Alton Evening Telegraph from Alton, Illinois • Page 91

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15,1928 ALTON EVENING RIVER SECTION PAGE THIRTEEN Wood River East Alton Hartford Roxana Section Wood River Startled Nation With Population Increase Cdpt. Moore's Account of Wood River Massacre Back in 1820, the headlines of a nation told the story of Wood River. A population of 4038.1 percent in 10 years was broadcast to the nation and that a tovn, from nothing, had the of one of the nation's finest industrial district In 10 years. The population In 1810 had been 84 and In 1920 it was 3476. To-, day it is close to 7000.

A mushroom growth? No, because Wood River, which gained so tremendously in the 10-year period from 1910 to 1920 did not cease to would invade the hills, close to two great rivers, It is the center of the vast Alton Industrial District, the chief city of four that comprise an industrial district excelled by none in the nation. The New City The outsider, looking at Wood grow, Wood River continued its I phenomenal expansion, and in the 1 past eight years has doubled Its pop- julation. i within the memory of young men 'if today Wood River was a farm. Hardly 20 years ago it was a melon patch, the sand ridge suited for the growth of melons. Then the Stan- idard Oil Co.

decided to locate a re- 1 finery there. In 1910 Wood River was Its start, with its population of 84. Wood River had Its start, a grand leap, and in JB28 Wood River is still In the full flush of youth, going strong, gaining every stride, a progressive city, a jcommunlty vision. of far-sighted people To the Standard Oil Refinery have been added other in; dustrles, and brave Indeed is he who vouchsafe a prediction as to River's future. Rich In History i Rich in history, Wood.River sees 'today fine buildings where once a brave pioneer fought off the charges the Red Man.

What once was a sand-ridge now Is a broad, paved thoroughfare. Where, hardly a generation ago, the plow cut its today stands a school, a fine block, a theater. In the early days of the eighteenth century Wood River was but a hinterland, pierced here and there by Intrepid pioneers. Here and there were small settlements and one was wiped out by Indians, as elsewhere in this issue. A point near the mouth of the stream was i the wintering place for Lewis and Clark Most of the land was a district of sandburrs and timber.

Indian mounds and relics found In the district and stories handed down by the early settlers and their children and their children's children tell the part played by the valley of Wood River In the early history of the Middle West. The country seemed picked by the Maker as an Industrial site. Be- the bluffs and the Mississippi, railroads must pass If they River, seea a city served by five railroads, a traction system and three bus lines. The Chicago Alton, the Big Four, the Illinois Terminal, thft Burlington and the Alton Eastern are the railroads; the At ton- St. Louis Railway provides passenger service, and the three bus lines give the conectlon with Its neighbors.

There Is a fine public school system, with a community high school shared with Bast Alton and Hartford, to which recently has been constructed a $100,000 addition. Three large public grade schools complete the system, All buildings are modern and finely constructed. A parochial grade school houses 200 pupils and, like the public schols, maintains the highest standards. Wood River has churches of all denominations. The churches, with are: Assembly of God, the Rev.

Marvin D. Hartz; First Baptist, the Rev. J. W. Patterson; First Christian, the Rev.

E. J. Harris; First M. the Rev. O.

F. Whltlock; First Presbyterian, the Rev. E. W. Akers; St.

Bernard's Catholic, the Rev. Father E. J. Douglas; St. John's Evangelical, the Rev.

A. H. Idecker; St. Paul's Lutheran, the Rev. Norman Wolff; United Brethern, the Rev.

Dale D. Mumaw. Wood River has a well-equipped public library, under the expert dl- 4-1-1 A rectlon of Mrs. Mabel Wolf, the librarian. Active Organisations It has lodges of the Odd Fellows, Masons, Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen of America.

