USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 37
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At the rear of the large furniture warerooms of Power & Com- pany on Pleasant Street, a tongue of fire shot upwards in the moon- light. There was a sound of crackling flames. A terrific explosion was heard as far as Salem and Lynn-a deep-mouthed, hollow, sub- terraneous roar. In an instant nearly everyone in town was on foot and starting for the scene. Another explosion was heard from the same quarter, rocking the building from end to end; the plate glass was smashed to small pieces, while flames leapt half way across the street. There was a shout, and bystanders ran for their lives. The fire steamer had hardly left the engine house before it was apparent to half the town that another great fire had begun.
Streams of water were promptly brought to bear on the blaze, but already the Rechabite Building was afire. The flames crossed the street and attacked the front of the large Munroe shoe factory. At the same time the fire reached the vacant building of W. J. Gold-
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thwaite, by the Philip Trasher candy factory. The steamer "William Henry Lee" took up a position on School Street and worked well for twenty minutes, then broke down.
Meantime, word was telephoned to Salem, Lynn, and Peabody. The flames spread rapidly; the fire went down through School Street like a heated whirlwind, taking the big brick engine house, the Symonds Building, Thomas Knowland's residence, and many others. The row of buildings beyond the depot went down in rapid succes- sion. Consternation was visible in every countenance as the work of destruction sped on; no words can describe the scene. People were running about with loads of household goods, laden wagons were racing to and from the fire, some drawn by men. Furniture, wearing apparel, etc., were to be seen scattered all about the streets. People were anxiously inquiring about missing friends, or asking what they should do to keep the wolf from their door in the oncom- ing winter days (this was Christmas). Women and children in tears were sorrowfully and frantically clinging to one another. The whole town was lighted up with a strange, unearthly glare, while volumes of smoke and myriads of sparks shot upward toward the heavens. The fire lighted up the whole country around, and was plainly seen from Boston. Horse cars, hacks, and private rigs came into town all day and night. Salem, Swampscott, Peabody, and Lynn all offered and gave great aid. When the pale moonlight died away on that mild December morning, a terrible spectacle met the eyes of the unfortunate people of Marblehead. Where but yesterday had been comfortable homes and busy factories was nothing but blackened embers and broken ruins.
THE LYNN FIRE OF 1889-The most disastrous fire in the his- tory of Lynn occurred November 26-27, 1889, as a result of the explosion of an oil stove. Between noon of the 26th and dawn of the following day, three hundred and thirty-two buildings were destroyed, including many factories and office buildings, throwing 7,000 people out of work and effecting a loss of upwards of $5,000,- 000. Although there was no loss of life, hundreds were left home- less and without means of livelihood.
The fire originated in a four-story wooden factory building on Almont Street, at about noontime of a bright autumn day. A strong
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wind quickly swept the flames toward Central Square, and the ensuing conflagration did not halt until it had burned itself out at the water's edge. Leveling every structure from Almont Street to the coal wharves on Beach Street (now lower Washington Street), it was long remembered as a most impressive spectacle. Nothing save the great Boston fire of 1872 had ever happened in this section to com- pare with it.
The Lynn Fire Department was powerless to stop the headlong career of the flames, and calls for help sent out by telegraph and tele- phone brought early assistance from Boston, Chelsea, Salem, Glouces- ter, Newburyport, and other cities. But even the valiant assistance of all these departments proved of little avail in the face of the deadly gale of wind and the prevalence of wooden buildings and shingle roofs, all tinder dry, in the path of the flames.
The devastated area comprised thirty-one acres in the heart of the business district. Four of Lynn's finest bank buildings were wiped out of existence, together with three newspaper publishing houses and one of the city's largest churches. The "Lynn Press" Building was leveled with the ground on the afternoon of the very day that that publication had announced itself to the world; the enterprise was never revived. The Boston & Maine Railroad station was burned, and communication with Boston by railway and street car was cut off, likewise the electric light and power supply. Attempts were made to stay the fire's progress with dynamite, but to no avail.
Relief measures were promptly taken by the civic authorities, able committees were formed, and funds rolled in in abundance from near and far. Salem contributors little dreamed, when they sent aid to Lynn at this time, that a quarter of a century later their friends in Lynn would be generously returning the favor, on the occasion of Salem's even more disastrous conflagration in June, 1914.
