USA > Indiana > Madison County > History of Madison County Indiana (Volume 1) > Part 40
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In November, 1866, an old frame livery barn on Main street, between Ninth and Tenth streets, caught fire about 9 o'clock in the evening and in a short time was wrapped in flames. The loft was filled with hay and straw, which burned furiously, and it was with difficulty that the horses and vehicles were saved. The United States hotel on the cor- ner and the Ross house were near the burning building and were in imminent danger. In fact it looked for a time as though the entire block was doomed. Anderson had been incorporated as a city only the year before and no fire department had as yet been organized. No effort was made to save the burning barn, but Captain W. R. Myers, Major C. T. Doxey and Joseph Pickard organized the citizens into a "bucket brigade" and directed a systematic work in saving the adjacent build- ings. Many of the women brought out their bedclothes, which were saturated with water and spread over the roofs. Pickard's hands and
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face were so badly burned during his fight against this fire that he car- ried the scars through life. Through the heroic efforts of the people a heavy property loss was averted.
On December 14, 1871, the plant of the Anderson Foundry and Ma- chine Works was destroyed by fire, but the plant was in such an isolated position that no danger to other buildings was feared. The works were soon rebuilt on a larger scale than before the fire.
One of the most disastrous fires in Anderson started about midnight on May 17, 1875, near the middle of the block on the west side of the public square and spread in both directions. The Odd Fellows' build- ing, at the southwest corner of Ninth and Meridian streets, was the only really substantial building on that side of the square, the others being cheap frame structures that furnished excellent food for the flames. An alarm was sounded, the people turned out and in a short time the bucket brigade was in action. A line was formed from the public well to the
blazing buildings and buckets of water were passed from hand to hand as rapidly as they could be filled at the pump. Those not thus engaged were busy in the effort to save some of the goods in the various mer- cantile houses along the street. Among those who suffered the heaviest losses by this conflagration were : Nichol, King & Makepeace, hardware dealers on the ground floor of the Odd Fellows' building; the Anderson Democrat, on the second floor of the same building; the law offices of Calvin D. Thompson and Sansberry & Goodykoontz, on the same floor as the Democrat office; Bliss' confectionery store; the shoe stores of L. M. Cox and Ryan & Broadbeck ; the American Express Company, and the bakery of George Daich. The Democrat lost not only the ma- terials of the printing office, but also the files of the paper and other valuable property.
A smart breeze was blowing at the time and this carried sparks and embers some distance to the southwest, threatening the destruction of that section of the city. Carpets were quickly torn from the floors, bedelothing was taken from the beds, and these were saturated with water and spread over the roofs, thus preventing the spread of the flames. Iloles were burned in many of the quilts and carpets, but the homes were saved.
The Doxey Opera House on Meridian street, one of the most impos- ing private edifices in Anderson at that time, was totally destroyed by fire on the night of November 14, 1884. It is thought that the fire orig- inated in the rear part of Hurst's livery stable, immediately south of the theater. Anderson was without an adequate fire department and a telegram was sent to Indianapolis asking for assistance. The authorities of that city started an engine and a supply of hose on a special train for Anderson and had reached Brightwood, when a second message was sent countermanding the request, the fire by that time having gained such headway that no assistance would be of any benefit. A theatrical company had just concluded a performance when the fire was discovered and the members of this company rendered efficient service in saving some of the interior furnishings, though practically everything con- nected with the theater perished in the flames.
Directly after the fire L. J. Burr, HI. J. Bronnenberg and others
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joined with Major Doxey in rebuilding the opera house, a stock com- pany being formed for the purpose, with Major Doxey at the head. Subsequently he purchased the stock of his associates and became the sole proprietor of the theater. Although the second building was not quite as elaborate as the former one, it was one of the finest opera houses in central Indiana, outside of Indianapolis. It was opened to the pub- lic on the evening of November 19, 1885, and for more than eight years was Anderson's chief place of amusement. On the night of March 30, 1893, the second building was burned. The origin of the fire on this occasion is not definitely known, but it was thought to have been started by a gas jet which was left burning near some of the draperies of the stage. With the loss of this building Major Doxey gave up the idea of providing a theater for the people of Anderson. He accordingly sold the property to Louis Loeb and A. J. Brunt, who rebuilt it as a busi. ness block.
