This Month in St. Louis History

Aviation and civil war history

An aviation pioneer with ties to St. Louis made an important test of his glider design in 1896. And "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a key figure in the Battle of Centralia in 1864.

The 1904 Olympic Games ended it run in St. Louis in September. It was one of the features of the 1904 World's Fair, which was held in what is now Forest Park.

These are some of the highlights of St. Louis and Missouri history provided to Young Saint Louis.com by the Missouri History Museum. Why not make a habit of visiting the Museum's website at www.mohistory.org.

Octave Alexander Chanute

Octave Chanute was born in France in 1832. But, he was a naturalized American citizen during much of his working life.

He was a self-taught civil engineer and active in railroad construction. One of his methods of preserving wood for use as railroad ties is still in use today. That's when an oil product called creosote is forced into wood under pressure.

That process lengthens the life of the railroad ties.

His work in aviation centered around his design and building of gliders. Those were machines capable of flight but without engines. He also contributed to advances of control and stability of flying machines.

The St. Louis connection comes from the fact that one of his gliders was a big attraction at the World's Fair. The glider was a twin-winged model that was launched like you launch a kite.

But, rather than you running to get the kite aloft, the glider was pulled by a 400-foot rope tied to a giant winch that reeled in the rope.

For more about the history of flight, see www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/exhibits/chanute3.html.

William T. (Bloody Bill) Anderson

One of the most notorious Southern raiders during the Civil War period in Missouri was William T. Anderson.

He grew up in Huntsville, Mo. But, it was the massacre at Centralia, Mo., in September, 1854, that helped to solidify his nickname.

He was in command of a band of 350 "bushwackers" when he raided Centralia. First, he robbed two stores and dozens of homes. Then, he robbed a stage coach and held up a train.

On the train were 23 unarmed federal soldiers. He killed all but one of them with firing squads.

He then set a trap for a force of Union soldiers who were supposed to hunt him down. Anderson killed 123 of those soldiers.

His raiding spree came after he claimed the Union was responsible for the death of one of his sisters.

After Centralia, Anderson lived just one more month. He was trapped by a Union patrol and killed.

For more about the civil war, visit www.civilwarhistory.com/quantrill/anderson.htm.

1904 Olympic Games ends in September.

The 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis ran from August 29 through September 3, 1904.

This was the first Olympic Games held in the United States after the Games were revived in 1896. They were held in conjunction with the 1904 World's Fair.

Most of the Games events were held at Francis Field, the stadium on the campus of Washington University.

For more about the Games and the World's Fair, see the second part of this history feature. YSL.com features each month a story of World's Fair trivia from a book by St. Louis author Joe Sonderman. See below.

Phoebe Wilson Couzins

Phoebe Wilson Couzins was born in St. Louis on Sept. 7, 1842. When she was admitted to the Washington Law School, she was the first American woman to be offered an education in the law.

She became the second woman in the U.S. to graduate from law school. She also was the second to be admitted to a bar association. She was the third woman allowed to practice nationwide.

Couzins didn't practice law for very long. Rather, she became one of the first women in the National Woman Suffrage Association. That's the organization of Susan B. Anthony that fought for women's voting rights.

For more about Couzins, see www.umsystem.edu/whmc/mohist/sept8.html.

 

From "St. Louis World's Fair 365"

Bullfighting, corsets and
Olympic golf during September

There was a little bit of everything happening in September at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The bullfighting exhibitions were closed, corsets were exhibited on live models and the last Olympic golf competition was held.

Also, the 100th anniversary celebration of the Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery was held at the Oregon exhibit. About 800 members of Merriwether Lewis' family lived in St. Louis.

These are just a few of the more than 100 items listed in the September chapter of the book, "St. Louis World's Fair, 365."

(St. Louis author Joe Sonderman has put together a book of trivia about the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. He granted permission to Young Saint Louis.com to quote some of the monthly items. If you would like a copy of the book, check local book stores or the www.booksonstlouis.com website.)

Here are 10 of the September items from Sonderman's book:

Sept. 1, 1904: Records were falling at the Olympic Games. Ralph Rose of the Chicago A.A. set a record for putting the 16-pound shot. Archie Hahn, "The Milwaukee Meteor," set an Olympic record for the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.6 seconds. Perikles Kakousis became the first Greek to win a medal, hefting 246 pounds on the barbell.

Sept. 3, 1904: Local forecaster E.H. Bowie confirmed that St. Louis had been blessed with great weather for the fair. Bowie said that the summer of 1904 was the coolest since 1875. The average high was 74.27 degrees for June, July and August, which certainly helped attendance.

Sept. 8, 1904: Governor Dockery and State Attorney General Crow were fighting to close down the bullfight exhibitions, which had resumed near the Skinker entrance to the fair. After seven performances, Sheriff E.C. Henken of St. Louis County arrested the ticket sellers and the chief of the capeadores.

Sept. 13, 1904: The Negritos won a fire-making competition against the Ainus of Japan and the African pygmies. The Negritos used friction between bamboo sticks to get a spark in 58 seconds. They had a fire going in less than two minutes. Anthropology Professor Frederick Starr said it was apparent that the Negritos were a more developed race.

Sept. 15, 1904: The Cummins Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World show presented a special recreation of Colonel Custer's Last Stand. Colonel Frederick Cummins himself played Custer. Cummins claimed some of the Indians in the show had taken part in the massacre at the Little Big Horn.

Sept. 15, 1904: Louis G. Madrigal, a 19-year-old deaf mute from Peru, arrived after walking 7,600 miles from Lima. He started out on September 9, 1902. Madrigal couldn't tell about his trip, but he carried 14 books. Those books included documentation from towns he passed through, including the signatures of three South American presidents.

Sept. 20, 1904: The noted French aviator Hippolyte Francois arrived with his airship, the Ville de St. Mande, named in honor of the village that helped him build it. Hippolyte's ship was far and away the largest at the fair. The gasbag was 100 feet long and 35 feet in diameter. A trench had to be dug to get the ship out of the aerodrome.

Sept. 22, 1904: For the first time in St. Louis, corsets were exhibited on live models. The International Society of Dressmakers presented a demonstration in "The New York style." Mrs. Helene C. Crosby fitted corsets on models, "both thin and fat." Male reporters were barred from the demonstration, but were allowed to view the before and after effects.

Sept. 23, 1904: Lewis and Clark Centennial Day was observed with a celebration at the Oregon Building. The building was a replica of the expedition's 1805 winter quarters, Fort Clatsop. A reunion of the Lewis family took place at the Camp Lewis tent city. It was reported that there were some 800 members of the family now living in St. Louis.

Sept. 24, 1904: George S. Lyon of the Toronto Golf and Country Club won the Olympic Golf Championship, defeating American Champion H. Chandler Egan. Heavy rain in the morning kept the gallery at Glen Echo Country Club down to about 100 people. It marked the last time golf was featured as an Olympic sport.