USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of Wisconsin from prehistoric to present periods : the story of the state interspersed with realistic and romantic events > Part 50
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
The servants' quarters were on the fifth floor of the hotel, and along the alley side of the building, about twenty feet north of Michigan street. The rooms were built along a hall, running north and south, and totally separated from the guests' apartments by heavy doors. The first that the girls knew of
509
THE NEWHALL HOUSE FIRE.
the fire was the appearance of Linehan, the engineer, who awoke them and directed them to follow him without waiting to dress. After Linehan gave the alarm the hall swarmed with girls, while he, thinking they would follow him, rushed down stairs to find that only one had obeyed his instructions.
While the attention of the firemen was called to the danger of the servant girls, all possible speed was made toward the alley side of the doomed building. Already some ten or more had jumped to the pavement below. Foreman Curtin, of Truck No. 2, called to the girls not to jump, that a ladder was being brought to rescue them. At about this time Foreman Riemer, of Truck No. I, noticing that what is known as the Frackelton building was just opposite the alley, thought of a brilliant idea. He ordered a ladder to be dropped across the alley from this building, to reach into the servants' windows. Her- man F. Stauss and George Wells were the first to reach the roof of the Frack- elton building, and deftly handled the long, ungainly ladder, and not long after, the anxiously waiting spectators below were overjoyed at seeing the ladder crash through a window in the burning hotel. Over this bridge were safely helped many of the panic-stricken girls. Another ladder was spanned over the alley, and over this, too, were the girls rescued. The firemen kept on with their good work, until all the servants within reach had been safely trans- ferred to the ground.
Mary Gavin, one of the girls who escaped by this improvised bridge, was awakened by screams and cries in the hallway. She quickly called her room-mate and together they rushed into the hall, which was full of smoke. They attempted to reach the stairway, but were driven back by the heat and smoke. Many of the girls now rushed to the windows facing the alley, which they threw open, crying loudly for help. The smoke by this time had become so thick that nothing could be seen in the rooms and hallway. Miss Gavin stood at the window waiting for help. Some of the girls had fainted, and were lying there, seeming to be suffocated. Miss Gavin went again to the window, calling to the men to do something. The ladder was then thrown across and over this Miss Gavin and the girls made their escape. The unconscious girls were carried across by the brave firemen.
Mary McCauley, another of the girls that escaped over the ladder, says: "I was awakened by the shouts and screams of the others and ran into the hall. It was full of girls, rushing wildly up and down, crying and screaming. I rushed to the end of the hall, peeped through the door and saw everything was smoke and fire outside. I then ran back and passing a room where seven girls had taken refuge, joined them, and we all knelt in prayer. One of the girls had a crucifix and a stout woman prayed out loud. Just as we had given up all hope, the window crashed in our room and I fainted. It so happened the firemen with the ladder had found our room out of thirty others, and we, with a few others, were saved."
510
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
General Tom Thumb and wife occupied a room directly above the Michigan street entrance, on the third floor. They were awakened by Police Officer O'Brien, who loudly knocked at their door. The officer was admitted and sought the window, which he hastily threw open. A ladder was raised and General Thumb descended, followed by Officer O'Brien bearing Mrs. Thumb in his arms. The descent was safely made.
Orange Williams, of Janesville, occupied a room in the fifth story, facing Broadway. He was awakened by a noise in the hall and on the street. He opened the door leading into the hall, but found it filled with smoke; he then retraced his steps, and sought the window in his room. The crowd below, hearing his cries, shouted to him that a fire-escape was close by toward Wisconsin street. He again went into the hall, and groped his way along the wall, and, after stumbling over a fallen person, at last reached the fire- escape and descended in safety. J. C. Clark, of Wausau, was on the fourth floor. He heard the noise around him, and rising, lit the gas, and dressed. He was well acquainted in the hotel and knew the exact location of the fire- escapes. After dressing, he left his room, entered the hallway, although filled with smoke, until he reached the window leading to the escape, down which he passed in safety, to the balcony, from whence, through the office, he reached the street.
