The burning of Chelsea 1908, Part 1

Author: Pratt, Walter Merriam, 1880-1973
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Sampson publishing company
Number of Pages: 212


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The BURNING OF CHELSEA WALTER . MERRIAM . PRATT


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CHELSEA


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PUBLIC LIBRARY


MASSACHUSETTS


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PRESENTED BY


Walter m. Pratt


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The Cluben Public Library. with The Conplants of Walki man Patt.


22 May 1912


PUBLIC LIB


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THE BURNING OF CHELSEA


ELSEA PUBLIC LIB


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THE BURNING OF CHELSEA


BY WALTER MERRIAM PRATT


WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS


OMNIA POSSIBILIA


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VOLENTIN


ELSEA. PUBLIC LIB RY


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BOSTON SAMPSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 1908


Copyright, 1908, by SAMPSON PUBLISHING COMPANY


First impression, June, 1908


R 974,46 Cap. 3 149562


Printed by The Sparrell Print Boston, Massachusetts


MAD 2 9 1968


The author dedicates this book to Captain James H. Smyth, Lieutenant Olin D. Dickerman, Lieutenant Harry J. Kane, and the enlisted men of the Eighth Com- . pany, Coast Artillery Corps, with whom he served in Chelsea on Provost Guard during the week following the fire.


PREFACE


This book is intended by its author to be a story of THE BURNING OF CHELSEA as he saw it, -a contribution to local history based on personal knowledge and observation. No one man saw, or could see, all the phases of the conflagration, but the writer saw more than most. He was actively engaged during the entire course of the fire in the saving of persons and property, and was able to closely observe the whole progress of the flames. He served as a volunteer fireman for many hours and afterward on provost guard, being at work continuously for forty-eight hours without sleep. As he was thus present during the entire period of great- est stress, his narration consists of first- hand facts.


It was thought advisable to add chap- ters on the history of Chelsea, and some


PREFACE


phases of the period immediately follow- ing the fire, for the information of those not familiar with the city, and also a chapter on the future of the city.


The illustrations are from photographs, and the author's thanks for courteous permission to use them is due to Frank Roy Fraprie, Robert Buck Jeffers, of Chelsea, Mass., Leslie's Weekly, William J. McClintock, Frank Thompson, the Utica Saturday Globe, and Royal S. Wentworth.


Mr. Jeffers is maker of the frontispiece, and pictures on pages 56, 78, and 102.


CONTENTS


CHAPTER I


Historical Chelsea 15


CHAPTER II


Statistics of the Fire


31


CHAPTER III


The Start


39


CHAPTER IV


Beyond Control


52


CHAPTER V


Under Control


72


CHAPTER VI


Night among the Ruins


75


CHAPTER VII


Day Dawns upon the Ruins


83


CONTENTS


CHAPTER VIII


The Firemen


87


CHAPTER IX


The Militia


93


CHAPTER X


Expressions of Sympathy


104


CHAPTER XI


The Relief Work


109


CHAPTER XII


Chelsea's Future


134


ILLUSTRATIONS


View of the Burning City from Powderhorn Hill Frontispiece Opp. Page 16


The Bellingham-Cary House


The Pratt House, built about 1700 18


Broadway before the Fire, looking South from Bellingham 22


Broadway, a few Weeks after the Fire, looking South from Bellingham . 24


Ruins of the Baptist Church and City Hall 32


The Lynn Engine destroyed by the Flames 34 Start of the Fire near the Everett Line 38


Responding to the First Alarm 42


Granite Block, Dynamited during the Fire 48 A Boston Fire-boat fighting the Fire . 56


Brown Stone Houses Fared no Better than Wooden Tenements . 56


Junction of Washington Avenue and Broad- way before the Fire . 58


Residence of Ex-Mayor Thomas Strahan be- fore and after the Fire 62


Boston and Albany Railroad Bridge, with Wrecked East Boston Bridge and Burning Oil Tanks in Background . 68 ·


ILLUSTRATIONS


Opp. Page


The Fitz Public Library before and after the Fire 70


Where the Fire was stopped on Sixth Street . 74 Ruins of the Central Congregational Church . 78 A Vast Expanse of Ruins 82


The Highland School before and after the Fire 84 Shurtleff Street before and after the Fire . 86 Chief Spencer during the Fire . 88


The Eighth Company, Coast Artillery, keeping back the Crowd in Winnisimmet Square . 94


Troop A, First Squadron of Cavalry . 96


Granite Crumbled to Gravel under the Heat . 102


The Court House, used as City Hall after the Fire 108


The Bread Line . 114 Effect of Fire on Granite Walls and Curbing 120 The Shurtleff School before and after the Fire 128