Loyal Order of Moose, Pythian Sisters, Junior Order, United American Mechanics. There Is an active post the American Legion, which has contributed largely to the growth of the community; the Wood River Commercial Club is the city's chamber of Commerce whose leaders have devoted much of their time to the city's good; the Wood River Women's Club Is a civic and cultural organization to which the city points with pride; the W. O. T. U.

is an active organization. Wood River's growth has been that of the progressive city, and it has been the kind of growth that Jndi- much that Wood River needs Is grown or manufactured almost at the city's door. There are a large dairy, three large lumber yards, and an ice plant. The city has seen an era of public Improvements, It has 18 miles of sewer, soon to be augmented to twice the present capacity. Five miles of the streets are paved.

Sidewalks are being laid almost dally; new paving projects are under consideration, Wood River was first known as Benbow City, named.for the founder of a town there, who was its first mayor, the late Judge A. E. Benbow. It became the Village of Wood River and, about 1920, was Incorporated as the City of Wood River. A Growing City The city at present Is Incorporated in a one-mlle-square tract, but there Is much outlying land that Is soon to be developed Into attractive additions to the city, and much that already has been developed.

Ferguson avenue, running east and west, is the principal business street, but is hardly the "main street" since fine business houses are located on other streets, such as Lorena avenue, Haller street, Wood River avenue, Penning avenue and Sixth street. Some of the streets get their names from old residents. The late Fred Penning was one for whom a street was named. Qus Haller Is another. Within the corporate limits of Wood River is one of the largest refineries of the Standard Oil Co.

of Indiana. The first fire was put under the stills of that plant on Jan. cates permanence, an Independent It has been, too, growth, because 7, 1908, and from that date Wood River has progressed. The mayor of Wood River Is W. A.

Tipton, master mechanic at the Standard refinery, who is serving his second term. James B. Foreman Is city clerk. Other officials are: city treasurer, Fred Berry; city attorney, Francis J. Manning; police magistrate, R.

C. Wilson; oil inspector, O. A. Brown; city engineer, Thomas Hutchinson; electrical inspector, Roy McMillan; city superintendent, Marvin M. Doyle; city chemist, E.

H. Hartwlg, aldermen, William T. Marrs, Henry Schnaufer, Ben Robinson, Ed. Counsll, Clyde Borman, August Wuestenfeld, Louis Koenneke, Walter Scott. The fire chief is Carl M.

Fox, assistant, William Stoneham, drivers, Wesley Koenneker, Oerald Allen; police chief, Gottlieb Stahlhut; pa- On July 10 of this year waa ob-1 served the one hundred and four- teenth anniversary of the Wood' River Massacre, which occurred on July 10, 1814, an Indian tragedy of the early days in this section which cost the lives of seven members of three pioneer families, and an event of major historical Interest In Madison County, because it Is a striking example of what the hardy settlers faced as they won homes In this section of the wilderness at the opening of the nineteenth centry. Captain Abel Moore In an account of the tragedy which was published in the Alton Spectator, first newspaper, in 1835, says: "The tragedy took place at the forks of Wood River, two miles east of Upper The victims were the wife and two children of Reason Reagan, two children of William Moore, and my two brothers, William and Joel, sons of Abel Moore. The massacre occurred on a Sunday afternoon. Mr. Reagan had gone three miles to church leaving his wife and two children at the home of, Abel Moore, a mile from the Reagan home and half way between it and the block house.

About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Mrs. Reagan started home, Intending to return to Abel Moore's In a short time. She was accompanied by her two children, two of William Moore's and two of Abel Moore's. When it began to grow dark uneasiness was felt at absence of the Moore children. William Moore came to his brother's and not finding them there, passed on to Reagan's, while his wife started In a direct line, not following the road, for the same place.

"William Moore came back with startling Intelligence that someone had been killed by Indians. He had discovered a body which by reason of darkness and his haste he had not been able to identify. "Mr. Moore desired that his trolmen, George Relthman, Thurston, E. A.

Coblne. L. O. brother's family should go directly by the road to the block house while' he would pass by his own house and take his family to the fort with him. The night was dark and the roads passed through a heavy forest.

