This year fishing and
boating in the "lake in the woods" was allowed a
month before its May 20th official opening. Ladies
accompanied by gentlemen fished free, and all night fishing
was permitted. A new manager, Thomas Taafe, was
re-doing the park again, making it even more attractive for
the city folks. Steel hull boats and seven acres for a
total of 20 for picnicking. Brick fireplaces with cut
firewood, neatly stacked, to cook or heat coffee.
Dutch food was being served in the cafe at the hotel and the
dance hall had a new floor. A 360 degree sidewalk has
been built, going all the way around the lake. And
there was beer.
Sugar Creek was becoming a
growing community that was being recognized as having some
legal influence. In the days before total prohibition
of alcohol there were two camps, the Wets and the Drys.
For the last three years Fairmount Park was located in the
Mt. Washington community with 3,000 inhabitants, and was as
dry as the Sahara, but was not an incorporated city.
In January C. T. Lynch applied for a liquor license for the
"Sugar Creek Precinct". Recently the county
court had redistricted the precincts, moving the line from
Mt. Washington to the west of the park. Fairmount Park
was legally now a part of Sugar Creek, which was wetter than
the lake, and was also unincorporated. The decision
was made by Judge Hugh C. Gilbert, who said, "I for one
granted the license with my eyes open and with full knowledge
of what was going on. If placed in the same situation
again I believe I would do the same thing." The
judge had been on the bench for three days.
One of the local leaders of
the Let's All Get Sober Movement was the good Reverend
Serivener of 578 Arlington Avenue, pastor for the Mt.
Washington Methodist Church south. He was not amused,
by the time he heard it was too late. He came to
Sodom, i.e. Sugar Creek when he heard about the new saloon,
not knowing it was at the park. Upon inquiry, he was
not happy at all, and vowed that the Drys would be back next
year.
Besides a park Sugar Creek
also got a new road, following the bed of the old railroad,
now Sugar Creek Boulevard, to Gill Street, then to Fairmount
Avenue, now Sterling. For years it would be called
Rock Road, the work done by men who had fought the law and
lost or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They also improved a road to Cement City.
Sugar Creek School had its
graduation on June 13, being the last school in the county
to close for the summer. Mayor Jones of Independence
gave the commencement address. The all-girl 8th grade
class consisted of Lauretta Bukley, Susie Nagy, Mary Murray,
Elva Thatch, Norma Dye, Helen Wesner, and Hazel
Hackett. Obviously it was in the days before
truancy. After the ceremonies a play, "The Heart
of the Hero", was put on by the 7th & 8th grades,
all under the supervision of V. A. Davis, principal, who
will be in his third year of that job next year.
Meanwhile, back in the
nation's capital, time was running out for Standard and the
tobacco trust. A trust was actually a monopoly.
In Standard's case there were actually 19 different
companies that answered to 26 Broadway in the Big Apple,
Standard's address and headquarters. At the time
Standard's companies controlled 80% of all crude oil, owned
half of the railroad tank cars, 80% of all domestic and
imported kerosene, sold 300 million candles a year, 90% of
all lubricating oils and had a navy of 78 steamers and 19
sailing vessels. The big question was how to divide up
the empire. When the court's decision was announced
Mr. Rockefeller was out playing a few holes of golf.
He casually told his gold chums "Buy all the Standard
Oil stock you can. You'll make a fortune," and he
was right. The next day Standard's stock went up
almost $5, too $680. Some people didn't make that much
in a year. The Supreme Court gave Standard six months
to dissolve and the stock market turned bullish. Ironically
1911 is the year that gasoline replaced kerosene as the most
sold petroleum byproduct, which was once discarded.
Meanwhile the Elm Ridge
racetrack was having better aero planes as the technology
quickly improved. Balloons, a man who flew in the air
with the aid of a huge kite, and aero planes, were the
attractions in mid-May. It would have been a great
weekend for flying, but a steady wind kept the planes
grounded on Friday, and patrons were not happy, paying from
$1 for a seat or 50 cents to stand. A small riot broke
out, the pilots, not the wind, were blamed. Angry
paying customers stormed the aviators' temporary living
quarters, not realizing or caring that flight in a
heavier-than-air machine would have a 20% mortality rate
between Kitty Hawk and World War I. Most casualties
caused by trying to make a living or breaking some kind of
record, the altitude record at that time being 11,000
feet. On Sunday the wind was fairly calm and the
planes took to the air, one flying over the picnickers at
Swope Park. After circling the park a couple of times,
he tried to find a place to land and show off his machine,
but there were too many big trees. Auto, aero plane
races, and huge balloon ascensions. The afternoon was
filled with hecklers yelling, "No Fly No
Pay!". To top off the day there was a race
between an aero plane and a motor car. The auto won.
Back at Fairmount Park for
Decoration Day, a four-balloon balloon race turned into near
disaster when one balloon caught fire and another got away
from the mooring crew, ending up in Susquehanna.