T. J. Anderson, of Chicago, occupied a corner room in the fourth story. He was aroused by the cries of the victims, and, upon opening his door, found the smoke and flames bursting in with terrible fury. He retreated to the window near the Benner fire-escape, and called wildly for help. Detective McManus shouted to him to come down on the escape, which he did. The only article of wearing apparel which he had on was a gauze shirt. John L. Kellogg, of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, had a room in about the cen- ter of the third story, facing Broadway. He was awakened by a piece of hot glass from the transom falling upon him. He jumped up, immediately tore the bed clothes into strips, tied them together and made a rope. On this he first lowered Miss Warren, of the Tom Thumb Company, to the balcony, then he followed and both escaped.
M. Moran, of Beloit, Wisconsin, occupied a room on the third floor. The noise around awoke him, but he supposing it was the servants preparing break- fast, lay in bed several moments. He next heard the cry of "Murder !" "Fire !" and the cries of the terrified inmates. He jumped up, looked into the hall, but was driven back by the stifling smoke. He then grabbed his clothes and again started out into the hall. While running down, he stumbled and fell over the body of a woman. Two other women were rushing back and forth crying. Moran took hold of one by the arm, and attempted to pull her with ' him. She, however, broke away and ran back into the burning building.
511
THE NEWHALL HOUSE FIRE.
The hall was all afire at the end, which for a moment stopped his flight, but hearing a man shout, "Come through, it is only two feet deep," he rushed on, and reached the outside of the building in safety. Samuel Martin's room was situated on the third floor, opening on the court. The noise awaking him, he seized his trousers, and rushed toward the alley down the servants' stairway. While on his way he noticed a man nearly nude, coming from a room and falling. He hastily threw a sheet over him. He also saw a thinly-clad woman, over her shoulders Martin threw a blanket, After reaching the alley, he hastened to the Kirby House, where he found the man sitting in the office over whom he had thrown a sheet while escaping through the burning hall. The self-same sheet was still doing service in lieu of a suit of clothes and an overcoat.
J. W. Maxwell's room was in the third story, near the elevator. He was resting uneasily and awoke, seeing the flames over the transom of his room. He heard the cries of the victims in the halls, and hastened to the door. At- tempting to open it, he was unfortunate enough to break the key in the lock, making escape by the door impossible. He then ran to the window, tore out the sash and dropped to the roof of the court, which was but a few feet below. Running along the roof, amid the falling sparks, he came to another window, through which he climbed, sought the door, but that was also locked. He returned to the roof and entered window after window in an effort to escape through the door and hallway. At last he was successful, and dropping on his hands and knees, crawled through the hall, filled with smoke, and made hideous by the groans and shrieks of the unfortunates unable to make their egress, he finally succeeded in making his escape.
C. W. Briggs, of Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, occupied a room on the third floor, opening on the court. He was awakened by the breaking of glass, caused by the heat and draft through the hall. He grabbed his clothes and hurried out into the smoke-filled hall. He ran one way, but was checked by a wall of fire, compelling him to turn and seek safety in another direction. A torpor seemed to seize him, and it was only with the utmost effort that he was able to shake it off. He reached the stairway, blindly ran down it, but fell at the head of the second flight and rolled to the bottom, receiving severe bruises. He was, however, saved.
Emil Flesh occupied a room on the third floor, on the Broadway front. He made his escape by tearing his blankets into strips and tying them together. Upon this hastily improvised rope he safely made his escape.
Edward P. Haff, of New York, whose room was on the third floor, facing Michigan street and adjoining the alley, says: "A terrible sensation of a crushing weight upon my chest awoke me, and I lay for a moment dazed and half smothered, and heard a clock strike four. The thick smoke in the room
512
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
was stifling, and groping to the door I opened it. The rush of flame and heated air, not smoke alone, but scorching, burning air, met me, taking away my breath and well nigh my senses. A reeling form, with hair and whiskers burned from the face, and eyebrows gone, staggered toward me with wide open mouth, gasping for breath. From the parched throat came inarticulate moans. I pulled him into the room, closed the door, and tried to open the window. It was locked. I broke a pane of giass, and caught a whiff of God-given air. By the light of the burning building I could see the telegraph wires twenty feet away and half resolved to jump. My companion in the room revived a little, and said he had come from No. 221, only four rooms distant, and yet he nearly perished in making the journey. His name was Mahoney, and he was from Rock Island. Covering our faces so as to breathe as little of the torrid air as possible, we again opened the door and ran along the hallway toward the alley. We met a young woman staggering through the smoke and groping along the walls, apparently blinded or dazed. As she was almost naked I caught up a couple of sheets, threw them around her, and tried to lead her with me. She was hopelessly frightened, however, and could only moan : ' My God, my God, I can't.' She finally fell into an open doorway, and I left her lying across the threshold. My companion and I crossed the bridge into the bank building and descended to the ground."
