Light and shadow: A review of Pekin’s African-American history and historiography

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

As Pekin’s Bicentennial Year continues and we now find ourselves in Black History Month, it is fitting that we turn our attention now to Pekin’s African-American history. Compared to most other areas of our city’s history, this is an aspect of Pekin’s history that has been little researched and whose stories have been little told (which is why I have made it a point over the past five years or so to devote time to researching and writing about Pekin’s Black History here at “From the History Room”).

In fact, up till now the most extensive account of Pekin’s African-American history in the standard published works on Pekin’s history is that found in the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial volume. While the Sesquicentennial’s account is far from uninformative, the very nature of a celebratory commemorative historical volume dictates that its treatment of its topics will be more in the nature of a review or survey – and one that will tend to downplay or overlook aspects of history that are unpleasant, lamentable, scandalous, or matters of controversy or contention. Yet I also find it a regrettable omission that the Sesquicentennial’s author did not tell the story of Pekin’s Christian ministers, Rev. Lewis Andrew of First United Presbyterian Church and Rev. Larry Conrad of First Methodist Church, who with their Marquette Heights colleague Rev. David B. Jones answered the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to clergy to come to Alabama in March 1965 in the struggle for civil rights for America’s blacks, as was reported in the Pekin Daily Times back then. However, the Sesquicentennial author did make sure to tell (on page 180) of Sen. Everett M. Dirksen’s crucial role in getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.

On 20 March 1965, in the midst of the 1960s struggle for African-American civil rights, the front page of the Pekin Daily Times brought the news that two Pekin clergymen and one Marquette Heights clergyman had answered Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. call for Christian ministers to come to Selma, Alabama, to march for voting rights for African-Americans. The story of these three ministers will be told in full next week at “From the History Room.”

Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin visits the Lincoln Memorial.

In this article, I do not hesitate to discuss some of these difficult or unpleasant matters, for I am of the opinion that Pekin’s story should be honestly told, including the brighter and delightful aspects as well as the darker and unpleasant episodes – if for no other reason than to illustrate just how very far Pekin has come from its darker days and how many positive changes have taken place since then.

Nance Legins-Costley

One of the strengths of the Sesquicentennial’s treatment of Pekin’s African-American history is its account of Nance Legins-Costley (1813-1892), whose story has been spotlighted many times in recent years and who, along with her son Pvt. William Henry Costley of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, is now rightly honored with historical markers and a downtown Pekin park named and dedicated in her honor. Nance Legins-Costley is one of Pekin’s most notable and historically significant pioneer settlers, and she was also Pekin’s first known black resident. Pekin’s earliest historical records show that Nance and her family were loved and honored by their community.

But prior to 1974, no standard published work on Pekin’s history had ever tried to tell her story – especially the story of the important court case that secured freedom for herself and her children. The Sesquicentennial tells Nance’s story on pages 5-6 and gives a very informative account of the 1838-39 Cromwell v. Bailey and 1841 Bailey v. Cromwell cases.

Unfortunately our knowledge of Nance and her family in the 1970s was incomplete, so the Sesquicentennial’s writer could not provide any information on Nance’s family or Nance’s final years and death in Peoria and burial in Moffatt Cemetery. It was only in 2019 that Nance’s date of death and place of burial were discovered by Debra Clendenen of Pekin and announced for the first time anywhere here at “From the History Room.” Even so, the Sesquicentennial’s account was a big step forward for Pekin’s African-American historiography, and helped give later researchers such as Carl Adams a place from which to start.

Nance Legins-Costley’s historical marker at Legins-Costley Park in downtown Pekin.