Map showing Burned District . 134


County Road, in the Residential Section . 136


The Wentworth Residence, among the Places not Destroyed 140


Residence of Ex-Mayor Pratt, in the Prattville District, One of the Many Attractive Places in Chelsea not Burned . 144


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CHAPTER I


HISTORICAL CHELSEA


Before relating the story of THE BURN- ING OF CHELSEA it seems that a slight sketch of the history of the city may be appropriate. Thousands of people read, with mingled interest and horror, news- paper accounts of the burning of Chelsea, who had previously only heard of the city in a casual way, perhaps in connection with the unfair and time-worn expression, "Dead as Chelsea." Few people who have not made a study of the matter realize how much Chelsea stands for in history. To quote from a speech made by the late historian, Judge Mellen Chamberlain, L.L.D., at the laying of the corner-stone of the Prattville Schoolhouse, the city is associated with more really "first


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things" than any other city of this State or continent.


The first settler, Samuel Maverick, landed on the shore of what are now the United States Naval Hospital grounds in 1624. In 1625 he built a fortified house near the water's edge, which, according to the historical tablet, erected near Chelsea Bridge, was the first house in the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony. Here Governor Winthrop was entertained in 1630. In 1631 the first ferry in the country was established here, the landing being near the present pier on the government grounds, where the first county road in the colony, ending at Salem, began. There is a story to the effect that May- erick's house was attacked by the Indians, but being completely repulsed, they never attacked again. Maverick traded with the Indians, and in this way acquired some five thousand acres of land, com- prising what is now Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and Saugus, then known as Winnisimmet.


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In 1630 Noddle's Island, now East Boston, was sold to him. About 1632 Maverick sold Winnisimmet to Richard Bellingham, afterward governor, after whom Mount Bellingham was named. Bellingham built the Cary house, which is still standing, and used it as a shooting lodge, his home being in Boston. Later it was bought by the Carys and greatly altered. Tradition says that British troops were quartered in the house and an officer committed suicide there. There is a secret chamber in the top of the house, reached only by a peculiar passage, which winds about the chimney from the cellar. Although the house is two hundred years old, it is still used as a dwelling, and fortunately escaped the fire.


Until January 10, 1739, Chelsea was a part of Boston. On that date, by the terms of an act passed by the Great and General Court, that part of Boston known as Winnisimmet Village, Rumney Marsh, and Pullin's Point, including


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what is now known as Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and Saugus was, "in con- sideration that they had long since built a meeting-house and supported the same," set off as a town, to be known by the name of Chelsea.


The first naval battle in the history of the United States occurred in Chelsea Creek on May 27, 1775. The conflict occurred between the Provincials and the British troops. Its outcome was that the armed schooner "Diana" was captured by the former and burned on the Chelsea shore.


During the siege of Boston, in 1776, revolutionary troops under command of Colonel Gerrish were stationed in that part of Chelsea known as Prattville, and General George Washington on a tour of inspection took dinner at the Pratt homestead. This house was demolished in 1855. Its doorstep was built into the wall of Washington Park, where it may still be seen. The other old Pratt house which is still standing belonged


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to the same family. It is the second oldest house in Chelsea to-day, having been built about 1700. It was in this house that Increase Mather (president of Harvard College from 1684 to 1701) took refuge from the persecution of Governor Andros.


In 1802 The Chelsea Bridge and Salem Turnpike Company received a charter, and during that year and the next built a toll bridge between Chelsea and Charlestown. Up to this time the only way to reach Boston with a loaded team was through Malden, Medford, Cambridge, Roxbury, and over Boston Neck, the trip usually requiring a whole day.


On February 28, 1828, the State ceded to the General Government the property now used for the Naval and Marine hospitals.


In 1831 an act was passed giving Boston the exclusive control of county buildings and relieving Chelsea from all expense attached to them. If at any


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time Chelsea should wish to be set off to another county, Boston has no power to appear in opposition.


In 1831 Francis B. Fay and others, acting for a proposed ferry company, purchased of Thomas Williams his farm and ferry for the sum of $22,500. The company, which still exists, was incor- porated in 1833.


In 1832 the first store in the village was built at the corner of Broadway and Everett Avenue, by John Low, and he was ridiculed by his friends for locating a store so far out of the way, as they said there would be few or no dwellings near him for twenty years. In this store were kept dry goods, groceries, medicine, the post-office, and baiting for horses. This being the only public place in the village, it was a general resort for the few early inhabitants, and records show that many pleasant evenings were spent there by Major Chase, Squire Knapp, Samuel Batchelder, Thomas Pratt, Dr. Stedman, Colonel Fay, Joseph


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and Charles Hanscom, and the "Ferry hands."