W. F. Schmidt slept on the fourth floor. When awakened his room was already filled with smoke, and he became for an instant terror-stricken. Realizing his danger he shook off the terror, and pulling on his trousers, ran from the room. The hall was filled with smoke and people striving to escape. The desperate people were hurrying along, crowding against one another, in their endeavors to escape, even tramping over the pros- trate forms already overcome by the heat and smoke. In his haste to find the stairway, Mr. Schmidt struck his head against a door or casement, and lost consciousness. When he came to, he was sitting on the floor, with his ears and nose blistered by the terrible heat. He strove helplessly to find the stairway, but of no avail, and prepared to meet his fate. Suddenly he found some one grasping his hand and pulling him along, crying, "This way. This way." Some one else took his other hand, and in this manner the trio rushed to the stairway. Half-running, half-tumbling, the steps were traversed to the passage below. There was a woman curled up on the floor. "Don't step on her," the rescuer cried out, "she is dead." They hurried through the boiler-room and escaped through the alley. The brave man who rescued Mr. Schmidt was William Linehan, the fireman of the hotel. He had also rescued the woman lying in the passage-way, supposed to be dead. She was after- wards resuscitated.
513
THE NEWHALL HOUSE FIRE.
William E. Cramer, editor and proprietor of the Evening Wisconsin, and his wife, occupied a suite of rooms in the southeast corner of the building, on the floor above the office. Mrs. Cramer was awakened by the noise of the roaring and crackling of the flames in the elevator shaft, and quickly arising, opened the door, and perceived that the fire was in the elevator, and the hall becoming filled with smoke. She called her husband, urging him to seek safety without waiting to dress. He hesitated, but was pulled by his wife across the hall to the south staircase, which was partly on fire. Placing herself between him and the flames they descended the stairway, and reached the office floor. A hack was summoned and Mrs. Cramer and husband were con- veyed to the Plankinton House, and only then did the couple discover that they had suffered injury from the fire. Both were terribly burned about the lower limbs, shoulder, neck, face and head. Their feet were also blistered.
REDUCED TO RUINS.
Julius and Herman Bleyer, the authors of the well-written little book, styled "Burning of the Newhall House," thus described the burning building: "An hour after the discovery of the fire, the towering walls of the hotel simply bounded a huge furnace, that sent upward immense clouds of vapor and smoke. Into the quivering heat of the inner ruin the fire department continued to pour water from seven engines ; nothing more could be done. At 5:30 o'clock the Broadway wall of the ruined structure bulged out and fell to the pavement with a thundering crash, followed shortly after by a portion of the Michigan street wall, near Broadway. About this time a piece of the cornice and a mass of brick fell from the Michigan street wall, near the alley, where Ben Van Haag, first pipeman of Supply Hose, No. 2, was holding a nozzle with a com- panion, and directing a stream of water into the ruins. Seeing the falling mass they beat a hasty retreat; but Van Haag was not swift enough. The rubbish struck the telegraph wires and broke a large pole into several pieces, one of which felled Van Haag to the frozen earth. He was at first thought to be fatally injured, but he rallied from the effects of the shock and recovered. This was the only serious injury suffered by a fireman during the battle with the consuming element.
"The fire had now burned itself out, but the glowing embers required constant attention. The inner ruin was a fervent crucible, in which was being reduced to ashes the remains of two score of human beings who less than two hours before were slumberlng in blissful ignorance of their impending fate. The blow was almost as swift as the flash of steel. Firemen, policemen and citizens had braved death in the work of rescue, but fate had willed that their efforts should prove futile. The consuming element had the mastery from the
514
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
start, and its work was accomplished with such appalling swiftness that nerves of steel were for the nonce untempered."
IMPORTANT STATEMENTS.
These statements are printed to give an idea of the origin of the fire and the rapidity of its progress :
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM MCKENZIE, ELEVATOR CONDUCTOR.