The women and children chose to accompany William Moore, though the distance to the fort was thereby nearly doubled. Silently they passed on till they came to the home of William Moore. As they let down the bars and gained admission to the yard, his wife came running out and exclaimed "They are all killed by the Indians, I think." "The whole party hastily departed for the block house. "It will be remembered that Mrs Moore and her husband had gone in search of the children by a different route. They did not meet on the way or at the place of the massacre.

Mrs. Moore, on horseback, carefully noted as she went every discernible object ill at length she saw a human figure lying near a log. "There was not sufficient light to tell the size or sex of the person and she called the name of her children again and again, thinking it might be one of them asleep. At length she alighted from her horse and examined the object more closely. What must have been her sensaVons when she placed her hands on a naked corpse and felt the quivering flesh from which the scalp had recently been torn.

"In the gloom she could Indistinctly see the figure of the llttlg child of Mrs. Reagan sitting so near the body of the mother that it sometimes leaned its head on one side and then on the other of Its Insensible mother. As Mrs. Moore leaned over the little one, It said: 'The black man raised his axe and cut them Bodies are Burled "She saw no further but thrilled with horror and alarm she hastily remounted h.er horse and hurried home where she heated water intending to defend herself from the savage foe. The wounded child died next day.

"There was little rest that night In the fort. The women and children of the neighborhood with the few men who were not absent with the rangers crowded together not knowing but that at any time the Indians might begin an attack. Seven were missing and their bodies lay and bleeding within a mile of the fort In the dark forest. At 3 a. a messenger was dispatched with the tidings to Forest Russell.

At dawn the scene of the tragedy was sought and the bodies collected for burial. They all were buried in the same grave with boards laid on the bottom and sides and above the bodies. There were to make conlns." Continuing, Abel Moore tells of the organized pursuit of the Indians that followed, and how the Indian carrying the scalp of Mrs. Reagan was elaln when the pursuers caught up with him near the Sangamon River. Bodies of the victims were buried In what since has become known as Vaughn cemetery on the Bethalto- Wood River road, a burial ground antedating 1890, which descendants of pioneers now seek to have set apart for perpetual care under an organized movement launched something over a month ago.

One of Fine Communities in State, Colby Said of Wood River The City of Wood River war, listed among the state's fine communities, with a future of brightness, by Lester B. Colby who visited the city while writing his series of articles on "Re-discovering Illinois." His article follows: Wood River is Illinois' foremost oil city. Things have come swiftly to Wood River in these latter years. It was incorporated in 1909 and in 1810 the population on the townslte was recorded as 84. Ten years later the government census gave it 3476 Inhabitants.

Today seven years after that, the school census puts the population at 7500. Oil does such things. Business lots in Wood River sold In 1910 at ten dollars down and ten dollars a month; $300 for a 50-foot lot. Recent sales have been at around $9,000 per lot for the selfsame lots. Men who are still young remember when the site of Wood River was a vast watermelon patch.

It Is a local jest to point to a native and say that he still has the "watermelon ridge lope." That Is to hint that he acquired his gait by stepping from ridge to ridge as he crossed the watermelon patches. Twenty years ago Wood River watermelons and canteloupes, grown on the rich, level, sandy-loam fields In and about Wood River went out to the nation in train loads, Some of these old timers are- employers of the oil refineries. These refineries! An amazing sight. About the refineries is the smell of Oklahoma and Texas. The scent of crude oil, a pleasant smell to oil men In the air.

The Wood River plant of the Standard Oil of Indiana, covers more than 700 acres. Its capacity is 25,000 barrels of crude oil a day and 1,800 men employed draw down a payroll of approximately $250,000 a month. Construction of the plant began only In 1907 and the first units started operation in 1908. Ten years later the Roxana Petroleum Corporation entered the field. Its plant Is in a separate village called Roxana, adjoining Wood River on the south.

