Editorʼs Notebook

Editorʼs Notebook

By Bill Blauvelt

While my father would later advertise that he offered tankwagon service, that was a misnomer. Dad offered tanktruck service for his bulk delivery tank was mounted on some kind of truck. His earliest Dodge truck was about the size of a modern pickup. As the years passed, the trucks got bigger. His largest, which was never put into service, held 5,000 gallons and was made to be pulled by a semi-tractor.

I suspect the 1903 tankwagon had a steel tank mounted on wagon gear pulled by a team of horses or mules. A decaying Standard Oil tankwagon like I envisioned in the stories used to sit in a Republican Valley field near Guide Rock. Since it was near Guide Rock, it may have been the one involved in the Superior accident. I wanted my father to buy and restore the rig to draw attention to his but he never caught my vision.

Somebody may have, for I remember seeing a similar looking rig loaded on a truck and being hauled down Highway 14 into Kansas.

In 1903, the horsedrawn rigs were mainly used to deliver bulk kerosene. While now hard to find, kerosene was the big seller for it was used in many homes for cooking, heating and lighting.

In Superior, a man named Coaloil Johnny, delivered the popular product about town.

I was surprised the Guide Rock tankwagon was in Superior but perhaps it was necessary for the driver to come to Superior with it when it was time to reload.

Both Conoco and Standard Oil had bulk storage plants on the south side of the Burlington tracks near the west edge of Superior. I’ve been told Conoco once had a packaging operation filling barrels with kerosene. It wasn’t uncommon for the small town stores to buy kerosene in barrels and then draw off the fuel in small quantities for sale to the store’s customers. Perhaps the Standard Oil Company also distributed fuel here to company agents in other communities.

The big mystery surrounding the story is that the accident happened when the wagon rolled down a grade in South Superior and overturned. Miraculously the driver was not killed when the tank rolled over him. It was speculated, he had been thrown into a small depression as the worst injury he sustained was a wrenched leg.

Where in South Superior could there have been a small grade? South Superior is the flatest part of town, though the Standard Oil bulk plant was located on a slight elevation above the railroad tracks.

That year the Superior papers had more exciting news to report.

The building just east of this newspaper’s pressroom that now houses the Masonic Lodge, was under construction and there was a plate glass problem. The first order of plate glass windows for the new building met up with an accident as it was being unloaded. All the windows were broken. The replacement order arrived and all was going well. The glass was moved from the train yard to the construction site and uncrated. Then one of the workers dropped a hammer shattering all the glass.

I know how they must have felt for when my family was installing two plate glass windows in our home, we had a problem. The old windows were out and the openings framed for the new ones. The Day & Frees lumber yard crew was instructed to bring out the windows. The lumber yard truck arrived with a man riding in the back to steady the glass. As they started to unload, it was discovered one window had cracked and had to be replaced.

While the humans were disappointed, our old cat, who had long been curious about what went on inside the house, could freely come and go through the open window space.

A story about the Burlington and Santa Fe railroads hinted of good news. Officials from the two companies were said to be negotiating freight rates for shipment of grain to the gulf ports. If an agreement was reached, it was thought Superior would become a major grain shipping center.

Two other stories were much more serious. Lewis Brodstone had a problem with an improperly vented flue and was nearly overcome by the flue gas. He had managed to get outside but was found confused and wandering on the railroad tracks. A railroad employee was able to get him off the track just before a train came through. Otherwise he probably would have been killed. After sitting in the depot for a couple hours, Brodstone had recovered sufficiently to be allowed to go home.

John Templeton wasn’t so fortunate. The popular grocer had sold his store the week before. His belongings were loaded on a train for shipment to Chicago where the family planned to make their home.

A Pullman suite was rented for the family. The train had stopped in another state and Templeton had apparently gotten off without coat or hat, perhaps for fresh air or to stretch his legs. His decapitated body was found about a mile away from where the train had stopped. He had apparently been hit by another train.

Authorities found a letter in his possesion which indicated the corpse was someway connected to Superior. Authorities here were telegraphed and their response was relayed back east. The train was stopped further down the line and family members learned about what had happened to John. While he was not riding with them, they assumed he was elsewhere on the train. That wasn’t unusual for he was a good conversationalist and they assumed he was just out visiting.