Lloyd J. Oliver’s marriage

After the story of Nance Legins-Costley, past Pekin historical works have often retold the story of the marriage of Lloyd J. Oliver of Pekin, an African-American hero of the Spanish-American War. The Sesquicentennial volume also retells this story on pages 154 and 175, though it repeats a mistake regarding Oliver’s Christian name, and the maiden name of his wife Cora, that dates back to Ben C. Allensworth’s 1905 “History of Tazewell County.” Allensworth misread Oliver’s first name as “Howard” instead of “Lloyd,” and misread his wife’s name as Cora “Hoy” instead of “Foy.” Despite that confusion of names, the marriage of Lloyd Oliver and Cora Foy is one of the best remembered events of Pekin’s African-American history, because the organizers of the 1902 Pekin Street Fair chose to honor Lloyd Oliver’s service to his country by making the marriage of this African-American war hero from Pekin a central event of the Street Fair, and thousands of people crowded downtown Pekin to witness the wedding and celebrate their union.

This photograph of African-American Spanish-American War soldiers was originally printed with the caption, “Some of our brave colored Boys who helped to free Cuba.” Lloyd J. Oliver of Pekin served in the Regular Army during the war, his regiment suffering great casualties in the capture of San Juan Hill. PHOTO COURTESY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The Ku Klux Klan in Pekin

The 1974 Sesquicentennial does not shy away from a discussion of the darkest and most shameful episode in Pekin’s history, when our city was home to the Ku Klux Klan’s Illinois regional headquarters. On page 83, the Sesquicentennial volume tells of the Klan’s control of the Pekin Daily Times in the early 1920s, reducing the city’s primary newspaper to a mouthpiece of racist, nativist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Catholic bigotry. According to the Sesquicentennial volume, the years when the Pekin Daily Times was owned and operated by three leading Klansmen were also years of careless mismanagement of the newspaper, for although the newspaper had produced bound volumes of its pre-1914 issues, “apparently those volumes disappeared during the Klan years.” As popular as the KKK in Pekin was in certain circles back then, there was also strong opposition and disgust, as indicated by the fact that the Pekin Daily Times then alienated so many of its subscribers that it almost went under.

Another reference to the KKK is found on page 106, in the tragic story of the deadly January 1924 Corn Products explosion. Describing the community’s rescue and relief efforts, the volume says, “Allegedly, the Pekin Ku Klux Klan was also on hand. Thirty-six of its members divided into three shifts to aid in the relief, providing food for the Salvation Army tent; trucks and drivers for transporting both men and materials; and aid to bereaved families in the form of food, fuel, and clothing.”

There was no “allegedly” about it – the Pekin Klan, which had dubbed itself “The All-American Club” – was then an established presence like the men’s clubs and community service groups that were popular at the time, and their members were also affected by the tragedy like everyone else in Pekin. The KKK was also known for ostentatious displays of public charity. The Sesquicentennial on page 109 also mentions that when fire destroyed the Hummer Saddlery on 1 Nov. 1924, the Pekin Klan “offered assistance, including the use of the ‘Klavern’ on First Street (the old Pekin Roller Mills Building).”

The Sesquicentennial on page 172 devotes two rather oddly-worded paragraphs to the subject of the KKK in Pekin, as follows:

“It would be misleading to state that the Ku Klux Klan did not exist in Pekin; in fact, it is fairly certain that Pekin was the headquarters for a Klan — to be precise, organization number 31 of the Realm of the Invisible Empire, whose Grand Titan, in 1924, was recorded as one O. W. Friedrich. Further, the Klan, for a time at least, had their Klavern located at the Old Pekin Roller Mills Plant. The group owned the Pekin Daily Times in the early ‘20’s, and its meetings, policies, and plans were front page news, and its ‘good works’ much praised.

“In all fairness, though, it should be pointed out that the Klan was one of the leading social organizations of the day, and many people belonged in order to participate in the group’s activities, much as one might today belong to some fraternal organization. There seems to have been a distinct inner circle, relatively small in number, and a larger, more social outer circle Much more could be said, but it would serve no real use in this type of publication.”