THE SALEM FIRE OF JUNE 25-26, 1914-An explosion in a leather factory, and an undermanned fire department hampered by low water pressure in a city of shingled roofs, set the stage for Salem's most disastrous fire in her history and in that of Essex County. A great proportion of the city was thereby so thoroughly destroyed that an eye-witness declared : "You might imagine that some immense crew of building wreckers had completed a year's contract, done a
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good job in record time, packed up their tools, and left." In the mile-long path of the conflagration practically nothing of a com- bustible nature was left.
Miraculously, only three lives were sacrificed, the fire having started in mid-afternoon when ample warning could be given to those living in the threatened areas. By dawn of the following day, 14,000 people were homeless, and the property loss totaled $14,000,000. Sixteen hundred buildings were leveled over night. most of them factories and tenement dwellings. Happily spared were the historic sections of the city, including the stores and office buildings and such ancient landmarks as Hawthorne's birthplace and the House of the Seven Gables.
The fire started in a wooden four-story factory building at Bos- ton and Proctor streets, in the west end of the city. Shoe manufac- turing processes there involving the use of celluloid and alcohol con- stituted a highly hazardous condition, yet the building, according to subsequent investigation, had no provision for automatic fire protection.
The first alarm was turned in at 1:39 p. m., the fire at that time being still confined to the shoe factory. Although only a moderate wind was blowing, before the firemen had gotten fairly to work they were forced to retreat before the fury of the blaze, which had already spread to adjacent blocks; the destruction of their apparatus was narrowly averted.
A general alarm was then sounded, and emergency calls were put in for out-of-town help. "The astonishing rapidity with which the apparatus from neighboring cities arrived in Salem again demon- strates the value of the motor-driven vehicle," declared a contem- porary chronicler of the fire. Evidently the old debate of horse vs. motor was still a moot question.
The conflagration swept east at a rapid rate, crossing wide streets and burning everything to the south of the city into the open fields. It followed the path of the wind, unmolested except by the concentra- tion of fire-fighters along its northern edge where there were open spaces about dwellings. There had been considerable hope of stop- ping the holocaust at the Boston & Maine tracks, but it was soon abandoned.
The tremendous menace to public safety in a city of wooden shingles was again made clear. Burning brands were shortly alight-
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ing on housetops all over South Salem, and the skipper of a tug boat five miles at sea reported embers falling on his decks. Because of the defective water pressure, efforts of homeowners to wet down their shingles were unavailing. Their feelings may be imagined when they saw their roofs ignite and discovered that there was no pressure in their faucets.
The Naumkeag Cotton Mills, employing 6,000 workers, were in the path of the conflagration. Although they stood on a point of land bounded on three sides by Salem Harbor, were largely of brick and slate construction, and were systematically and courageously defended by the company's own fire department, they could not with- stand exposure over a wide front to the burning "three-decker" tene- ments to windward, and save for two storehouses the mills were completely destroyed. The burning of this fine property was Salem's heaviest and most significant loss. In connection with the destruc- tion of the thickly populated tenement district adjoining it, its loss turned upon the city a horde of workless and homeless men and women, destitute and in immediate need.
At 7:30 p. m. of the first day of the fire, while South Salem was being consumed, a new fire broke out in a North Salem stable and spread rapidly to thirteen adjacent buildings. By prompt work this blaze was quickly subdued; had it gotten out of control, the mercan- . tile and historic section of Salem unquestionably would have been lost.
At several points the use of dynamite was attempted, but proved ineffectual. It was discovered that with the flames easily crossing two-hundred-foot spaces, the destruction of lone brick buildings with dynamite was a useless procedure, and it merely broke up wooden buildings into better fire material. Nothing was able to stay the progress of the fire but the open fields and salt water bordering the city. The combined fire departments of all the towns and cities in the region were able only to prevent the fire from backing up against the wind into the mercantile section.
One whole parish-the 7,000 souls in St. Joseph's French Cana- dian Church-was burned out, and with it the imposing parish church building newly erected by the members at great personal sacrifice.
Relief work was promptly undertaken for the thousands of home- less and destitute. The American Red Cross was at work on the spot almost immediately, and cooperated with the State Militia in main-
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taining order in the city the night of the fire. Refugees were organ- ized into three large camps in the public parks, where they were assigned to tents and dispensed food and clothing. The Boy Scout troops of the city proved of great assistance also in this work.