The first postmaster was Rev. Hora- tio Alger, followed by Abel Bowen and then Benjamin Dodge.


In 1835 the town house was built. The town appropriated $3000. The building committee expended $3036.33, and for this excess "asked the indulgence of the town."


The first fire in Chelsea of which there is any record occurred in 1834, in Winni- simmet Square. There was no engine in Chelsea at the time, but No. 15 came over from Boston. After this fire the town bought an engine, and in 1835 the original Chelsea No. 1 was bought, and a house built for it in the square. In 1837 a second engine was bought for $150, and a company organized under the name Volunteers No. 2, with quarters on Park Street.


On February 22, 1841, a narrow strip of land extending from Malden, Melrose, and well into Wakefield, known as the


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Panhandle, was set off to the town of Saugus.


On March 19, 1846, North Chelsea, now Revere and Winthrop, was set off, reducing the town to its present size, which is about two and one quarter square miles or fourteen hundred and forty-one acres.


In February, 1849, the Grand Junc- tion Railroad was granted a charter to run from East Boston through Chelsea to Boston, thus giving Chelsea railroad connection with the outside world.


In February, 1857, as the population was in excess of twelve thousand, the town petitioned the Legislature for a city charter, and on March 13 it was granted. On March 23 the charter was presented to the town and accepted by a vote of seven hundred and thirty-three to one hundred and seven. In the same year the Boston and Chelsea Horse Rail- road received a charter to run from Revere along Broadway to Boston, and at the same time the Winnisimmet Rail-


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road got a charter to run from Pratt- ville through Washington Avenue, Park and Winnisimmet streets, to and across the ferry.


When the Civil War broke out Chel- sea was among the first to send men to the front, and during the war over one thousand men were forwarded.


Hon. Frank B. Fay, who was mayor at the time, was made chief of the United States Sanitary Commission, and spent nearly two years at the front.


On June 5, 1868, tolls were abolished on Chelsea Bridge and the Salem Turn- pike, and they were made free public highways.


Many famous people in all walks of life, both living and dead, came origi- nally from or live at present in the city of Chelsea.


Among them are Benjamin P. Shil- laber, better known in the literary world as Mrs. Partington; Lieutenant William B. Cushing, who became famous by his heroic work in blowing up the "Albe-


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marle" during the Civil War; Mellen Chamberlain, L.L.D. and L.L.B., law- yer, judge, statesman, and historian; Hon. Frank B. Fay, chief of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War; Hon. Rufus S. Frost, congress- man and ex-president of the National Association of Woolen Manufacturers; John F. Low, inventor of the famous Low Art Tiles; Herman Atkins MacNeil, the sculptor; Rear Admiral John E. Pillsbury, United States Navy, assistant chief of the Bureau of Navigation; Cap- tain J. B. Briggs, United States Navy ; Miss Ellen M. Stone, the famous mission- ary; Congressman Ernest W. Roberts ; Ex-Governor John L. Bates; David and Levi Slade, known by their famous spices; Henry Mitchell, the foremost engraver in this country; Fred L. Cutting, late insur- ance commissioner of Massachusetts ; Colonel William Grantman of the Civil War; Mr. Frank Roy Fraprie, the author; Hendricks A. Hallet, the well-known artist; Jabez K. Montgomery, the ship


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builder; Samuel Orcutt, inventor of the first rapid printing-press ever patented in the United States; Hon. Eustis C. Fitz, trustee of Brown and Wellesley colleges and ex-president of the Boston Board of Trade; William E. McClintock, chair- man of the Massachusetts State High- way Commission; Dr. William G. Wheeler, associated with Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes as examining physi- cian for the Federal Government during the war; Mr. Joseph Lincoln, the author; Miss Laura Lee, the artist; Thomas and William Martin, manufacturers and ex- porters of elastic webbing; Miss Helen Fitz, president of the National Daughters of the American Revolution. There is practically no city of any size in the United States that does not contain for- mer Chelsea people.


In Chelsea there are located many manufacturing concerns, famous not only locally but all over America, and in many cases throughout the civilized world. Among them are The Magee Furnace


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Company; George D. Emery, the largest mahogany works in the United States, which maintains a line of steamers be- tween Chelsea and South American ports; The Revere Rubber Company; the Low Art Tile Works; the D. & L. Slade Com- pany, spices ; Thomas Strahan & Company, whose wall paper is considered the finest made in America; T. Martin & Brothers, elastic fiber; Atwood & McManus, box manufacturers ; and many large shoe factories.


