| Native St. Louisan John F. Wixford is a forgotten local hero. He transformed the murky output of the city's waterworks into sparkling streams, making possible at a nominal cost the fairy-tale atmosphere of the World's Fair of 1904 with its cascades and lagoons, and providing the people of his city with clean, clear water from the tap. Yet Wixford was soon battling his colleagues for recognition as the city's benefactor. Informal investigations by various civic organizations produced a stalemate in the Wixford controversy, but on his death in 1935 the press and public of his hometown universally hailed the chemist for his great achievement.; Today Wixford is remembered by only a few Water Division employees. The public importance and presumed credibility of Wixford's detractors, chief among whom were Mayor Rolla Wells and longtime water commissioner Edward E. Wall, ensured that their version of the story of water purification at St. Louis, the version that erased John F. Wixford from history, would become received wisdom in later decades.; The clarification of the water supply in 1904 was the most important civic improvement effected in St. Louis during the Progressive Era, if not in the entire history of the city. It did immense good for community life and for the image of St. Louis both at home and abroad. Yet the drama surrounding Wixford and his water purification work encompassed even wider issues of its time. The nationwide rise of the professions and its attendant jealousies, a violently partisan political climate in which every act and personality was fraught with political significance, conflicts between ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and the challenge of social acceptance faced by odd ducks such as Wixford in an age of conformity—all these are elements in the story of Wixford's eclipse. |