At 2 o'clock in the morning I took a Mr. Brown, connected with the " Ranch 10" Company, from the first to the third floor in the elevator. After taking Brown I took care of a grate fire in the office, and then made a tour of inspection through the dining-room and kitchen. From the kitchen I went through the cellar and engine-room, and returned to the office floor. This occupied my time a trifle over half an hour. I next went down the main stairway and around, past the saloon, to the ladies' entrance, to see that no tramps had found lodging there. About 3 o'clock I was on the office floor waiting for passengers by the trains which usually arrive at that hour. The train was late and I made another tour of the house, taking in the first and second floors, the bank building, and the kitchen and cellar. On my return at half-past three or twenty-five minutes to four I took up Mr. Elliott, who came on the delayed train. I took him to the fifth floor, where he roomed. There I let the elevator stand, and made a tour of the halls of that floor. While coming around to the elevator again I met a gentleman apparently searching for a room-number. Went toward him and recognized him as a man who slept on the floor above. Invited him into the elevator and carried him up. Again let the elevator stand and made a tour of the halls there. Took a look at the clock on this top floor, and found it to indicate ten minutes of four. This clock could not be depended upon for correctness, however. My time to call the help is 4 o'clock. I had the kitchen fireman to call on this floor, and as I passed the elevator to do so I saw smoke issuing from the shaft at the bottom of the car. I immediately sprang into the elevator and descended to see where it was coming from. By the time I reached the floor above the office the smoke had become so dense that I stopped the elevator and ran down the next flight of stairs to the office. Tom Delaney, the night clerk, was standing in front of the counter. I said to him: " Tom, there is smoke coming up through here, and I am going to see where it comes from." 1 then ran down the main stairway, and around to the main elevator, followed by Tom. I found the passage leading to the Michigan street entrance so filled with smoke that I could not enter. I said to Tom, " Turn the water on," as. I closed the door, and he replied : " I'll telephone for the firemen." Then I rushed into the pitcher closet, and shouted down to Linehan to come up, as
515
THE NEWHALL HOUSE FIRE.
there was fire in the elevator. After doing this I returned to the hallway below and found the smoke as bad as ever. Linehan here rushed past me into the hallway leading to the Michigan street entrance. I spoke : " There's no use staying here. We had better call the house; " with which I rushed up to the third floor, shouting "Fire !" and I kicked in the door of Mr. and Mrs. Cramer's sleeping room ; also the door of room 24, occupied by some of the Tom Thumb people. The fire was now beginning to burst out of the elevator door on this floor. The smoke and fire appeared suddenly and enveloped me so that I gave up the idea of running to the floor above, which I had in mind. In fact, the smoke became so dense that it fairly bewildered me. I dropped upon the floor, and hastily crawled to the passage leading across the alley to the bank building. Here even the heat which preceded me had warmed the knob of the door. The first gust of smoke and hot air from the elevator al- most stifled me. Through the bank building I proceeded to the street, and assisted people who sprang from the windows, and also helped to raise a ladder to Tom Thumb's room, so that he and his wife could be got out.
STATEMENT OF ENGINEER WILLIAM LINEHAN.
