There was a small but ever flowing spring on top of a small hill in this srea and just below the spring two graves had been placed along the edge of the hill sometime during or just after the Civil War. The settlers had erected a stone tomb about these graves to keee maurading animals in the many thick forests away from the deceased. In this way, the hill and spring nearby, the cemetery place became known as Spring Hill.
W.W. Blessing came to Arkansas in 1860. The younger members of the family and the wife stayed in Little Rock while Blessing walked to Spring Hill.
A man named Bob Newberry lived there and was known to Blessing, being from the same area of Alabama. John Brinkley of Spring Hill was hired to take his yoke of oxen to Little Rock and move the Blessing family to their new home in his wagon.
This party followed the old military road to the forks when they switched to the Clinton Branch. This road went to Cypress Creek, north of Saltillo, when they turned left on the Springfield road. All of the timber here was in place. The grass was knee-high in the Cadron Bottoms.
This party forded Cadron Creek and moved on to the area of Blackfork Creek. Blessing took 160 acres on the Blackfork headwaters near the Wooley farm. Thos land cost Mr. Blessing 12 1/2 cents per acre, or $20.
There were other living here at this time. Mrs. Josephine Milam Tilley, a daughter of William and Polly Milam, was born March 21, 1855, in Mississippi, but came to this area with her parents in 1870. Another Milam family, that of James and Mary Rhea Milam, came to Arkansas in 1872 to settle near Spring Hill.
Other settlements near Spring Hill were at Needs Creek, eastward, where there was a farm owned by the Joe Cato. Joe was a left-handed fiddle player and a hunter. This part of the country was largely covered with cane and not used much for farming.
Cardin Valley was settled in the early 1860s. It was a barren area fit only for hunting. Bill Powell and a Mr. Starr were early settlers. Union Valley in the early 1860's was unsettled and was covered with thick post oak and red haw. This area was first known as Possum Trot.
No post office was ever established here. Near this spring in later years, however a log school house was erected. The benches in the plain frame log building were also of logs, split down the middle, and bored at each end for the placement of tiny wooden pegs to serve as legs.