There are three prominent hills in Chelsea, Mount Bellingham, already men- tioned, which was burned over in the recent fire; Sagamore Hill in Prattville, where lived the tribe of Sagamore In- dians, and where up to recent years it was a common thing for Indian graves and relics to be found, better known as Mount Washington, after the visit of General George Washington; and Pow- derhorn Hill, which tradition says was once sold for a horn of powder. The top of this hill, which was purchased by the


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city in 1897, is set aside to be enjoyed forever as a public park. From the top of this hill during the Revolution signals were made to the people in Roxbury and Cambridge, giving the news of any movements of the British army in Bos- ton. During the winter of 1775-6 three companies of Colonial troops had their quarters on the south side of this hill.


In addition to the park on Powder- horn Hill, Chelsea has Union Park in the heart of the city, adjoined by two smaller parks at the railroad station, Washington Park in Prattville, and two playgrounds, one in the Highland district, and the other in the extreme western end and ad- joining the boulevard. The latter con- tains a quarter-mile cinder track, a foot- ball field, and two baseball diamonds. The Revere Beach Parkway passes through the northern end of Chelsea and adds twenty-one and one fifth acres of boulevard and parks to its open spaces. It connects the city directly with the beautiful Middlesex Fells Reservation of


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eighteen hundred and eighty-five acres, and the wonderful five-mile Ocean Drive just completed from Winthrop to Revere and Lynn.


Chelsea is the easiest to reach of all the suburbs of Boston, being connected with it by the Winnisimmet Ferry, the Boston Elevated by the East Boston Tunnel, the Boston and Northern Electric line, and the Boston and Maine Railroad. From Chelsea Square to Scollay Square, in Boston, the running time is but thir- teen minutes. Chelsea has the same postal service as Boston. It has the ad- vantage of the Metropolitan water sys- tem and the Metropolitan sewerage sys- tem, both acknowledged unexcelled. Its


schools are considered by the best col- leges as of very high standing, and up to April 12, 1908, it had many miles of beautiful shaded streets and many nat- ural advantages over other cities.


Why is it, then, that during the few years previous to the fire Chelsea had lost so many desirable citizens? Why


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was it that in less than fifty years it had entirely lost its standing as the most aristocratic suburb of Boston, a place where people came to spend their sum- mers, as they go to-day to Clifton, Mag- nolia, and Manchester, with a fashionable hotel on Powderhorn Hill, now the "Sol- diers' Home," and beautiful country places leading down to the water along Margi- nal Street? How was it possible for a city of wealth, with a population of ten to fifteen thousand, to change in so short a time to a business and manufacturing community with a population of forty thousand, including ten thousand Hebrews?


This is what happened. In 1846 North Chelsea was set off, leaving an area of only two and one fourth square miles, in- cluding the United States Naval and Marine Hospital grounds and the United States Magazine Reservation. As the population increased business crowded the people back, until those who wished large estates migrated one by one to


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Brookline, Newton, Malden, and other places. The Winnisimmet Ferry Com- pany reduced its fare to three cents, and the crowded North End of Boston over- flowed into Chelsea. Fire restrictions were placed on North End property in Boston and more Hebrews landed in Chelsea and set up their rag shops. It was gradual, - so gradual that old resi- dents did not realize the number that were locating in the city. The water front properties were too valuable to lie idle, and large manufacturers secured them and located their factories there. With them naturally came a poorer class, and every two that came drove one old resident away. Young people married and moved away and the old people gradually died. This is why on April 12 this change had taken place, and Chelsea had become the most thickly populated city in the United States in proportion to its size, having forty thousand popu- lation in less than two square miles.


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CHAPTER II


STATISTICS OF THE FIRE


Few people realize the size of the Chelsea fire from the newspaper accounts. In no cases were they exaggerated, while accounts in the New York and Western papers invariably underestimated the size of the burned district. On the authority of the "Fireman's Herald" of New York it was the third largest fire in point of area in the history of this coun- try. The San Francisco fire burned over twenty-seven hundred acres, the Chicago fire twenty-one hundred and twenty-four acres, the Chelsea fire four hundred and ninety-two acres, and the Portland, Me., fire four hundred acres. The great Bos- ton conflagration of 1872 covered only sixty-five acres.


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The Chelsea fire swept the center of the city, covering a space a mile and a half long and three quarters of a mile wide. It destroyed practically all the business section, most of the municipal buildings, and twenty-eight hundred and twenty-two other buildings, making seventeen thou- sand four hundred and fifty people home- less.


