USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 45
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oil vapor in the hot weather of June was dense at all points. The tank was nearly full of oil. The electric current ignited the vapor, which conveyed the flame as a fuse back through the opening of the roof, setting fire to the volume of gas inside, producing an explosion which was the second one heard. These two explosions coming in quick succession were distinctly heard by several persons. The explosion of gas in the top of the tank lifted the roof two feet above its base and then it fell back to its place. If the surface of the oil in the tank had been ten feet from the top the volume of gas above the oil would have been very large and the explosion terrific. It would have torn the walls of the tank to pieces, and the great conflagration which followed might have been averted. The explosions of stills at refineries had jarred the buildings in the city as by an earthquake. But the noise of the second explosion, which blew off the roof of the tank, was not loud, simply because the volume of gas in the top of the tank was small. When the people first saw the fire at the top of the tank, there were not many persons living on the north side of Oil Creek apparently frightened. They had no experience in burning of a large iron tank filled with oil. Those, however, who had witnessed such fires at cther places, expressed a fear that this one would result in a frightful conflagra- tion. The fear was realized. "Look out." was the warning of those who had seen such oil fires elsewhere, "when the tank boils over." When that tank, and others that took fire, did hoil over, the effect was simply indescribable in its terrible grandeur. Persons standing on Monroe and Perry streets, half a mile away, as volumes of flame rolled like fiery clouds into the air, felt almost in an instant a wave of heat strike them, and many from nervous fear would retreat to positions farther from danger. Several families who were liv- ing on South Perry Street, on Breed, and on the west side of South Franklin, were exposed to streams of burning oil descending the hillside. After the first overflow of the burning oil, these people were in great consternation, and they brought their goods out of their houses and prepared to move to a place of safety. It was a time of awful trial to the homeless ones. But they found shelter for themselves and their goods in this hospitable community. They kept their families together, and citizens in other parts of the town gave them food, until they obtained new homes. A relief fund of nearly a thousand dollars was raised by contributions of private citizens, so that most of the families that were forced to flee from their homes, leaving tenement houses, did not otherwise suffer very serious losses.
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The tank which first took fire contained 20,000 barrels of crude oil. When it boiled over, the flames rose many hundred feet, and a neighboring large tank took fire from it. These tanks, with several others, belonged to the Tidioute and Titusville Pipe Company. Below them were the Acme No. I and the Keystone refineries. At these two works there was a large amount of crude oil, distillate, refined oil and benzine. The pumps were set to work to transfer oil to.Acme No. 2, the old Bennett and Warner refinery. The pipe line also pumped a small amount of crude oil from the hill to tanks elsewhere. But the quantity of oil thus saved was inconsiderable. The burning currents poured down the hill and set fire to the liquid contents of tanks and stills at the two refineries. Explosion after explosion followed. The tanks of other parties containing oil on the hillside were destroyed in the widespread confla- gration. Immediately east of Perry Street, on the north side of Oil Creek, where now are the Pennsylvania Paraffine Works, Acme Refinery No. 3 had its tanks full of oil or benzine. All this property, together with a great deal else on the north side of the creek, as well as the railroad bridge across Oil Creek, east of Franklin Street, was saved by the heroic efforts of the fire companies. The fire departments of Corry, Union City, Franklin, Oil City and Warren sent men and fire steamers to aid our own firemen in checking the conflagration. It may be said that never has there been more effective service as a whole rendered at a great fire by firemen than at this time. For over fifty hours the Titusville firemen, without respite, were on duty. With the assistance of the firemen from the other towns spoken of, they prevented the fire from crossing Oil Creek, and they saved the railroad bridge by keep- ing it deluged with streams of water. Many of them had their hands and faces blistered by the hot flames. The Holly Water Works responded grandly to the demands made upon them. Connection with Oil Creek was made to them, so as to secure abundant supply of water. And then their powerful pumps sent forward under great pressure to the fire steamers and to the many lines of hose connected directly with the hydrants sufficient water to keep all the discharges playing constantly with great force.