On the morning of July 13, 1886, fire broke out in a row of wooden buildings at the corner of Ninth and Meridian streets at an early hour, before many people were on the streets. The fire was first discovered in the grocery of Irey brothers by a night watchman named Wolf, who im- mediately gave the alarm. Before the fire could be checked the gro- cery in which it started, the millinery store of Miss Carrie Dodd, the meat market belonging to the Rhoads brothers, Minor Barett's shoe store, the United States express office, and the agricultural warehouse of B. F. Alford were totally destroyed. It is said that about two weeks before the fire a pile of shavings saturated with kerosene was found in the basement under the grocery and many believe the fire to have been of incendiary origin. The buildings burned were the property of Hes- ter Neely, who rebuilt some of them and others were rebuilt under leases.
The old Adams block at the corner of Eighth and Main streets, one of the landmarks of Anderson, was completely destroyed by fire on the morning of August 16, 1888. It was built by Robert Adams in 1867- 68 and at the time of its erection was one of the best business blocks in the city. The fire was discovered about four o'clock in the morning by Randle Biddle, a night watchman, who immediately turned in an alarm. Anderson now had a fire department, but for some reason it was slow in responding on this occasion, and when it arrived the fire was beyond control. Attention was therefore turned to saving the ad- joining buildings, in which the department was successful. A dry goods store on the ground floor, the offices of Judge Lake and William Roach and the rooms occupied by Benjamin Roadcap, Joseph Carr and Samuel Sykes on the second floor, and the cigar factory of Purcell & Ehli on the third floor suffered practically a total loss. There were also a grocery and barber shop on the ground floor that were considerably damaged.
Captain Frederick Tykle, of Middletown, the owner of the building at the time of the fire, offered the property to his son-in-law, John H. Terhune, if he would erect a building upon the site. The offer was accepted and Mr. Terhune built the When block, which was destroyed by an explosion of natural gas some years later, and the Phoenix block was then erected upon the corner. It is still standing.
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The burning of the Boring-Hannah block, on the north side of the . public square in Anderson, December 7, 1890, is of historic interest, because the Daily Bulletin office occupied the entire second floor of the building. James W. Knight, one of the owners of the paper, was sleep- ing in the building and gave the alarm. The fire originated in the base- ment in the bakery of William Williams, and was started by a burning gas jet. Mr. Knight, knowing that two young men employed by Wil- liams roomed on the main floor, aroused them just in the nick of time to save their lives. The greatest loss fell upon the owners of the build- ing, R. H. Hannah, of Alexandria, and James W. Sansberry, of An- derson, the Bulletin Company, Mr. Williams and W. S. Shirk, who had a jewelry store in the block. The newspaper and Mr. Williams were amply protected by insurance, but the files of the paper can never be replaced. The publishers showed their enterprise by getting out their regular daily edition, the publishers of other papers coming to their assistance by tendering the use of their presses. A new building was immediately erected upon the site.
About six o'clock on the evening of March 1, 1893, Mrs. J. O. Hard- esty heard the crackling of flames, and upon looking out of her window discovered that the Olympic theater building, only a few feet distant, was on fire. A. J. Jones, the hardware man, noticed the fire about the same time and sent in a still alarm. The department responded promptly and then began one of the most strenuous fights ever experienced by that organization. At the time the building was occupied by the Colum- bia Rifles as an armory. Private John Hopper, a member of the com- pany, afterward reported that he had left the armory only about fifteen minutes before the fire was discovered by Mrs. Hardesty, but that before his departure he had turned all gas jets down low enough to be perfectly safe, as he thought. As the fire originated under the stage, it was difficult for the department to reach it, and for nearly two hours they battled with the flames before they were extinguished. The build- ing was a wreck and the military company lost most of its arms and equipments.