The choice of words – “It would be misleading,” “In all fairness” – bespeak the writer’s understandable discomfort and abashedness, even shame, regarding this aspect of Pekin’s history. Not only would it be “misleading” to state the KKK wasn’t in Pekin, it would be flat out false. And the apologetic paragraph, “In all fairness . . .,” tends to excuse the KKK’s members for the racism (a word that never appears in the Sesquicentennial) that was so prevalent in America in that era, and that was intrinsic to the Klan’s central aims. This account also must be faulted for failing to acknowledge the Pekin Klan’s hateful intimidation of blacks, Jews, and recently-arrived ethnic families. A more forthright overview of Pekin’s Klan years can be found on pages 21-22 of the late Robert B. Monge’s “WW2 Memories of Love & War: June 1937-June 1946,” which says:

“The decade of the twenties and early thirties brought the KU KLUX KLAN to Pekin. Their ceremonial headquarters were on the second floor of the Pekin Daily Times building located at the southeast corner of Fourth and Elizabeth Streets. The Klan owned and published the paper during 1923, 1924 and 1925, praised its ‘good works’ and gave front page coverage of its meetings, policies and plans.

“For a time it was district headquarters for all the Klan chapters in Illinois. It was a terribly low period for the immigrants who lived here and they were the main target of the KLAN. They were devastated by the Klan’s acts of intimidation. Huge crosses were burned on the land known as Hillcrest Gardens (the present site of Pekin Insurance Company) to intimidate the immigrants. Many of these families huddled in fear in their homes nearby; however, the immigrant men were ready with shotguns just in case they were threatened physically.”

An image from a darker time, this illustration appeared in a Pekin Daily Times advertisement for a major Ku Klux Klan gathering in Pekin — the “Klantauqua” — that took place in late August 1924.

The presence – and absence – of African-Americans in Pekin

Finally, the Sesquicentennial on pages 175-176 devotes eight full paragraphs to Pekin’s African-Americans, and attempts to address the troubling absence of black people from Pekin for most of the 20th century. Much of this account is quite interesting and generally informative, and it covers much of the same ground that this weblog’s 2020 “From the Local History Room” series on Pekin’s African-Americans covered, only in less detail than we have been able to provide here.

The Sesquicentennial account is notably sensitive about Pekin’s reputation and does not acknowledge the role that racist attitudes and the KKK’s presence had, instead blaming the past absence of blacks here on economics and education (which were indeed reasons, albeit certainly not the only reasons). Understandably, the Sesquicentennial volume, written as part of a celebration of Pekin, would not be the appropriate publication to grapple with such issues. Here, then, is the Sesquicentennial’s account, in which he names several individuals and families who have become very well known to me over the past few years):

“But one ethnic element important in earlier generations has slowly become ‘invisible.’ Blacks came to this town by at least 1830 in the person of Nancy, the employee (sic – indentured servant) of the Cromwells discussed in the Overview, and many are mentioned throughout the long period ending after World War I. They had difficulties here, but not the kind of troubles the myth-makers would have us believe.

“The principle problem was the necessity of learning the German language—a barrier to many whites during the same period. Another drawback was the Blacks’ lack of skills, an inevitable problem in an era in which most of them remained uneducated. Nevertheless, they found jobs and homes for their families in the frontier community. According to Bates’ Directory, Nancy apparently lived the remainder of her life in Pekin (a period of about thirty-five [rather, 50] years) after the celebrated Supreme Court appeal argued by A. Lincoln.

“By 1845 the ten-person family of Moses Shipman and the Peter Logan family of four, along with at least six other Blacks, lived in the town. The families of Charles Cramby and John Winslow appear in the records of 1855, as does Benjamin Costly. During the Civil War, no less than ten Blacks from Pekin served in various elements of the Union Army, including Private Thomas Shipman of Company D, 29th United States (Colored) Infantry, who was killed in combat near Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, on March 31, 1865.

“The post-war amendments to the United States Constitution and the new 1870 Constitution of Illinois brought about new openness for the Blacks. Schools and voting were opened to them. The legendary former Sheriff, hero of the Mexican-American War, William A. Tinney (says Chapman in 1879), ‘distinguished himself in his old days by being the first white man in Pekin to lead a Negro to the polls to vote . . .’ Unfortunately, we cannot determine which black resident it was who voted.

