. Herron was seeking treatment for his brother’s tuberculosis in the Milltown mineral spring. James B. (J.B.) Herron, a disabled Civil War veteran, worked as a janitor for the Smithsonian Institute. He had obtained the position upon the recommendation of General (later President) James A. Garfield.

According to the article, “At Bank’s mills, near Milltown, Berrien county, Georgia, is a spring, the water of which possesses very decided medicinal properties.  The value of the water for the relief and cure of disease is, I believe, of quite recent discovery.”

The article states that J.B. Herron had been wounded in his lungs some years earlier by a bullet during the War Between the States, and that had contributed to his breathing problems. “…He could not speak above a whisper without bringing on a paroxysm of coughing. I had the counsel of the best medical talent in this city in his case, but the treatment proved only palliative. His case was considered hopeless, and I was told he could never recover.”

Dr. Herron states: “When we left this city it was not expected that he would return alive, and on the way persons who saw him predicted that he was beyond all earthly remedies.
“We arrived at the spring on the 20th day of January, and he immediately commenced to use the water.  For a few days I could discover no change in his condition, but in about a week the change for the better was very marked. His circulation improved rapidly, night sweats were arrested. His cough gradually subsided, and there was a better performance of the principal functions of the body generally. He regained his appetite and strength. His vitality was raised, and there was a rapid renewal of life. He returned home in March, and has not been absent from the institution on account of sickness a day since his return.

“I used the water freely myself, and its effects were soon very perceptible. I became rapidly invigorated. There was a renewal of mental and physical activity, and I could perform more labor with less fatigue than I had been able to do for years.
“I have no personal knowledge of other cures affected by the waters, but I have been informed of quite a number of well authenticated cases, principally of pulmonary and scrofulous diseases, and also a number of very aggravated cases of deranged menstrual function in females and diseases resulting therefrom, and in every case of this nature, in which the water has been tested, it has proved specific. …”

According to Dr. Herron, “The spring is the property of Henry Banks, Sr., of Atlanta, Georgia. The accommodation for cure can be had in the neighborhood at very reasonable rates. Valdosta, on the Atlantic and Gulf railroad, is the nearest station from which conveyance can be readily obtained. What I have written is entirely in the interest of invalids, as I have no pecuniary interest whatever in the spring. But I have an interest in it far above any pecuniary consideration, for under my own eyes I witnessed its curative effects in case of one who is very dear to me, who, from a condition considered hopeless one year ago, has been restored, and is now enjoying a reasonable degree of health and strength.”

J.B. Herron passed away at the age of 43 on April 9, 1882, after having served as a Honor Guard member for President Garfield’s remains that were lying in state at the Capitol in Washington. You can’t help but think Herron might have lost his will to live in the wake of lingering grief over his beloved President’s assassination by disgruntled office seeker and gunman Charles Guiteau.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were still fountains flowing deep and wide in this area that could heal people of modern plagues like cancer and heart disease, rather than relying on the horrors of chemotherapy and surgery? Maybe the Fountain of Youth that the Spanish conquistadores were looking for when they roamed through this area hundreds of years ago really did exist.   

But curing someone of physical illness and reversing the horrible effects of aging may be child’s play compared to removing deep scars from the mind and soul after witnessing the deaths of loved ones, or witnessing bad people make fun of others’ suffering, as well as more terrible traumas.

No sip from a magical spring can heal the effects of the sick modern world. Only the cool, calming hand of the Great Physician on your troubled brow can ease that deepest pain.