This plant occupies a 475-acre site and In employment and payroll it practicality equals the Standard plant. The White Star smaller, is said to have a payroll of $70,000 a month. This means that the refining of oil gives Wood River and its im- oll comes from the southwest- Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. Two pipe lines, the Ozark and the Prairie companies, deliver the oil in a steady and unending flow from the fields. Roxana will soon extend its pipe line, the Oiark, at a cost of millions, to another great plant it is building near the Illlinols-Indlana line at the tip-end of Lake Michigan.

This will be near the great Standard and Sinclair plants at East Chicago and Whiting. That will three pipe lines to this other refining center now fed by the Prairie and Sinclair lines. The Sinclair Pipe Line Co. brings Its oil from the Mid-continent and the Wyoming fields. Wood River Is also connected with the eastern fields by the Illinois Pipe Line Company, Yes, we have great arteries of oil flowing underground Into and out of Illinois.

And a refinery is an Interesting thing. Outwardly it Is an orderly, but confusing maze of pipes and valves. The pipes and valves and valves and pipes the ground, under the ground, overhead. And here and there oil and gas fires and, sometimes, mechanical stokers feeding in fine coal. It takes much fire to run a refinery.

Through brown glass we can peep into these roaring fires, 2300 degrees Fahrenheit! Cuts of gasoline are taken off by applying heat. Primarily It Is a matter of distillation. The gases are driven off and condensed; returned to liquid: I am told that one great oil company makes as many as 18 different grades of various commercial needs and 'requirements. Other "outs" are kerosenes, benzene, napthas, fuel oil, gas oil and lubricating oils. More cuts bear scientific names which mean nothing to the mediate vicinity payrolls than $500,000 a month.

of more All this despite the fact that no oil is produced nearby at all. The general public. Cracking plants, which break up the molecules and cause the atoms to recomblne as products which, In the original form they are not, continue the cycle. I have been through many refineries. Refining men are a bit peculiar.

Usually they are hesitant, In a way, about showing their valves and pipes and fires. I have had them Intimate that It would be well not to reveal too Intimate secrets. I have wondered If they were kidding me themselves. For who could reveal mysteries by looking at labyrinths of pipes and valves and fires. Wood River has something else.

It is a tannery, the largest of Its particular kind in the world, I am told. It employs 650 people and at times has as many as 250,000 hides In stock. It Is known as the Wood River tannery of the International Shoe Co. We went through the tannery and viewed the manufacture of leather all the way from the green hide to tho finished product. It takes about 30 days from the hide to the finished leather and 20 days more to turn leather Into a completed shoe.

There are 156 processes In tanning a piece of leather, I am Informed, and 240 processes In making a pair of shoes. The plant, is now turning out 15 varieties of leather for shoes. Tanners have problems these days. While we visited a wire brought news that all manufacturer of shoes of a certain tint had been discontinued. The manager smiled and remarked: "It's the present era, It's hard to tell what women will buy or what they'll quit buying.

All these things enter into the cost of making leather and shoes. And the cut-outs, the pieces that are thrown away to make the holes In shoes so desired that all costs money, too." For a new town Wood River shows remarkable progress In school development. The high school cost $175,000, four common schools $250,000 more and one parochial school represents a $75,000 Investment. There are 1,733 children In these schools. That's quite a step for a town that had only 84 Inhabitants in 1910.

Wood River built 278 new houses in 1826. And we are recording only those within the corporate limits. While, in a way, Wood River might called an "oil camp" for It has grown swiftly out of oil, It Is built for permanence. Labor turnover, they told me at the Satndard plant, is low. These people are not drifters.

They own homes and motor cars. Traffic policemen are necessary. Permanence in labor is built up methodically. I said that Wood River was new. It is.

But It also has history. At the mouth of the river at Wood River is the site occupied by the winter camp of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition that saved 'tho Northwest to the United States. That expedition camped here the winter of 1803-4 an dset out up the Missouri on May 4, 1804. Historically it was an empire-building journey undertaken by a handful of brave men who boldly faced perils among warlike tribes of savages. The Largest Men's Furnishings Store in the City.

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