There have been a number of other fires in Anderson besides the ones already enumerated. Perhaps the most noted of these were the burn- ing of Conrad & Mathes' wagon shop in June, 1867; the destruction of the old hotel known as the "Junction House" on February 23, 1868; the heading factory of C. T. Doxey & Company on January 3, 1873; the Adams heading factory at the junction of the Big Four and Pan Handle railroads on September 5, 1887; the Fisher snath and cradle factory on February 19, 1888; and the destruction of the Amer- ican Wire Nail Works on March 13, 1890.
The Junction House stood at the crossing of the Big Four and Pan Handle railroads and was a stopping place for all through trains, to give passengers an opportunity to get something to eat. That was before the days of dining cars, and the old hotel at the Anderson junction was well known to the traveling public. H. L. Searle was the proprietor for several years and under his management the house won a high repu- tation. It was never rebuilt.
The American Wire Nail Company sustained a heavy loss by the
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burning of the mills, the insurance of $50,000 not being sufficient to replace the buildings and machinery destroyed. In this emergency the Anderson Board of Trade and some of the liberally inclined citizens came forward with offers of assistance and in a short time the mills were rebuilt on a larger scale than before the fire.
Several disastrous fires have occurred in the city of Elwood. On the morning of September 18, 1872, the large flour and saw mills of John T. Adair caught fire about three o'clock, or a little before, and were entirely consumed, although the "bucket brigade" responded promptly and worked heroically to save the mills. The total loss was in the neighborhood of $20.000, all of which fell upon Mr. Adair, as he carried no insurance. This loss fell so heavily that he never fully re- gained his former financial status, and it is said to have destroyed in some measure his usefulness as a business man.
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Another flour mill in Elwood, operated by Newton House, was de- stroved by a boiler explosion about 7 o'clock a. m., January 4, 1887. This explosion was caused in a peculiar manner. The evening before, when the mill was stopped for the day, the engineer, Dell Lyst, drew off some of the water from the boiler, intending to clean it out the next morning. That morning he was delayed in getting to his work and when he arrived at the mill he found that Joseph Redd, the miller, had already fired up. An examination disclosed the fact that the pumps were frozen and the two men set to work to thaw them out. A portion of the flues in the boiler were above the surface of the water and as soon as the pumps were started the cold water injected into the boiler struck the heated flues and was instantly converted into steam and the boiler exploded with terrific force, instantly killing both Lyst and Redd. George Redd was severely injured, but finally recovered. The mill, which cost about $17,000, was a complete wreck, but it was rebuilt on a smaller scale by Mr. House. Several houses in the immediate vicinity were more or less damaged by the flying debris. One piece of the boiler weighting about two hundred pounds was thrown nearly two squares and crashed through the roof of a blacksmith shop.
Abraham and Simon Sklute, two Hungarians, were arrested as in- cendiaries at Elwood early in February, 1890, charged with burning a store in order to get the insurance. The building in which the store was located belonged to Simon Sklute, who was also the proprietor of the store, Abraham being merely an employee. The fire occurred about 4 o'clock a. m., February 1, 1890, and as the town had no fire depart- ment it was a work of some magnitude to prevent a wholesale destruc- tion of property. After the fire was extinguished the excited populace repaired to the boarding-house where the Sklutes were stopping threat- ened to lynch them. The charge was openly made that the two men had fired the building, but finally wise counsel was heeded by the ex- cited mob and the law was permitted to take its course. The two men were arrested on the charge of arson, given a preliminary hearing before Ward L. Roach, justice of the peace, and were bound over to the cir- cuit court, where they were acquitted. In the trial the only evidence against them was that of a man who saw two men, whom he took to be the defendants, going toward the store about three hours before the fire
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was discovered. Although the men were acquitted by a "jury of their peers," many people about Elwood still believe them to be guilty.
The large plate glass works at Elwood were damaged to the extent of $60,000 by a fire on the night of June 25, 1891, an account of which is given in Chapter IX. About 8 o'clock a. m., February 12, 1895, the building known as the Heck block in Elwood was wrecked by an ex- plosion of natural gas that had accumulated under the floor of the room occupied by the Elwood Trust Company. The explosion was of such force that it shattered windows in the buildings near by, blew doors off the hinges and did considerable damage to other property. The Heck block was a new building, two stories in height, the first floor being used for business purposes and the second for the city offices. Three men- Messrs. Graham, Telbs and Miller-were in the trust company's room when the explosion occurred. Miller's right leg was broken in three places, but the other two were only slightly injured. The building was damaged to the extent of about $2,000 and a stock of goods in one of the rooms was damaged much more, but was covered by insurance. Mr. Heck rebuilt the block immediately, making it larger and better than the original.