“Dozens of others, with both good and poor reputations, lived in Pekin through the years. Anderson Blue, James Lane, and other names appear. ‘James Arnold Washington Lincoln Jackson Gibson’ was the mascot of Company G, 5th Illinois Infantry of the Spanish-American War; and a veteran of that conflict, Howard (sic – Lloyd) Oliver, returned to Pekin in 1902 to marry Miss Cora Hoy (sic – Foy).

“Then there was ‘Rastus’ Gaines. He is fondly remembered by older citizens as the cheerful, businesslike porter of the old Tazewell Hotel. As the Reverend Erastus Gaines, he made his mark as an evangelist in both Pekin and Peoria. Says one who knew him at the turn of this century, ‘He was uneducated, but within his abilities, he could give a good talk and could get his message across  . . . . While we kidded him a lot . . . we liked him a great deal.’

“Sam Day, Al Oliver, the families of McElroy, Houston, and Good are names which can yet be recalled by the elder citizens of present-day Pekin. Walter Lee was for many years the masseur at the Pekin Hospital, and for a time had a private practice in the Arcade Building. Many others have come and gone.

“Why is there now this tear in the ethnic fabric of Pekin? Pure economics. When the depression bore down on everyone in the thirties, many persons lost savings, jobs, housing – everything. Black or white, they had to ‘double up’ with friends or relatives to make ends meet. Even though the language barrier no longer exists, and the myth about Pekin’s attitudes have been proven false, Blacks simply have not returned to again add their contribution to the cultural richness of the city which was among the first to recognize them as partners in the progress of an expanding community.”

William Edward “Rastus” Gaines, porter at the Tazewell Hotel in downtown Pekin, born 3 April 1878 in Washington, Georgia, son of Jesse and Mary (Tate) Gaines, died after 25 April 1942 probably in Baltimore, Maryland. PHOTO COURTESY TAZEWELL COUNTY GENEALOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Any discussion of the African-American experience in Pekin should include not only the stories of Pekin’s black families during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but will have to address Pekin’s reputation as a “Sundown Town,” a community unwelcoming to or hostile to blacks.  As we’ve mentioned here before, Pekin’s reputation predates the arrival of the Klan, but the Klan’s strong presence here certainly terrified Pekin’s small population of blacks. U.S. Census statistics show only four blacks in Pekin in 1900 (there were more than that), in 1910 only eight, in 1920 (just before the KKK arrived) a total of 31, in 1930 only one – and in 1940 not a single black person was left in Pekin, something that would not change until the 1990s.

Unlike other Midwestern communities, Pekin never had any city ordinances dictating that blacks had to be out of town by sundown – “unofficial” social pressure and intimidation were certainly present, though. The widespread story of a “sundown” sign on the Pekin bridge remains one of the unresolved mysteries of Pekin’s past, because no direct evidence has ever been produced that Pekin really had such a sign posted on its bridge, the way other “lily-white” Illinois communities posted anti-black signs at their town or city limits. If there ever was such a sign, it was not authorized by Pekin’s city government, and it was probably long gone by the 1960s if not earlier.

The fact that the story has long been so widespread suggests that it is based on truth, and yet the absence of any photographic evidence also suggests that the story could be only a legend. In my own research, the closest I’ve ever come to evidence for the bridge sign is a 14 Oct. 2010 Pekin Daily Times Letter to the Editor written by Randy Hilst, who said he had found the sign (or “a” sign) in an old house in Pekin that had KKK robes and relics. Hilst wrote, “I had the sign verified as to being old by a lady who lived in Peoria, who used to do appraisals at the Illinois Antique Center in Peoria. She said it was the first she had seen but always believed they did exist. We also talked about the possibility that they may have had to be replaced from time to time, so who knows how many were actually made and how many ‘knock-offs’ were made by local racists at the time.”

Until solid documentation is found that might shed light on the old story of the bridge sign, it can only remain a haunting echo of a past that was vastly different from contemporary Pekin’s increasingly racially diverse community.

Next week, “From the History Room” will again feature an article in keeping with Black History Month, telling the story of the three Pekin-area ministers who joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to march for African-American civil rights in Alabama in 1965.