Heavy rains had raised the water in the tributaries of Oil Creek, and while the fire was raging, the main stream above was reported to be rising. The news betokened increase of danger. At the existing depth of water in Oil Creek the firemen had been able to prevent the currents of burning oil, as they poured down the hill and spread upon the surface of the stream, from
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setting fire to combustible material on the north bank. But, should the stream swell, and its channel widen, the flames would be brought nearer to the property exposed on the north side. Then John Eason opened his mill race to its fullest capacity and emptied from the tail-race more water into Oil Creek far below the fire than the rains had added to the stream above. While the tanks were burning at the top, with occasional overflows, which sent sheets of flames into the sky, and poured down the hillside rivers of burning oil, sweeping over a large area in the descent, the expedient of open- ing the tanks near the bottom and making discharge at one point was re- sorted to. Battery B, of the National Guard, at that time was under the command of Captain David Emery, who had in his armory in Titusville sev- eral field pieces. Captain Emery gave the order to Lieutenant Herron to take one of the guns of the battery and with solid shot perforate one of the burning tanks near the bottom. Accordingly, the lieutenant planted a can- non at the foot of Monroe Street, and fired several shots, producing openings in different tanks near the base, making new streams of oil, increasing the conflagration, but lessening its duration. The writer, who was an eye-witness of all the terrible scene, is unable to produce anything like an adequate descrip- tion of it. But the roar of angry flames, the blazing currents of oil, the intense heat, the noise of bursting tanks and stills, the consternation of many people, who expected that the city itself would take fire, and the intense anxiety which every one felt, cannot be forgotten. The patient endurance and heroic nerve of the firemen, both those of the city and the men of the departments from the outside towns, who generously came to our help, will be remembered. Augustus Castle, chief of the local department, and his assistants in command deserve mention. The conduct of the firemen was in all respects admirable. On Sunday forenoon, June 13, the danger from con- flagration was over. The bridges across Oil Creek at both Perry and Frank- lin streets, were destroyed. What remained of the Acme and Keystone re- fineries, together with a large area of the south hillside as far west as the woods, presented an appearance which no pen could properly paint. It was desolation, desolation. The aggregate value of the property destroyed was probably less than a million of dollars. The illumined sky over Titusville on Saturday and Sunday night was seen a hundred miles away. But not a single human life was lost, nor a single instance of severe bodily injury re-
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ported. Another calamity was to visit Titusville twelve years later, when many inhabitants of the city met a tragic death.
Between 1880 and 1892 there were two calamities, which ought to be noted. The first was the fire on April 14, 1882, which destroyed the Parshall Block, and burned the Brunswick Hotel. The sudden closing of the two largest hotels of the city was a public misfortune. The State Medical Society met in Titusville in May following, by appointment made the year before. The citizens generously opened their homes to the distinguished visitors. The other disaster was caused by a flood in February, 1883, which caused not a little suffering to people living on the flats. Two young men, one the son of Rexford Pierce, and the other the son of Ephraim Robinson, were standing on a pier of the Franklin Street bridge when it was swept away by a heavy wall of ice, which in the swollen current struck it with resistless force. They were thrown into the stream and both drowned. A lad named Barthol- omew was thrown into the stream at the same time, but was rescued. The body of young Robinson was found soon afterward near Oil City. But the body of young Pierce was not recovered until some time later, and not until all hope of finding it had been abandoned. It had been carried into an open field in the city limits, where it lay for weeks under blocks of ice, when one day Mr. Pierce, the father himself, accidentally came upon it. and immediately identified it as the body of his boy. The last disaster, the one more terrible than all the rest, will now be described :
The calamity of 1892, which visited Titusville, was the greatest scourge experienced by any community in the United States, since the Johnstown flood in 1890. The account of this disaster ought to embrace some descrip- tion of the topography of Oil Creek valley above Titusville. The watershed of Oil Creek at Titusville has the shape of a triangle, with one of its angles on the stream, where it is crossed by the city boundary on the west side. Oil Creek nominally takes its rise in Canadohta Lake. The northwest angle of this triangle is in Bloomfield Township. The northeast angle is in Sparta Township. Most of the territory of both Sparta and Bloomfield is eni- braced in this watershed, as is also the greater part of Athens, Rome and Oil Creek townships. An examination of the map shows a large area of water- shed for a single stream, having a natural channel not larger than that of Oil Creek. Until the forests were cut away the tributaries of Oil Creek, be- cause of obstructions of fallen timber, were comparatively slow in draining
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the country and supplying the main stream. The result was that Oil Creek in the early days was much slower in its rising floods, and longer in keeping its volume of water, than at the present time, when the forests have largely dis- appeared, swamps have been cleared and drained and the smaller streams re- lieved of obstructing debris. Both Canadohta Lake and the large pond of Spartansburg hold a great deal of water. An artificial dam across the outlet prevents the emptying of Canadohta Lake in dry weather. An artificial dam, also at Spartansburg, holds a large body of water in a mass. High hills in several places of this watershed cause, when the rain falls, a rapid rise of the streams in their vicinity. The destructive flood which occurred here on the 17th of March, 1865. was the result of the sudden melting of a large quantity of snow which had fallen during the previous winter. But that flood ex- tended over a large section of country in several States. Again, in March, 1873, there was a high flood from the same cause. Late in the fall of the same year, rains caused an unusually large flood at Titusville. The water over- flowed the banks of Oil Creek in the upper part of the city, and sent a river down by the Gibbs & Sterrett Manufacturing Company's works on South Monroe Street. The flood of February, 1883, was caused by the sudden melt- ing of snow.