About midnight on December 6, 1891, the people of Alexandria were aroused from their slumbers by an alarm of fire, which started in the jewelry store of Scott Pauly, and before the "bucket brigade" could check the progress of the flames the buildings between Church and Washington streets on Harrison were entirely consumed. The business houses destroyed by this fire were John Wiggins' restaurant, Layne's shoe store, the store of the Alexandria Fruit Company, John A. Gra- ham's saloon. Fred Cartwright's grocery, Manlove & Buckley's hard- ware store, A. Bertsche's harness shop, Patterson's restaurant and the saloons of John Dwyer, H. P. Williams, George Kelley and Edward Eccles.
Another disastrous fire in Alexandria occurred on the night of Jan- mary 21, 1893. It started in a frame building on the west side of Har- rison street, in which were the postoffice and J. C. Clayton's grocery. The fire was soon communicated to the adjoining buildings, but was checked by tearing away a frame building at the corner of the alley between Church and Wood streets, occupied by Rupert & Stockton's restaurant. A water supply was obtained in a novel manner. The in- tense heat from the burning building melted the snow in the streets and by building dams across the gutters a supply of water was secured with which to fight the fire. These two fires led to the establishment of the Alexandria fire department, an account of which will be found in Chapter VIII.
About 11 o'clock p. m., March 31, 1894, the barber shop of Harrell & Pyle and the express office on the corner of Canal street were wrecked by an explosion of natural gas. The ruins immediately caught fire and for a time it looked as though a large part of the city must inevitably be destroyed. At the time of the explosion seven men were in the bar- ber shop, waiting for their Sunday shave, and four of them were burned to death before they could be rescued. They were Oren Ball, Jesse D. Harrell, Charles Hoover and Harry Boyer. Hiram Hurd was also
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caught in the fallen timbers, but was rescued after several unsuccessful efforts had been made.
The Alexandria Plate Glass Works were partially destroyed by fire on September 17, 1895, the loss in property being considerable. At that time Major C. T. Doxey was president of the company and with his characteristic energy he immediately began the work of rebuilding the plant in a more substantial and elaborate manner than before the fire. After it was rebuilt it was one of the largest and best equipped plate glass factories in Indiana.
Among the minor fires that have occurred in Alexandria may be mentioned the destruction of the Fred Miller Company's cold storage building and barns, the burning of the Indianapolis Brewing Com- pany's cold storage house, and also the office and cold storage plant of the Terre Haute Brewing Company, all within a few weeks of each other in the spring of 1894. The first of these fires was on April 6th, the second on May 28th and the third on June 4th. As the buildings were all depositories for beer and other malt liquors, many people at- tributed the fires to incendiarism.
The little town of Frankton has been especially unfortunate in the matter of fires. The town was laid out in March, 1853, and one night in November, 1854, a new store building just erected by Quick & Murphy was discovered to be on fire. In the building was a large stock of gen- eral merchandise, the postoffice and the railroad ticket office, and every- thing was a total loss. It seems that Isaac Sigler and John Ravy had a short time before that opened a saloon in the little village. Some time before the fire they had been arrested for tearing up a railroad switch at Frankton. Sigler gave bail but Ravy, unable to furnish the required bond, was committed to jail. In the course of the transaction they both became incensed at Quick & Murphy and it was believed that they had fired the store to get even. They were arrested and tried for arson, but the evidence was not sufficient to secure a conviction. Subsequently both men were convicted of robbing Atherton's store at Frankton. Ravy made his escape, but afterward fell from a railroad bridge and was killed, and Sigler died in the penitentiary.
