04/27/2026
Peoria Mineral Springs: The Return to Use
In the previous post in this series, we looked at the restoration of the property during the Traynor years, when the spring and its surroundings were brought back into view after a period of decline.
As that work took hold, attention began to return to the water itself, the constant presence at the center of the site.
For generations, the spring had been used in different ways. Earlier in the nineteenth century, the spring was connected to Peoria’s earliest organized water supply system, commonly known as the Peoria Water Works, when water was drawn from the site, collected into a brick reservoir, and distributed through wooden pipes to nearby homes and public buildings. Later in that century, it was gathered and bottled in the original bottling facility located in the Moss house, later associated with the Hickey period. Ransom Eaton Hickey began bottling water at the site around 1856 and died at the age of 33. The water was later carried into the city by horse-drawn wagons during the Preston Clark era, as shown in period photographs documenting wagon loading and delivery at the site.
Over time, these uses evolved through successive periods of ownership and care, from early water supply efforts to the Hickey bottling era, later commercial use under Preston Clark, and eventually the restoration and stewardship carried out by Charles and Joy Traynor.
During this time, the property was also owned by Lydia Moss Bradley, linking the site to a broader history of development and influence in Peoria.
During the restoration period of the 1970s, the spring became accessible again. The entrance was reopened, the brickwork stabilized, and the flow from the hillside could once again be reached directly. Contemporary photographs from that period show the interior of the spring’s brick reservoir and tunnel, where the water could be reached as it emerged from the hillside.
From that point forward, the water returned to a quieter, everyday use.
Five-gallon glass jugs, along with one-gallon plastic jugs, were bottled in the original bottling area of the Moss house, a space associated with the earlier Hickey period and still in use at the site. In addition to this, a side fill spout allowed local residents to bring their own containers and fill them directly at the property. By the 1980s, this pattern was well established. Rather than a formal commercial operation, use remained simple and local, shaped by the people who knew the spring and continued to return to it.
One such glass bottle, associated with a later period of use at the spring, was recently returned to the property by a local family, along with its original crate. Objects like this reflect how the water continued to move through the community during this period.
Access operated on an informal honor system. Those who came understood the history of the place and treated it with care.
Outside of the brief period of tanker supply, there was no sustained large-scale distribution or organized bottling effort. Instead, the spring remained a naturally flowing mineral spring, known locally and used by those who sought it out.
There was also a period when the water was carried beyond the immediate area in a more structured way. Under the direction of Charles and Joy Traynor, a pipeline was laid from the spring to a filling station across the street, where water was loaded into tanker trucks and supplied for use in beverage production in the Franklin Park area. This arrangement lasted for approximately one year. During that time, the water was supplied in its natural state for off-site processing, while bottling at the property itself continued under a state license. Elements of this system, including the pipeline and filling structure, remain in place today.
After that period, use of the spring returned to a more local pattern.
Charles and Joy Traynor were also featured in several local newspaper articles over the years, reflecting a growing awareness of the spring and its restoration.
Even as the property itself remained a private residence, the connection between the spring and the community continued in this quieter form. The entrance to the property, marked in stone and iron, includes a historic plaque placed at the site, reflecting its recognition as a place of longstanding local significance.
The water continued to rise from the limestone beneath the West Bluff, unchanged in its course and character.
What changed, once again, was how it moved beyond the hillside.
In the next post, we will look more closely at how the spring returned to structured bottling and local delivery, marking another shift in how this spring continues into the present.
Tobias T. Traynor
Owner & Steward
peoriamineralsprings.com