The Great Disaster .- The flood in June, 1892, was the greatest by far that has ever happened in Oil Creek. In 1859, on the night of the 4th of June Saturday night, occurred in all this section of country the most destructive frost ever known by the oldest inhabitants. Thirty-three years later to a day .- on the same day of the month, on Saturday night, June 4, 1892, the greatest of floods, together with a frightful conflagration, not only destroyed at Titusville a great amount of property, but a large number of human lives. For several days preceding the disaster, there had been in Oil Creek valley, a heavy downpour of rain, almost constantly. By Saturday morning, June 1, Oil Creek had risen to the top of its banks. All its tributary streams, all the swamps and all the soil of the watershed were full of water. Oil Creek rose constantly on Saturday. At about noon it began to rain in steady torrents, which continued the rest of the day and greater part of the following night. At nightfall, streams of water were running in many of the streets in places where the ground was low. This had been experienced before, when no ser- ious results followed. The inhabitants in those districts were by no means easy in their feelings, but they hoped for the best, and made no preparation
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for an escape from a sudden deluge. But the dam at Spartansburg gave way, and the mighty waters, as if angry because of their past imprisonment, rushed forward in fury, to take revenge. They bore down and swept away all op- posing forces, and hurried on to reinforce the over-swollen current of Oil Creek. The united waters then rapidly rushed onward to ingulf Titusville, and they did overwhelm all the lower parts of the city. At three o'clock on Sunday morning Oil Creek had taken possession of all the flats in the west end of town. All the space on Monroe Street. as far north as the third door of the Hobart Building, all Perry Street, as far north as the Carter tene- ment houses, all Washington Street as far north as Spring Street, all Frank- lin, to the north side of Eason's Mills, and up Martin to the north side of Edwards' coal yards. On the south side, the water ran to the same level, so that one standing at the corner of Washington and Spring at four o'clock in the morning, could look across a river, the other side of which was the lower parts of the old Acme Refinery Yard.
But before this the water had gone into buried tanks of Rice & Robin- son's Refinery, lifted out the contents of oil and benzine, and sent them upon the surface of the water down stream. They rode in safety until they reached Schwartz Refinery, below town. There they ignited and an explosion fol- lowed. Tanks and stills at that refinery were blown into fragments. This was only the beginning of the fire's destructive work. The streams of oil and benzine, borne downward on the surface of the water, carried the flames back to the International, the Rice & Robinson, and the Oil Creek refineries. Then followed terrific explosions of stills and tanks. More oil was let loose, and in a short time from the Oil Creek Refinery down the surface of this river of rushing water, was a sheet of flames. Large and small buildings were burned to the water's edge. The long freight station of the W. N. Y. & P. Railroad, with its contents, was consumed. All the buildings of the Rice & Robinson and the International Works were destroyed. A large number of wooden residences were burned. The passenger station of the W. N. Y. & P. R. R., built of brick, and its wooden platforms under water were left, but the row of wooden buildings opposite, including two hotels and the works of the Union Furniture Company, and all the wooden buildings in the vicinity, were destroyed. Piles of lumber near the water's edge were burned. The machinery of the Holly Water Works was submerged by the flood and ren- dered helpless. The city had two steamers, but neither of them had been
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brought into use for extinguishing fires for several years. There were so many hydrants in direct connection with the water works to which hose could be attached that it had not been necessary to bring them into service. One of them was out of repair, and wholly unfit for service, and the other in not much better condition. It could not have thrown a stream of water an inch in diameter, thirty feet vertically into the air. The city had long before sold all its early hand engines, and one of the three original steamers. In such a helpless condition did the community find itself on Sunday morn- ing on the 5th of June. A large company of citizens had gone Saturday morning to Canadohta Lake to spend the day there. They spent not only Saturday, but all Saturday night. and most of them all day Sunday and Sunday night. water-bound by the floods that had carried away parts of the railroad track.