Governor Walsh immediately called a conference of the leading Boston business men at which $70,000 for relief purposes was sub- scribed within twenty minutes. Salem herself raised $36,000 in cash and provided assistance in numerous ways. Chelsea, with her own disastrous fire freshly in mind, and Dayton, Ohio, remembering her recent great flood, sent generous checks to the relief fund.
Salem's fire presented unusual difficulties to the relief organiza- tions, since a major portion of the factories of the city, as well as many acres of dwelling houses, were in the devastated area. How these organizations carried on successfully in the face of general unemployment and destitution is cogently set forth in the following excerpts from an article which appeared in "The Survey" magazine for August 14, 1915 :
"The relief committee, composed of representative citi- zens of Salem and Massachusetts, made every effort to restore the refugees to self-support. An employment bureau was established the week following the fire, and the cooperation of the State employment bureaus and the United States Department of Commerce and Labor was enlisted in secur- ing positions for operatives in other mill towns of New Eng- land. Funds were voted with which to employ fire sufferers in clearing the burnt area of debris.
"As the amount raised by popular subscription accumu- lated, grants were made to enable families to again begin housekeeping, while during the first forty days 556 individuals were provided with transportation to friends and relatives in other cities. Carpenters and mechanics were supplied with tools and small tradesmen with means wherewith to become reestablished. By methods such as these the number depend- ent on the relief committee rapidly decreased. The week of the fire, 13,000 daily received rations issued by the militia. A month later this number had declined to 3,440, and on Sep- tember 24 -- three months after the fire-only 869 were in want of food.
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"Wiser than some cities visited by devastating fires, old Salem took its catastrophe to heart. The citizens of the old shipping center were convinced that an efficient city adminis- tration was one of the first needs in planning a better Salem to replace the old. The mayor was recalled, and the pro- gressive elements within the city united upon and promptly elected a successor. Led by the new city administration, and by the rebuilding commission, the citizens went to work to make a repetition of the fire impossible. Miles of new water mains were laid, the personnel of the fire department was reorganized and increased, and new equipment was added. Slate, asbestos, and other non-combustible materials were required for roofing in place of wooden shingles. The erec- tion of wooden three-deckers was prohibited, and the destruc- tion of all buildings over a large area made it possible for the rebuilding commission to widen and extend a number of streets."
The following details of the Salem fire, which are supplementary to the foregoing account, have been derived from Arrington's "Municipal History of Essex County":
FATALITIES-This fire was not without its fatalities. A Civil War veteran, Samuel P. Withey, was burned to death in the house at the corner of Winthrop and Prescott streets. Joseph J. Pickering was burned to death at No. 131 Lafayette Street. James Hosman's body was discovered near the rectory on Salem Street. A number of persons died from excitement or from exposure and strain, while being removed from the fire district. Sixty or more persons were injured by jumping out of windows or while serving as volunteer fire- men ; many were overcome by smoke.
RELIEF WORK-Heroic relief work went forward from first to last. The Red Cross Society, under the direction of Superintendent Bigelow, of the Salem Hospital, by eight o'clock of the first day of the fire had removed fifty-seven patients to hospitals in Beverly and Peabody. There were thirty-two nurses, and all did excellent work.
President Wilson telegraphed from Washington: "I am sure I speak for the American people in tendering heartfelt sympathy to
.
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you, the stricken people of Salem. Can the Federal Government be of service to you in the emergency ?"
Neighboring cities and towns, as well as far-distant places, did all in the way of relief that was possible. By noon the Ward Bak- ing Company had two tons of bread in Salem, and Mayor Scanlon, of Lawrence, sent two carloads of bread and other provisions. A firm in Boston sent one hundred and fifty-six gallons of coffee, all creamed and sweetened. Lynn sent over fifteen truckloads of pro- visions; Hood offered one thousand pints of milk a day, and the Mohican Market in Salem one thousand rations a day, while much more was sent in from other towns.
ASSISTING FIRE DEPARTMENTS-Mention should be given here of the good work by the fire companies of Boston, Chelsea, Marble- head, Peabody, Beverly, Lynn, Swampscott, Wakefield, Danvers, Reading, Stoneham, Quincy, Newburyport, Revere, Lawrence, Mal- den, Gloucester, Manchester, Medford, Hingham, Somerville, Win- chester, Ipswich, Wenham, and Cambridge, all taking part with some of their best apparatus.
Most competent observers are agreed that the net result of Salem's catastrophe has been good, and that given, as she was, such a cleansing and such an opportunity for rebirth as have come to few American cities, she has learned a lesson of incalculable value to future generations.