Summer in the parks of Kansas
City again was full of new stuff. Forrest was getting
a sky-drop. Electric had a bathing beach, and
Fairmount a new dressing room. All had
Vaudeville. New acts were constantly coming through
town because of a thing called a circuit, which was
controlled by people with money. Swope Park was now
very popular, there was already the beginning of a zoom,
thousands of people sometimes crowded the place.
Everything there was free, except for transportation.
Fairmont started a new
policy, if a person purchased an admittance to the bathing
beach, which could be bought at the entrance, admission to
the park was free, saving a person 5 cents if you were going
to swim anyway. The bathing beach was also enlarged,
free lessons were again offered in the mornings, racing was
popular. Water polo between teams of various athletic
organizations was held. The area across from the
bathing beach was roped off and off-limits to boaters,
making for some excellent fishing.
On Sunday, June 18, an
aeronaut jumped from a balloon and landed in Crisp
lake. It wasn't part of his plans, the balloon getting
free and he figured a small lake was better than a large
tree. It was a fitting end to the balloon racing for
now.
The week before the Fourth
of July brought the Whittaker family to the park,
high-diving specialists. Mr. Whittaker made what he
called his "Dive of Death", leaping from a 90-foot
tower into a 10 ft by 15ft tank 5 ft deep, his better half
and son made some spectacular dives of their own, but not
from 90 feet. Their act was the grand finale after the
vaudeville, usually around 10 o'clock at night. The
German Garden had music from 2pm until midnight.
Everything in our story
wasn't always fun. John W. West got his pocket picked
while trying to help his mother onto a Fairmount Park bound
streetcar. The perpetrator was described as a young
man in his 20s, nicely dressed in a suit and straw
hat. He lost $16.
The Skydrop at Forest was
the first new ride in the three Kansas City park in two
years. It was a 125 ft tower with four arms and
parachutes. The patron was hauled by wire to the top
then gently floated to the ground. The ride opened on
the Fourth of July, just in time for the park to go out of
business. In addition to the new ride, Forrest's last
Fourth featured four acts of vaudeville. Professor
Reinhart dove off the highest part of the roller coaster,
and the biggest and last fireworks ever at the park.
Sadly the last Fourth of July for Forrest. Electric
had a huge fireworks display, so did Fairmount, along with
balloon races, and they all had vaudeville.
At Fairmount Park, 14-year
old Marrie Collier from Kansas City, Kansas, swam beyond the
danger line and drowned in 15 feet of water. Not
knowing the identity of the young later, all women
ordered out of the water and to dress, leaving only one
locker locked, thus revealing a number, to that was a name,
a precaution taken for a tragedy such as this.
On a positive note, people
killed on the Fourth by all sorts of explosives was down to
13 nationwide, and 260 injured. Due to a crackdown in
50 major cities, including KC. In 1909 43 people were
killed, with 700 injuries. This set an appeal for
authorities to do something. Giant firecrackers were
the main culprit.
Between the Fourth and
Labor Day, Fairmount Lake was the scene of a reenactment of
two major Naval engagements, the first was a battle between
the Monitor and the Merrimac of the Civil War, and the
Battle of Manila Bay, as in the Spanish American War of
1898. Fourteen miniature dreadnaughts, six American
and eight Spanish, seven with a motor, did battle on the
lake starting at 9 pm. The original U. S. ships were
under the command of Admiral Dewey, sinking all Spanish
ships and blowing up a fort, all reproduced in
miniature. Loud reports, the smoke and the light from
the flashes of gunpowder, turned the lake aglow. A
Spanish fort was blown up as a grand finale, and the Spanish
flag fell, replaced by a huge American flag.
It was about this time that
word came down from 26 Broadway on how the Octopus would be
dismembered. The government had only told Standard to
break up, but it didn't tell it how to do it. What was
needed was competition, so the biggest, Standard Oil of New
Jersey, became Exxon. Standard of New York became
Mobile. Standard Oil of California became
Chevron. Standard Oil became Sohio; Standard Oil of
Indiana became Amoco, later to be BP. Once released
from the umbilical cord, the different corporations
excelled, adapting new technologies. No longer were
they required permission from on high to spend over $5000
for improvements of $50 for a private donation, to like a
hospital or school.
On Friday, September 1,
the court order came into effect, the oil trust was
legally dissolved. There was much confusion on the New
York Stock Exchange, where no shares of Standard were to be
had, and nobody knew what they were worth. The
previous session the stock sold for $634 a share.
There was much speculation, which ran from $300 to
$650. To this day they have not missed a dividend
payment, not even during the Great Depression.
For Labor Day, Fairmount
feature "Daredevil Monte" and his double parachute
leap, one man, two chutes. Forrest ended the year with
a confetti fight, promised by management to be more fun than
the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, obviously a statement made by
people who have never been to Mardi Gras.
Baby Anna Novak and my
grandma returned from Europe.
Politically this year,
President Taft had a great idea he called the World Court,
where nations could air their grievances in an attempt to
avert war. This is one main reason former president
Teddy Roosevelt broke with Taft and in 1912 ran on a
Progressive ticket, allowing Woodrow Wilson to win.
Had Taft had his way, possibly the war to end all wars
(WWI) could have been avoided, or at least delayed.
Copyright © 2007 John M. Olinskey