All the western part of the city, as perhaps nearly all the eastern part, was saved from conflagration by the very agent that had occasioned the disaster. When the oil fire of 1880 occurred on the south side, the natural current of the wind was from the northwest. A large fire always creates a current of the atmosphere, which takes the direction of the natural current, that is, the direction of the wind at the time. In 1880 the city was saved by the direction in which the wind was then blowing. But on the morning of the 5th of June. 1892, the wind blew from the southeast. Intense heat in- creased the current from that direction. The roofs of the buildings in the western part of the town were deluged with bits of smoking shingles from the burning buildings in the flood. But all the wooden roofs in the town were drenched and saturated with the downpour on Saturday and Saturday night. The house-yards and the sidewalks were also covered by the pieces of charred wood, some of it still burning, which came in showers. But the deep moisture everywhere present quickly extinguished every spark of fire contained in the flying missiles. The saddest part of the narrative remains to be related.
Early in the morning after daylight word was passed that lives had been lost in the night, but at first nothing definite could be learned. People were pressed by a dread of fire on the north side, and in their anxiety they devoted their attention to the progress of the fire on the roaring flood. The people on the north side soon came to know that they were powerless to resist a fire of much dimensions. The single steamer, even if capable of effective
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service, could have availed little, if several points in the upper part of the town had been attacked simultaneously by the flames. At the Rice & Robinson Refinery were two iron tanks, thought to contain gasoline. Should these tanks explode, they were so near to piles of hemlock bark belonging to the tannery, that they would inevitably set fire to the bark, and then nothing could prevent a conflagration which would consume all the vast piles of bark, the tannery itself and all the western part of the city. The anxiety of the crowds watching those tanks became intense. Finally it was believed that the tanks would escape. Then people began to investigate reports concerning the loss of lives, and it soon became known that several had perished. Heroic work had been done during the night and the next morning in rescuing peo- ple, confined in buildings which were exposed to the flames. One expert boatman had saved the lives of several persons. After a time dead bodies were discovered, and two undertakers' establishments were converted into morgues. A meeting of citizens was held at the City Hall at 12 o'clock on Sunday, and a Relief Committee started. Roger Sherman was made the chairman of the committee. Joseph Seep and John L. Mckinney each subscribed $500; other subscriptions were rapidly added. Special committees were appointed to provide for the immediate wants of those in distress. Some persons had escaped from houses to save their lives, and they were without shelter and food : many had lost everything and they were absolutely homeless. Rouse's Armory was opened as one of the asylums for the destitute and hungry, citizens brought out their stores and their treasures. The City Hall became a bee-hive of industry in receiving, assorting and delivering, by systematic arrangement, supplies with promptness and without unnecessary delay, so that physical suffering was temporarily at an end. The number of dead bodies brought to the temporary morgue rapidly increased. Some of the dead persons had been drowned, others burned. It is possible that some persons died from drowning and their bodies had afterward been burned. In one house nine bodies were found burned beyond the possibility of recog- nition. The nine human beings who thus perished in that building were identified by the fact that the family and the house were well known. It was also known that most of the family were in their house at a late hour the night before. The father and one of the daughters were absent from the town. The mother and seven of her children, together with a ninth per- son. perished. The father and the daughter, who escaped, were the only
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members of the family ever afterward seen alive. More than sixty bodies of persons, who lost their lives in that catastrophe in the fire or by drown- ing, were recovered and buried at Titusville. The deaths of all were satis- factorily traced, so that identity was practically established.