II-STORMS AND SHIPWRECKS
Essex County's exposed and rocky seacoast has been the scene of some of the most fearful maritime tragedies on record. In the very earliest days of the settlement, hurricanes took a heavy toll of her adventurous mariners, and no coastal town in the county has since escaped the tragic consequences of its environment. Plum Island, Cape Ann, Marblehead, and Nahant, because of their exposed posi- tions, have witnessed probably more disastrous storms, together with their attendant shipwrecks, than any other similar stretch of coastline in North America. In the gales of a single month-that of December, 1839-over ninety vessels were wrecked on the reefs and rocky promontories of the coast, many of them going down with all hands, so that the lives lost in this month alone amounted to over one hundred and fifty souls, including a score of women and children.
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THE SHIPWRECKS OF DECEMBER, 1839-(Note: A pamphlet published in Boston, in 1840, entitled "Awful Calamities: or, The Shipwrecks of December, 1839," has supplied the following vivid account of Essex County's most tragic winter ) :
It has probably never fallen to the lot of the citizens of New Eng- land to witness, or record, so many terrible disasters by sea, in the short period of fourteen days, as have transpired within that length of time the present month. Three gales of unequalled fury and destructiveness have swept along our coast, carrying desolation and death in their stormy pathway, and overwhelming many families in the deepest mourning. Many who entered upon the month of Decem- ber with a fair prospect of enjoying "a happy new year," and perhaps a long life, now sleep in the bosom of the great deep with the sea- weed wrapped around them, or have been tossed on shore by the bellowing surges, and all bruised and mangled, have been followed, perhaps by strangers, to an untimely grave. Often as we have been called to weep with those who have wept over the sad wreck of human hope, we have seldom met with anything so well calculated to excite the sympathy of all the friends of humanity as the melancholy events which we have recorded below.
In giving the history of the late dreadful shipwrecks, we propose to speak of the devastations of the three gales separately, and then detail some of the affecting incidents accompanying these disasters. We have been at great pains to collect the materials from the most authentic sources, and have no doubt but this unpretending pamphlet will afford the best account of these remarkable providences of God which will fall into the reader's hands.
THE FIRST GALE -- On the night of Saturday, December 14, at about midnight, a violent snow storm commenced along the coast, and continued to rage until late on Monday. During a part of the time the snow gave place to a freezing rain. About 2 p. m. on Sun- day the rain commenced and the wind at the same time rose to a gale; but it was not until II p. m. that the unprecedented and devastating hurricane broke upon the ill-fated shipping. From that time until 2 or 3 o'clock a. m. of Monday it continued a perfect tornado. It blew hard all Monday and Monday night, but the most damage was done on Sunday night.
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LYNN AND MARBLEHEAD-At Lynn, the schooner "Catharine Nichols," owned in Charlestown and bound thither from Philadel- phia with a load of coal, was wrecked on Nahant on Sunday at 4 o'clock p. m. Captain Woodward first made Egg Rock, through the thick and almost impenetrable atmosphere. Having thus learned his position, he ran around into Reed Cove, on the southwest side of Nahant. At this time the wind was so light and blowing from such a quarter that all the crew might easily have escaped in the boat. But hope, so deceitful to hundreds during this gale, induced them to remain on board. The wind was at that time favorable, and they were sheltered by the high hills of the promontory from the violence of the tempest. But they were doomed to sudden disappointment. Hardly had they anchored before the wind, as if bent on ruin, chopped round so as to make the cove no shelter. In thirty minutes they parted their cables, drove on Baylie's Point, and rushed furiously on the shore. By this time the generous citizens thronged the shore in hopes to save the crew of the doomed vessel. After she first struck, she wheeled round, and on the back of a mountain surge was rolled up upon the rocky shore, and immediately one mast went by the board. When the waves retired, several men would make a desper- ate effort to seize someone on board and run him on shore. In this way the captain and two of the crew were saved. Soon the other mast was carried away, and as it fell another man crept forward and over the gunwale. He was seized on the return of the wave, but was found to have been wounded, probably by the falling of the mast. As they laid hold of him they heard him say, "Oh dear," and when he reached the shore he motioned them to lay him down, which they did, and he immediately died. His name was Whitton. The mate stuck to the vessel to the last, feeling assured that he should escape, as he had passed through so many perils safely, but he was at the last point of danger. He died amidst the roaring surf, and was found, stripped of every particle of clothing except his stock and stockings, jammed in among the rocks of that iron shore. When the last mast fell, a man was seen to crawl out upon it through the mad and foaming waves. Soon the mast broke loose from the schooner, and instead of washing on shore as the poor fellow had vainly hoped, it drifted seaward, and he was carried out of sight to be buried in the depths of Lynn Bay. On Tuesday appropriate funeral services
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were performed for the two bodies which had been recovered, and the victims of the sea were committed to the bosom of the earth. The vessel went entirely to pieces.