#abraham-lincoln, #al-oliver, #anderson-blue, #bailey-v-cromwell, #benjamin-costley, #bridge-sign, #carl-adams, #charles-cramby, #charles-cranby, #charles-gramby, #civil-rights-act-of-1964, #cora-foy, #corn-products-explosion, #cromwell-vs-bailey, #debra-clendenen, #dirksen-center, #erastus-gaines, #george-e-mcelroy, #hummer-saddlery, #invisible-empire, #james-arnold-washington-lincoln-jackson-gibson, #james-lane, #john-winslow, #kkk, #klavern, #ku-klux-klan, #legins-costley-park, #lloyd-j-oliver, #moffatt-cemetery, #moses-shipman, #nance-legins-costley, #nativism, #o-w-friederich, #oscar-w-friederich, #pekin-african-american-history, #pekin-bicentennial, #pekin-daily-times, #pekin-history, #pekin-roller-mills-plant, #pekin-sesquicentennial, #pekins-black-history, #pekins-racist-reputation, #peter-logan, #racism, #racism-in-pekins-past, #randy-hilst, #rastus-gaines, #rev-david-b-jones, #rev-erastus-gaines, #rev-larry-conrad, #rev-lewis-andrew, #rev-martin-luther-king-jr, #robert-monge, #sam-day, #san-juan-hill, #selma, #spanish-american-war, #spanish-american-war-veterans, #sundown-sign, #sundown-towns, #thomas-shipman, #uncle-bill-tinney, #walter-lee, #william-a-tinney, #william-edward-gaines, #william-gaines, #william-henry-costley, #ww2-memories-of-love-and-war

Remembering the lost: 100 years since the Corn Products Refining Company tragedy

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

As Pekin has now entered its Bicentennial Year, it’s good to recall that 100 years ago the Pekin Daily Times included the words, “This is Pekin’s Centennial Year” in its front page masthead all throughout the year to remind its readers of upcoming Centennial celebrations.

Yet in a kind of tragic irony, during the first weeks of January 1924, immediately beneath those words of anticipation and celebration the newspaper ran banner headlines and daily front page updates on rescue and recovery efforts at the site of the Corn Products Refining Company, that was hit by a horrific starch dust explosion and fire in the early morning hours of Thursday, 3 Jan. 1924. This was one of America’s worst industrial accidents up to that time, if not the worst, and the explosion shook Pekin both literally and emotionally and psychologically.

The Friday, 4 Jan. 1925 Pekin Daily Times issue was filling with reports on the terrible starch dust explosion that had torn through the Corn Products Refinery facilities, and the efforts of the Pekin Fire Department and rescuers and searchers to put out the fires and retrieve the dead and injured. The front page featured the newspaper’s first provisional list of the explosion’s victims, which was updated daily as rescue efforts continued over the next week.

A photograph of the Corn Products starch grinding house after the explosion, which blew out most of the house’s windows. Photo from 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial.

So, as Pekin commences its Bicentennial Year, the community has first paused to look back upon a significant but sad anniversary of a pivotal moment in its history. Yesterday, Wednesday, 3 Jan. 2024, a memorial program was held at the Pekin Moose Lodge to remember the Corn Products workers who died or were injured in the disaster, to honor their families, and to recognize the first responders, hospital staff, and community volunteers who united in response to the tragedy.

More than 90 people at the Corn Products Explosion Memorial on 3 Jan. 2024 listen to Todd Benton, vice president of operations at Alto Ingredients (the former Corn Products), as he tells the story of the explosion and its effect on the Pekin community and on workplace safety.

Official logo of Pekin Bicentennial 2024.

The program was organized by Alto Ingredients, the company that now owns and operates the former Corn Products plant and facilities, in cooperation with the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, the Pekin Fire Department, the Pekin Police Department, and United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW).

In attendance at the half-hour program were about 95 people, including family members of some of the men who were killed in the explosion and fire. Pekin Fire Chief Trent Reeise and the Pekin Fire Department Honor Guard opened the program, and Bryon McGregor, president and CEO of Alto Ingredients offers words of welcome and acknowledgement of the workers’ descendants. Alto’s vice president of operations Todd Benton told the story of the disaster, the community’s response, and the industry safety improvements that were implemented in the aftermath.