A fire that destroyed a number of buildings in the business section of Frankton started in William Waples' stable about 5:30 a. m., Octo- ber 3, 1877, and was thought to have originated through the careless- ness of some men playing cards in the haymow. Next to Waples' stable on the south was that of J. W. Phillips, which was soon on fire. From this stable the flames reached the drug store of John A. Howard and from there the fire spread to the Dwiggins block, in which were the post- office and James McLean's grocery. North of the Dwiggins block was the Suman building, in which were Kimmerling's drug store and the dry goods store of J. & W. Townsend. Next to this was Hurst Brothers' hardware store. All these buildings were burned to the ground and several horses were lost in the burning stables. In one of the buildings was the Masonic lodge, which lost all its furniture and records. The Odd Fellows were more fortunate, as they managed to save their effects. Some plundering was done during the fire, but the people were so intent on trying to save the town that the looters were allowed to go unmo-
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lested. Very little breeze was stirring and this probably enabled the citizens to hold the fire within bounds. Had a high wind sprung up Frankton would doubtless have been "wiped off the map."
A man named McDonald began the erection of a building in Frank- ton in August, 1890, and announced his intention of opening a saloon in the town. Before the building was completed it was destroyed by fire. As there was no fire about the place, it was the general opinion that the destruction of the building was due to the work of an incendiary, but no clue to the identity of the offender was ever obtained.
Summitville's first great fire occurred on March 27, 1885, when the office of Dr. Judd Swallow and the stores of R. A. Menefee & Company and Aquilla Moore were totally destroyed, together with all their contents. The fire was first discovered in the east end of Moore's store about 3 o'clock a. m. and in a short time it was communicated to the other buildings. The people turned out and rendered all the assistance possible, but within an hour the three buildings were in ashes. By good management the flames were confined to them and the adjoining buildings were saved. The total loss was about $7,000, part of which was covered by insurance.
A little more than four years later-August 23, 1889-a fire started in the hardware store of E. B. Vinson, at Summitville, about 11 o'clock p. m. and within a short time the building was a mass of flames. Adjoin- ing Vinson's establishment was the millinery store of Mary E. Wertz, which was also destroyed, and considerable damage was done to the Vinson residence. The loss in this fire was about $4,000, but was par- tially covered by insurance.
Several destructive storms have visited Madison county at various periods of its history. The first of which there is any account was in 1828, when a tornado struck the county about three and a half miles south of Anderson. As it passed through the woods it left a path about half a mile in width, in which but few trees remained standing. This path was long known among the settlers as the "Fallen Timber." As the country was not then thickly settled, no damage of consequence was done to property or person.
In 1843 a great storm began its destructive work about four miles northwest of Pendleton, passed eastward through the dense timber tract known as the "Dismal," then followed the ridge south of Anderson and spent its force near the present crossing of the Big Four and Pan Handle railroads. All along the ridge large trees were uprooted and in many places the little mounds thus formed can still be seen.
Ten years later, June 2, 1853, a violent storm crossed the western boundary of the county a little south of Perkinsville and followed a course east and northeast almost entirely across the county. The sec- ond story of Daniel Wise's brick residence was torn away, his barn and other outbuildings were seriously damaged, and about two miles further north a house, in which Clarkson Snyder, James Cusack and a boy had taken shelter, was blown down and the inmates were all badly hurt. Just south of the present village of Florida some men were at work upon the grade for the Pan Handle railroad when they saw the storm coming and took shelter in a log house. They had been inside but a few
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minutes, when the house was demolished by the wind, but none of the men was injured. One man who caught hold of a sapling, to prevent his being blown away, was somewhat bruised, but his injuries were not serious.
The town of Cicero, Hamilton county, was almost completely destroyed by a storm on June 14, 1880. After wrecking that town the tornado passed on eastward, entering Madison county near Perkins- ville, and following the general direction of the storm of 1853. Again the Daniel Wise residence was unroofed and otherwise damaged and again it was rebuilt by Mr. Wise's widow. Trees were blown down, fences scattered to the four winds and growing crops were seriously damaged. It is said that bolts of dry goods and other things from the stores at Cicero were afterward found in the path of the storm some distance from the town whence they were taken.
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