At Marblehead, although every vessel but one went ashore, no lives were lost. On the River Head Beach the stern of a small craft was found, probably wrecked on one of the islands at the mouth of the harbor.
GLOUCESTER-The greatest destruction took place here; the gale was truly terrific, and the devastation unprecedented and terrible. Thirty-two schooners with their cargoes were a total loss, and in many instances their crews were lost with them. The harbor was supposed to be very secure, and at the commencement of the storm a great many vessels, especially coasters, put in there for shelter. Unfortunately, instead of anchoring in the inner harbor, where the holding ground is good and the anchorage well sheltered, they gen- erally anchored just north of Ten Pound Island and Ten Pound Ledge, where they were right in the teeth of the gale and the under- tow, and on very poor holding ground. Of course, the most of them dragged ashore. Such a scene of terrific and horrible ruin has not been witnessed in that harbor within the memory of the oldest resi- dent, a man one hundred and four years of age, who has always lived there. More than fifty vessels were either driven ashore, dismasted, or carried to sea, and the loss of lives could not have fallen much short of fifty. From one end of the beach to the other nothing could be seen but pieces of broken wrecks; planks and spars, shat- tered into a thousand splinters; ropes and sails, parted and rent; flour, fish, lumber, and a hundred other kinds of lading and furni- ture, soaked and broken; while here and there a mangled and naked body of some poor mariner, and in one instance that of a woman lashed to the windlass-bits of a Castine schooner, lay all along the beach, while off, thirty yards, with the surf breaking over them every moment and freezing in the air, lay nearly a score of lost vessels; all together forming a picture which it is in vain to attempt to copy in words. In the midst of this scene of terror the hardy and noble fish- ermen of Cape Ann, in two boats, fearlessly risked their lives for the safety of their fellow-creatures. Vessel after vessel was visited by them; they made their way over the tops of mountainous waves, and
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through the gaping chasms of the hungry waters; and from the very teeth of greedy death plucked many a poor, despairing, and exhausted fellow, bringing him safe to shore.
A public meeting was called at which it was resolved to choose a Committee of Relief to attend to the wants of all the sufferers and to the interment of the bodies. Five hundred dollars was raised on the spot.
IPSWICH AND VICINITY-At Essex, a schooner went ashore on Patch's Beach; six persons lost, one saved.
At Ipswich, the schooner "Deposite," Cotterell master, from Bel- fast, with lumber, was wrecked on Lakeman's Beach. She was first discovered by Mr. Marshall, of Ipswich, who gave the alarm, and with Mr. Greenwood, keeper of the light, repaired to the beach. The schooner was close into the shore, but the surf was breaking over, and inside of her, so that a boat could not live for a moment. Mr. Greenwood dashed into the surf, and at imminent peril suc- ceeded in reaching the vessel, and with a rope hauled in Mr. Marshall and the boat. By this time the poor sufferers on board were almost gone from cold and exhaustion, the sea every moment breaking over them. The wife of the captain was among the wretched company. One, a boy, lay dead in the scuppers, and a negro man was in his last agonies, when they got on board. He died in a few minutes. The captain, almost senseless, and completely exhausted, was first lowered into the boat with Marshall, but a wave instantly upset it, dashing Marshall under the vessel. He rose to the surface and saved him- self by catching hold of a rope; the poor captain was drowned, of course, as he was incapable of helping himself. The cries of the dying for succor were as nothing to the terrific shrieks of the captain's wife as she saw her husband buried beneath the waters. Two of the crew were got ashore, one of them by floating on the boom. The bereaved woman was then lowered from the stern by ropes, and Greenwood and Marshall, standing each side of her in the water, took advantage of an inward wave and ran her ashore in their arms. The dead bodies were taken to town and interred on Wednesday, being followed to the grave by sixteen sea captains as bearers, and a long procession of citizens.
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