A view of attendees at the Corn Products 100th Anniversary Memorial program at the Pekin Moose Lodge on 3 Jan. 2024. About 95 people were in attendance, including several family members of the Men of 1924. The Pekin Fire Department and Police Department were represent at the event, which opened with a tribute from the fire department Honor Guard.

All through 1924, the Pekin Daily Times masthead reminded its readers of upcoming Centennial celebrations with the words, “This is Pekin’s Centennial Year.” But in a tragic irony, during the first weeks of January 1924 the newspaper ran daily front page updates on Corn Products rescue and recovery efforts. Now beginning its Bicentennial Year, Pekin again looks back upon a significant but sad anniversary of a pivotal moment in its history.

The Pekin Daily Times’ final front page Corn Products explosion victims list, from the front page of its 12 Jan. 1924 issue.

Following Benton was Alto’s vice president of quality and sustainability Stacy Swanson, who told of the Governor’s Proclamation of 3 Jan. 2024 as Dust Hazard Awareness Day, and showed the text of a new centennial plaque to be added this Spring to the Lakeside Cemetery monument to the missing and unidentified Corn Products victims. McGregor then offered closing thoughts and remarks.

Seed packets of forget-me-not flowers were distributed at the program in memory of all those affects by the 1924 Corn Products explosion. A fact sheet and map giving directions to the Lakeside Cemetery Corn Products monument was also passed out.

The Pekin Fire Department also displayed its January 1924 fire logs which included the Corn Products log entry. Fighting the fires of the Corn Products explosion was especially difficult and wearisome, with the early January temperatures dipping as low as -23 degrees Fahrenheit causing burst pipes, with the water freezing almost out of the fire hoses.

McGregor and Benton both brought attention to a new 91-page book on the tragedy, “1924-2024: Remembering Those Who Died and Suffered – Corn Products Refining Company Starch Explosion, Pekin, IL, January 3, 1924,” which was compiled and written in 2023 by Verna M. Hankins, a Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, and sponsored by Stacy Swanson of Alto Ingredients. Hankin’s book is dedicated especially to the memory of the “men of 1924” who died or were injured in the disaster and to their families, but also tells the history of the Corn Products company, the first responders, the company officials, the investigators, and the community groups that banded together help the rescue and recovery efforts. A copy of Hankins’ book is available for study in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room collection.

Prior to the publication of Hankins’ book, information on the disaster was scattered here and there, and never before has this story been told at such length and breadth of detail. For example, the Pekin Centenary, page 61, being only a shorter volume giving an overview of Pekin’s history, devoted just a single sentence to the tragedy:

“The Corn Products Refining company plant was ripped by a series of dust explosions followed by roaring flames in 1924, and 42 workers died in the inferno while hundreds of others suffered burns and other injuries.”

Then, fifty years after the explosion and fire, the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial, pages 106-107, devoted nearly a full page to the story of the disaster, and later “Pekin: A Pictorial History” (1998, 2002) includes photographs. Following is the full text of the Sesquicentennial’s account of the Corn Products explosion:

“At about 3:30 a.m. January 3, 1924, third-shift workers at the Pekin Corn Products plant heard an explosion, immediately following which, observers reported, the starch-packing portion of the plant seemed to rise from its foundation. Then a giant tongue of flame shot into the air, a second explosion was heard, and the entire structure toppled, erupting into a living inferno for the men inside, many of whom were literally incinerated as the one million pounds of starch stored in the building started to burn. Later, victims found in the rubble of the building had to be identified by their brass identification checks, and in some cases, watches and teeth.

“The first-aid, personnel, and paymaster’s offices were in the immediate vicinity, and by the time Paymaster Charles Hough arrived (he had run all the way from his home to the plant, a distance of several blocks), victims lined the floors of the three offices. Immediately a bucket brigade was formed from the oil house (where plant-refined com oil was stored), and the buckets of oil were thrown on the sufferers in an action which was credited with saving many of their lives.