It burned thirteen churches, eight schools, twenty-three oil tanks, the City Hall, the Frost Hospital, the Board of Health building, the Young Men's Christian Association, the United States Post-office, four newspaper plants, the Masonic Temple, three fine bank buildings, two fire stations, and over three thousand shade trees, and ruined miles of granite curbing. There were over seven hundred business firms and professional men burned out. They in- cluded fifty grocery stores, twenty-nine barber shops, twenty-eight doctors, twenty-eight tailors and dressmakers, twenty-one real estate offices, seventeen


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insurance offices, thirteen apothecaries, and twelve bakers.


The fire spread so rapidly that three engines were caught in its path and de- stroyed, one from Lynn and two from Boston. A peculiar coincidence is that one of the Boston engines was "Big 15," bearing the same number as the engine which in 1834 came across the river and helped Chelsea put out its first fire. The insurance loss was $8,846,879, according to the figures given in the speech of President Burchell at the annual convention of the underwriters, on May 14, 1908. The taxable value of the property destroyed is estimated as $12,450,000 and other personal prop- erty brought the loss close to $20,000,000.


The insurance loss was well divided, although the various companies located in Hartford, Conn., lost in the vicinity of $1,000,000. The Royal of England was the heaviest single loser, with a loss roughly estimated at $500,000. The Phoenix and Hartford Home offices came


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next, with losses figured at $250,000 each. The losses in addition to those mentioned above were as follows: -


Ætna, Hartford $165,000


American, New Jersey. 60,000


American Central, St. Louis. . 200,000


American Lloyds, New York. 4,000


Agricultural, New York. 60,000


Alliance, London. 35,000


Alliance, Pennsylvania. 2,500


Albany, New York 7,500


Ben Franklin, Pennsylvania .. 5,500


Boston. 90,000


Buffalo-German, New York 15,000


Cambridge Mutual.


30,000


Caledonian, Scotland.


Capital, New Hampshire. 50,000


10,000


Camden, New Jersey 15,000


Citizens, Missouri. 27,000


Colonial, New York 20,000


Concordia, Wisconsin. 32,500


Connecticut. 50,000


County, Pennsylvania 13,000


Delaware.


35,000


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Dixie, North Carolina. $ 8,000


Dutchess, New York. . 6,000


Eastern, New York. 4,000 Empire City, New York 5,000


Fire Association, Pennsylvania .. 80,000


Firemen's, New Jersey .


60,000


German-Alliance, New York.


30,000


Girard, Pennsylvania ..


12,000


Granite State, New Hampshire.


15,000


Hanover, New York. 175,000


Hamburg Bremen, Germany


40,000


Holyoke Mutual, Holyoke


150,000


India Mutual, Boston .. 2,500


Insurance Co. of North America, Pennsylvania. 185,000


Jefferson, Pennsylvania 35,000


Law Union and Crown, England 1,000


Liverpool & London & Globe. 100,000


London & Lancashire Co


94,700


London Assurance Corporation. 85,000


Mechanics, Pennsylvania. 3,000


Mercantile Fire and Marine 15,000


Merchants & Farmers Mutual . . 30,000


Middlesex Mutual, Concord . . 60,000


Milwaukee Mechanics, Wisconsin 12,000


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Nassau, New York. $15,000


National, Connecticut. 60,000


National, Allegheny 4,000


National, Pennsylvania. 2,000


National Union, Pennsylvania. . 83,000


New Brunswick, New Jersey. 10,000


New York Underwriters. 25,000


Niagara, New York. 115,000


North River, New York. 65,000


North British, New York. 10,000


Norwich Union, England 300,000


Old Colony, Boston. 5,000


Orient, Connecticut. 95,750


Palatine, London 95,000


Pennsylvania. 96,000


Phenix, New York


200,000


Philadelphia Underwriters. 35,000


Providence-Washington, Rhode Island. 30,000


Queen, New York.


95,000


Richmond, New York. 1,600


Royal Exchange, England.


35,000


Scottish Union and National. 50,000


Security, New York.


20,000


Southern, Louisiana.


5,000


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St. Paul Fire and Marine, Min-


nesota. $12,000


Spring Garden, Pennsylvania .. . 50,000


State, Pennsylvania. 7,000


Sun, London. 125,000


Svea, Sweden 25,000


Union, Pennsylvania. 25,000


Western, Pennsylvania 10,000


A relief fund was raised through Messrs. Lee, Higginson & Company of Boston, amounting at this writing to over $350,000. The contributions to this fund were almost entirely from citi- zens of Massachusetts, as outside help was not asked for. They came from all classes of the community, and were sent in with the spontaneity and promptness with which the people of Massachusetts always respond to an appeal for merited aid.




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