The citizens of Titusville had in several instances contributed liber- ally to other communities in distress. And now, when their town was in deep affliction, they thought it would be proper to give notice through the Associated Press that contributions from outside to the relief committee for the benefit of the sufferers would be thankfully received. But before this announcement many generous people telegraphed the relief committee to draw upon them for amounts respectively stated. Governor Pattison, ac- companied by Mr. Rudolph Blankenburg, representing a relief society of Philadelphia, and another citizen of Philadelphia, representing the Red Cross Society, reached Titusville on Tuesday afternoon, June 7th. Mr. Blanken- burg raised the question as to whether the relief fund should be given di- rectly and exclusively to the sufferers, or whether a part of the fund should be set apart for aiding the proprietors of industries, whose works had been destroyed by fire or flood, and their hands thus thrown out of employment, to rebuild and renew their lost business. For the sake of correct history. the writer, who was present at the interview with Mr. Blankenburg referred to, certifies to the conversation herewith reported. To the inquiries made by Mr. Blankenburg, representatives of the Titusville Relief Committee re- plied that contributions to this fund would be understood to have been made in all cases solely for the ultimate benefit of the sufferers, that a part of the fund would be applied at first for the direct relief of sufferers, without par- tiality, and according to apparent needs; but it might appear that not a few of the sufferers could receive substantial help by restoring the industries of their former employers, so as to renew to them the situations which they had lost by the calamity, and with that view of the subject the committee would distribute the relief fund in such a manner as, according to the con- sensus of judgment of the members, the greatest good to the sufferers could be accomplished. Upon this answer to his questions, Mr. Blankenburg exe- cuted a draft upon his society for $5,000, and presented it to the committee.
The committee received a large amount of money, and distributed a large amount. It is believed that they aimed to discharge their trust im- partially and with conscientious fidelity. They received no pecuniary com-
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pensation for their services, which were of a highly responsible character, and which involved duties that were tedious, wearisome and often exceed- ingly disagreeable.
In closing the narrative of the great calamity of 1892, the writer thinks it is due to history to give an account of the kind of return which a powerful community made for a kindness rendered to it when in distress years ago. On Sunday, October 8, 1871, the city of Chicago was visited by a most destructive fire, which lasted until the next day. By this disaster many thousands of people were suddenly turned out of comfortable homes into blackened streets, stripped of their possessions and destitute of the necessities of life. The Mayor of Chicago on Monday telegraphed to the country a cry of distress, and Titusville was among the first to hear the cry. On the night following the appeal from Chicago for help, a meeting was held at the Titusville Oil Exchange to take action upon the subject, when William H. Abbott wrote his name at the head of the subscription for $1,000, for the relief of the Chicago sufferers. He was immediately followed by A. H. Bronson, who subscribed the same amount. Jonathan Watson sub- scribed the same amount. Four banks, the Citizens', the Savings, the Sec- end National and the Producers' and Manufacturers', each subscribed $1,000. F. W. Ames and C. H. Ames together subscribed $1,000. Others subscribed each $500 and less. The total cash contributions amounted to $12,400. We had at that time several wholesale groceries in Titusville. The next morn- ing two box cars were loaded with smoked and dried meats, with flour, butter and other kinds of wholesome food; with clothing, bedding, boots and shoes, etc. With $12,400 in money, Mr. Abbott, on Tuesday, having secured an order from the managers of the A. & G. W. Railroad, as well as an order from the superintendent of the Oil Creek Road, to attach the two supply cars to the first passenger train, took the noon train for Corry, accompanied by the two box cars. At Corry the two cars were hitched to train No. 3 on the A. & G. W., and on Wednesday, the day following Octo- ber IIth, within fifty hours after the Mayor's appeal, Mr. Abbott was in Chicago with the two cars of supplies and $12,400 in money. He at once paid $1,000, as by order of its contributors, to a particular sufferer designated by them. The supplies he turned over to the authorities, and the $11,400 in money he gave to George M. Pullman, Treasurer of the Aid and Relief Society. This occurred nearly twenty-one years before the great calamity
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