“As soon as the plant alarm whistle pinpointed the location of the explosion which many residents had already heard, the community responded. The Salvation Army was on hand almost at once, setting up a first-aid tent, aiding in rescue operations, and feeding rescuers and victims alike. Captain and Mrs. Tieman were in charge, and Mrs. Tieman seems to have been the ‘Florence Nightingale’ of the disaster, for nearly every newspaper account praises her tireless efforts in tending to the injured. Allegedly, the Pekin Ku Klux Klan was also on hand. Thirty-six of its members divided into three shifts to aid in the relief, providing food for the Salvation Army tent; trucks and drivers for transporting both men and materials; and aid to bereaved families in the form of food, fuel, and clothing.

“In the general confusion immediately after the explosion, many were reported missing or dead who had simply neglected to check out when they went home for the day, so a house-to-house check was initiated to establish precisely who needed to be accounted for. There was no central location to call for information, and soon the telephone company was swamped. Extra help was called in to handle the more than 50,000 calls in a 24-hour period (quite a strain for the equipment of that time, although today the switchboard routinely handles well over 133,000 calls daily).

“The body of Otto Lohnes was the first to be recovered from the ruins of the starch-packing plant [sic – William J. Rumler’s body was the first, on Jan. 4, while Lohnes’ body was not recovered until Jan. 8, as Hankins shows]; the number of deceased pulled out after him, plus the number who died later in the hospitals (some had to be taken to Peoria) totaled 42. Twenty-two additional victims were maimed by injuries sustained in the tragedy. Of the number killed, ten were unidentifiable, and unsuccessful efforts to recover the last body led to the belief that it was cremated in the internal wreckage.

“Mass funerals were held on two successive days at the Pekin High School, the first for the identified dead, the second for the unidentifiable. A memorial plot for the ten unidentifiable and the one unrecovered body is located at Lakeside Cemetery.

“Ultimately, the state fire marshal and a government engineer decided that the explosion probably occurred when sparks from an overheated bearing in a conveyor box ignited starch dust on the floor of the building. The starch plant and an unused building connected to it were completely destroyed. A more substantial structure located nearby remained standing, but its windows were blown out and machinery torn loose. (Some several-hundred-pound kiln doors were blown as far as 30 feet.)

“The plant was closed down for about ten days until a temporary starch-packing unit could be constructed. This was replaced by a modern steel and concrete building in which all spills are carried back into the hopper by conveyor, and the walls are hosed down twice a day to prevent dust from accumulating.”

A photograph from ‘Pekin: A Pictorial History’ (2002) showing the 15 Jan. 1924 mass funeral for the unidentified and missing Corn Products victims at the Pekin Community High School (West Campus) auditorium/theater.

On display at the Corn Products Explosion memorial were the Pekin Fire Department’s official fire logs from early January 1924, including the department’s log entry for the Pekin Corn Products explosion.

Pekin firefighters work to put out a fire amidst the rubble following the 3 Jan, 1924 Pekin Corn Products Refinery explosion. Photo from ‘Pekin: A Pictorial History.’

A photograph of the ice-covered ruins at Corn Products Refinery. Pekin firefighters struggled to put out the fires in temperatures that dipped as low as -23 degrees Fahrenheit, in which water lines burst, and the water would freeze almost as soon as it left the fire hoses. Photo from 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial.

A scene of devastation in the aftermath of the 3 Jan. 2024 Corn Products Refinery fire. Photo from ‘Pekin: A Pictorial History.’

Pekin Fire Chief Trent Reeise addresses those in attendance at the start of the 100th Anniversary Commemoration of the Corn Products Explosion at the Pekin Moose Lodge on Wednesday, 3 Jan. 2024.

The Sesquicentennial’s reference to the KKK being among the community groups helping at the scene is addressed by Hankins on pages 47-48 of her book, in which she “painfully” acknowledges that the Klan was then ensconced in the community. (It presented itself then under the name of “The All-American Club”).

