Why Does St. Louis Have Such Clean Water

Why is St. Louis so lucky to have such great water quality?

However, this wasn’t always true. After a visit to St. Louis, Walt Whitman observed that the city made up for its poor water quality with “inexhaustible amounts of the finest beer in the world”. The tap water in the city was brown and sluggish, with river silt.

So, in 1902, David Francis, who was planning the World’s Fair in Chicago, confronted Mayor Rolla wells in a panic. It wasn’t because St. Louisans were drinking water that stained their porcelain sinks, but because we only had to provide clean water for the cascades at Art Hill’s summit. Wells laughed and said that we would have clean water by the Fair’s opening in May 1904. Francis demanded, “But tell me how.” Dave, I won’t tell you how. You can take my word for this. “I have a plan.”

The water was still full three months before the Fair. John Wixford was a brilliant chemist and worked in the city’s water department. He devised the Wixford Process, which used unprecedented amounts of milk or lime to quickly remove sediment from the river water.

Christine Froechtenigt Harper would eventually write about this alchemy in her doctoral dissertation The Water Wizard. Five weeks before the grand opening, clear, clean water was flowing for the first time on March 22. Francis smiled, and the mayor let out a sigh. Around 20 million fairgoers were able to enjoy the sparkling-clear fountains in the sunlit sunlight. The world saw an increase in our stock.

Who is the man responsible? Wexford was an employee of the water department and therefore couldn’t win the $10,000 prize. Wells was afraid that the city would pay him royalties for his new patent, so he was also denied credit. Perhaps Wells had supported a much more expensive solution in the past. Wexford’s eccentricity made him easy to ignore.

He lived in a three-story North Ninth Street house for his entire life. There was no running water. He used the first floor to be his laboratory and opened the second floor to those who needed it. He also slept alone on the third floor. Old “Clean Water Wixford”, who did his dentistry with copper wire, often forgot to cash his checks. Because motorcars were too fast, he rode a bicycle and kept two broken buggies in his attic.

Harper searched through more than 90 years of articles and books about St. Louis’ water purification system, which was the greatest civic improvement of the Progressive Era. Wexford was only mentioned four times. He’s almost forgotten today, except for his dissertation and the small street at Water Department’s treatment plant named after him.

Raising a glass to the man