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.
The following is the Treasurer's report for the month of May:
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 [email protected],
about a gift membership.
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.
