Recollections
Sally Peerson Plant Here's my Mother's recollection of that day.
from an email
Daddy and Grandpa went there within minutes of the blast to see about the kids. One of Momma's cousins, Maxine Beekman, whose Father was Ira Beekman (he was the Superintendent of the W. B. Hamilton Oil Company fields), and whose Mother was Leona Beekman, went to school there. They were raising some of Leona's nieces, too, one Maxine's age named Jessie and an older girl named Helen. Maxine ended up hanging and screaming on the corner of a wall that was still standing. Jessie, some place in the building, was huddled with a boy in her classroom buried, and when they finally saw some daylight and crawled toward the opening, a radiator from the floor above fell on the boys back as they were crawling and crushed him to death right beside her. They both survived.
After the one got down, she went looking for the other. And vice versa. Unable to find each other they ran for home eventually, and found each other there. Aunt Leona was at the school looking for them, and later they came home and found them huddled together crying. Daddy and Grandpa worked there till the end. Momma says Daddy could barely speak about the horror of it all, and Grandpa had a blank look for a long time, and wouldn't talk about it. But they were there, when they and the other men were trying to match up body parts along one wall or fence-line to be identified.
It is ironic what that blackboard said, the one that was found later and put in the museum, because oil is what they lived by in every way possible here in East Texas, yet it killed so many people. Grandpa continued in the oil fields until his health was too bad to work anymore. While they lived on the oil lease the baby of the family was killed when a flare pipe that had been replaced (but no guide wires were installed yet) fell over and crushed him to death. My Momma and Grandpa lifted the pipe and pulled him out. His name was James Delbert (Little Del) Beekman. My Daddy later became a truck driver in Houston, and was burned over 85% of his body and barely survived because the gas can he was carrying back to the shed at work exploded in his hand. Compare this picture to yours, and you will see that everything about the stance and body matches. The pictures are Grandma and Grandpa, and Daddy about that time.
I hope this bit of the story helps you in some way.
In addition to the above, Ms Plant has identified some of the people in the following photo (also located elsewhere on this site) in addition to generously providing photos at the bottom of this page.
"Look at the far left edge where there are 3 men next to the rest of a wall, count from the left to the right, the 4th man standing alone is my Daddy. He rarely ever wore anything but khaki's. I do believe that the man standing on the wall just a little further to the right, very tall at 6'4", heavy mustache and cap, dark jacket and heavy gloves, facing the camera, is my Grandpa. My Grandpa, Clarence Leroy Beekman, was an oil field worker; he worked the W. B. Hamilton fields and the Sinclair fields. My Grandparents, and Daddy & Momma (Jewell Donald Peerson & Clara Mae Beekman-Peerson), lived there in Wright City, TX on the W. B. Hamilton oil lease."
