Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - June 15, 2015
The June 2015 meeting of the Madison
County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on
Thursday, June 15, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the
meeting to order.
GIFT
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE
Do you have a family member that is
interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison
County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will
be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net, about a gift membership.
June Meeting
1904 St. Louis
World's Fair
On June 15, 2015, Angela Custer, Director of
the Carrollton (Illinois) Public Library, presented Highlights of the 1904 St.
Louis World's Fair. The Program included stories of the fair's construction,
its effect on current culture, some little-known oddities, and its storied
destruction.
The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair was actually meant to be a 100-year anniversary
celebration of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 but all the arrangements could
not be completed by 1903, so it ended up spilling over to 1904. On April 30,
1904, it opened and by December 1, 1904, it closed. It took over two years to
clean it up after closing.
The fair occupied 1200 acres, which is now Forest Park and St. Louis University
Campus. Some of the individual fair buildings covered multiple acres. The
former Mayor of St. Louis and a former Senator, served as President of the Fair
Board. This was the first year that any of the world's fairs had ever been
profitable.
If you compare the St. Louis World's Fair to Disney World, the Fair is much
bigger. The Magic Kingdom covers 107 acres. The St. Louis World's Fair had
eight distinct palaces and areas. Walt Disney was inspired by the fair to come
up with his six different "Lands." In the seven months the fair was
open, 15,700,000 people filed through. In a year at Walt Disney World, during
2013, 18,600,000 people were in attendance. The cost of admission to the fair
was $2.00 - the equivalent of $10 today; an admission to Disney World is $100.
One reason that the fair was profitable, that caught Disney's attention, was
that you not only paid to get into the fair, but you paid to get into a lot of
the exhibits. It may have only been ten cents ($2.00 in today's money), but it
was in addition to just being there.
There were 1,500 buildings constructed for the fair. One hundred sculptors made
one thousand statues, including the statue of Saint Louis mounted on his horse,
which now stands in front of the St. Louis Art Museum. The statues were
originally made of plaster, but Saint Louis was so popular the plaster figure
was used to create a bronze version. Twenty million plants were used to
landscape the fair area - but thankfully, it was not there long enough to grow
weeds.
The materials were shipped in using 12,000 rail cars - 90 million feet of pine
boards made up the structure of these buildings. Smoking was permitted anywhere
on the grounds, but because of the material used in the construction of the
building, smoking was not allowed in any of the buildings. The buildings were
extremely flammable, being constructed of
"staff" - a combination of plaster, horsehair, and hemp on a pine
frame. The buildings were designed to last only a year or two, but because of
the local humidity during the time the fair was open, there was a corps of over
a thousand workmen that made repairs to the buildings daily. Although the
buildings may have been beautiful on the outside, many times, the inside was a
different matter. The St. Louis Art Museum was one of the only permanent
structures - it still stands today and is still being enlarged. The Aviary in
the St. Louis Zoo was also built for the World's Fair. Most of the roads in
Forest Park are from the fair as is the sewer system under the park.
This fair saw one of the few times that the Liberty Bell was moved out of
Philadelphia. On June 3, 1904, a huge pageant and parade of 40 Philadelphia
Councilmen escorted the Liberty Bell to be loaded on a train, shipped to St.
Louis, and then escorted the bell into the fair. After the fair was over,
Philippine Constabulary helped to escort the Liberty Bell back to Philadelphia.
The main reason for the World's Fair was to expose many people to the advances
in technology: automobile production, neonatal healthcare - there was an
exhibit of premature babies in incubators with nurses present, schooling - some
of the students from the St. Louis Public Schools were shipped out to a
classroom at the fair every day as an exhibit.
Fair Firsts: This was the first world's fair to have a lost children's bureau -
which Walt Disney also took note of. Ice cream cones, hot dogs, peanut butter,
hamburgers, iced tea, cotton candy, Dr. Pepper - this is where they hit the
worldwide market. They may have all existed (except for ice cream cones), but
the World's Fair is where they really became popular. There are many theories
on how the ice cream cone was born. Some say that because they were not
expecting such large crowds, an ice cream vendor ran out of bowls, but there
was a waffle vendor nearby that created a bowl from a waffle that could be used
to hold the ice cream and the people liked it.
The United States had acquired some territories: Philippines, Guam, Puerto
Rico, and people were curious about these foreign lands. People were gathered
from these places and brought to the fair as exhibits. Some of the imported
people were okay with this; some were exposed to new disease and didn't
survive; some felt as though they were being kidnapped; some were locked up and
treated like animals because they did not understand or did not like what was
going on. One tribe brought in had a very solemn and important religious
practice where, once a year, they would sacrifice a dog and eat it. They were
brought into St. Louis, put on display, and, unbeknownst to the Fair Board,
asked to perform their ceremony. It drew many people to watch the ceremony, so
the tribe was asked to perform it daily. It still drew lots of crowds and
people wanted to watch it, so they decided to have the tribe perform the
ceremony multiple times per day. Before long, there were many dogs missing in
the area. The Fair Board was informed and the practice was stopped.
The largest attraction at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (not counting Sally
Rand and her fans) was a huge, "observation wheel" 264 feet tall,
designed by Ferris, i.e., a Ferris Wheel. This wheel
was so large, it rotated on a 71 ton brass axle that was over 45 feet in
diameter, the world's largest hollow forging. There were 36 cars, built from
railroad cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs. There was a guide in every
car. The wheel could hold 2,160 people at once, 38,000 in a day. The Colossus
at Six Flags Over St. Louis is 180 feet tall and holds 320 people. Two
revolutions took twenty minutes. There was one price for the first revolution
and a different price for the second revolution, which did not stop.
In Chicago, after the 1893 fair, there were plans to use the giant wheel as the
anchor for an amusement park. However, some residents of a nearby area objected
after only a few years. In 1903, when the St. Louis Fair was being planned, the
wheel was taken down in Chicago and shipped to St. Louis for use at the fair.
After the St. Louis Fair ended, the giant wheel was blown up. Urban legend says
that the axle was so large they could not get it out of the park, so they dug a
hole and buried it. There are many people who have gone to Forest Park and
searched for the axle, but, to date, no one has found anything.
After the fair ended, the buildings built from "staff" were recycled
if possible; otherwise, they were just blown up and hauled off or buried.
During the demolition of the fair, people could go watch things being blown up
for an admission charge of only twenty-five cents.
This presentation was very well received and caused many questions and
comments.