Among the many stories of heroism in the midst of this tragedy, the Local History Room collection includes a moving anecdote that was published in the 10 July 1924 issue of “The Companion for all the Family,” under that magazine’s “Angels” column. This anecdote is about Frank Lichtweiss (though it has some slight inaccuracies):

“HE SANG THEM TO SAFETY”

“A TERRIBLE explosion, a great burst of flame, shouts and groans of factory workers and then a clear young voice lifted in song! – a voice that quieted a group of injured men and guided them to safety.

“It was midnight of January 2 when the explosion occurred that wrecked the Corn Products Company buildings of Pekin, Illinois. The buildings housed five hundred tons of corn starch and several thousand bushels of corn. In and about the factory were more than one hundred laborers. Without warning the buildings seemed to rise up, and men, machinery and materials were hurled through the air. Then everything seemed to catch fire at once.

“One large room on a third floor seemed to be the centre of the explosion. Every man there was injured, and escape from the fire seemed impossible; yet one of the workmen, Frank Leichtweiss (sic), the only son of Will Leichtweiss, the sheriff (sic – deputy sheriff), had the courage and the presence of mind to fight for his comrades. Frank has (sic) a wonderful voice, and when everything seemed lost because retreats and exits were cut off by the flames he began to sing.

“The workmen soon became quiet, and then as help came they were passed safely through the windows. Never for a moment did Frank cease his singing until all who were alive had been rescued.

“By that time, however, the fire had made such headway that, badly burned through he was, he was obliged to jump three stories to the crowd below. Bystanders gave him first aid and then rushed him, unconscious, to the hospital.

“When Frank’s father heard of the awful disaster and the injury to his son he hastened to the hospital with Frank’s wife, a bride of only a few days. The pair were almost frantic when they saw the unconscious form of the boy incased in great coatings of paraffin wax. The hardened sheriff was so unnerved that the nurses had forcibly to restrain him from taking his son’s broken body into his arms.

“’Don’t! Oh, don’t touch him, Mr. Leichtweiss!’ cried one of the nurses. ‘He sang his comrades from a fiery death!’

“’What’s that?’ demanded the sheriff.

“And as the nurse told the story Leichtweiss turned and, smiling while the tears streamed down his seamed cheeks, threw his shoulder back and cried: ‘That’s the kind of boy to have!’”

Hankins tells of Frank O. Lichtweiss on pages 124-125 and quotes several examples of the praise for his heroism. He succumbed to his injuries on 9 Jan. 1924.

This article was donated to the library on 4 April 1981 by Doris Rogers Holcomb of Ontario, California, whose uncle Earl J. Giffin was one of the Men of 1924. In her letter accompanying this “Companion” page, Holcomb said, “My Uncle, Earl Giffin, dead 1-5-1924 of lockjaw, refusing help in the hospital – ‘help those other poor s.o.b.’s, I’m alright.’ Which, of course, he was not.” Hankins tells of Earl Giffin on page 106 of her book, where she says Giffin’s cause of death was “a cerebral embolism and the injuries he sustained in the Corn Products explosion.”

Hankins chose as a thematic sentiment for her book a quote from Czeslaw Milosz in his book, “The Issa Valley”:

“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.”

Next week will present an overview of what the future site of Pekin and its environs were like in the period leading up to Jonathan Tharp’s arrival in 1824.

A monument to the missing and unidentified victims of the 3 Jan. 1924 Corn Products Refinery explosion and fire is located in Section 11 of Lakeside Cemetery, Pekin. A total of 46 Corn Products workers who were killed or injured in the disaster are buried at Lakeside. Find-A-Grave photo by Alvin Oglesby.

Text of a plaque that Alto Ingredients is adding this Spring to the Lakeside Cemetery memorial to the missing and unidentified victims of the Corn Products explosion.

Packets of forget-me-nots were distributed Wednesday, 3 Jan. 2024, in memory of the victims of, and those were we affected by, the 3 Jan. 1924 Corn Products Refinery explosion and fire.

A copy of the official governor’s proclamation recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Corn Products Explosion on 3 Jan. 2024 as Dust Hazard Awareness Day.

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