I came on duty at half-past 3 o'clock in the morning, and at ten minutes before 4 turned steam on for the office. I then sat down for about ten min- utes, after which I tried the steam-gauge and shut the furnace dampers. At 4 o'clock-perhaps a few minutes sooner or later-I heard the warning call of the night watchman, directing me from the pitcher closet on the office floor. The watchman informed me hastily of the discovery of a fire in the hotel. I ran to the office floor via the rear or servants' stairway and shouted : " Tom, where is all the fire coming from ?" The reply was : "I don't know, but the house is full of smoke." (Tom was the night clerk.) I then ran down to the main floor and reeled off a line of canvas hose, which I dragged up- stairs. As I reached the landing flames were working through the office floor near the elevator entrance. This caused me to run down stairs again for the purpose of directing the firemen, who had arrived and were running two lines of hose into the elevator entrance. After having done this I once more pro- ceeded to the office floor, and encountered Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Cramer and the housekeeper, Mrs. Lusk, near the landing of the old ladies' entrance stair- way. I next retraced my steps to the basement via the back stairway, and got a lamp, intending to run up-stairs to the upper floors and arouse the help. Be- fore doing so, however, I ran forward through the basement to the bottom of the elevator shaft, a distance of eighty feet, and opened the door leading into the bottomt of the shaft. I only pulled the door ajar sufficiently to thrust my head into the shaft. My attention was immediately drawn to flames rushing into and up the shaft through the east wall. This wall was merely a board
516
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
partition separating the wood and general store-room of the Goetz barber-shop from the shaft. The flames did not fill the shaft, but merely rushed upward along this eastern board partition wall. I had to withdraw my head from the shaft quickly, as the current of air rushing upward was so strong that it lifted a silk cap which I wore off my head, and I barely saved it from being swept upward into the vortex of fire. The point where the flames seemed to burst into the shaft was between three or four feet, or a little more than an ordinary barrel high. When I withdrew my head I closed the door and ran back with all the speed I possessed, to and up the back stairway, as far as the tank-room, between the fourth and fifth floors. There I shouted to those above that they should come to me and I would save them. No one responded. I then de- scended to the third floor, where I met a German girl (the vegetable cook in the kitchen), whose name I do not now remember, and asked her if she knew where my sister Kate was. The girl replied that Kate was all right, as she (the girl) had been called by her. I heard someone moaning in the hall, and proceeding through the smoke in the direction of the sound, I found a young woman, who afterwards proved to be Julia Burns, lying upon the floor, sense- less and foaming at the mouth. She was scantily dressed. I took her in my arms and carried her to the landing on the office level and put her down upon the floor. Then I went back up-stairs, found a man lying senseless, and bore him to the same landing, where there was no smoke. This man I covered with a buffalo robe. I went back a third time and brought down a dining- room girl named Christina something, who roomed on the third floor. The fourth trip I brought down Lizzie Anglin, who afterwards died at the Axtel House from effects of burns, although to me, at that time, she did not appear to be injured. The fifth trip put the second porter in my hands, and I brought him down to the same landing with the others. A sixth trip resulted in the rescure of a man whom I encountered with a blanket wrapped around him. By this time the smoke had become so dense that I could not go up any more, and I turned my attention to those I had brought down, taking them out into the alley in the rear of the hotel. Scarcely had the last one been taken out into the open air, when a horrible yell greeted my ears. The voice was ap- parently that of a man, and the sound came from the court. I rushed in there to see who it might be, and save him, if possible. But I could discover no one. While searching the court with my eyes from the doorway, a spark of fire from aloft fell upon my neck, and gave me a painful burn. Other cinders fell upon my cap, and burned that. The man who shrieked in such an un- earthly manner may have been at one of the windows looking into the court. He may also have been upon the brick pavement below, and unseen by me, but there can be no mistaking where the sound of his voice came from. It fairly makes me shudder when I think of it now. After this last effort at life-
517
THE NEWHALL HOUSE FIRE.
saving I beat a hasty retreat into the open air, and not any too soon, as by this time the entire upper portion of the building was a mass of flames.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS DELANEY, THE NIGHT CLERK.
On the morning of the fire I was in the office. Going back to 3 o'clock in the morning, or about that time, two officers came in. One, I think, was O'Brien. They stayed about five minutes. The next person who came in was T. B. Elliott ; that was after the Chamber clock had struck 3:30. He said " Good morning, Tom," and I told the night watch to take Mr. Elliott to his room. The next who came in was Conductor Howie, about five minutes after. He left a small satchel on the settee at the top of the stairway. I spoke to him and got a drink, then walked up the south stairway. That was pretty near 4 o'clock. The next thing I heard was a step on the stairs. I looked over the front stairs and saw smoke rising from below, near the stairs. It was Mckenzie I had heard, and he asked me where the smoke came from. I said down stairs, and we both rushed down, he a little ahead. We passed the wine-room. Who got to the Michigan street door first, I don't know, but when it was opened the smoke rushed through the hall so densely that I was forced back. I ran to give an alarm, which I did by the telephone. That, I knew, was the quickest way to send in the alarm. That was, as near as I can say, about 4 o'clock. It was five minutes to four when I first discovered the smoke. I telephoned: "Send Fire Department to Newhall as quick as you can!" They responded they would be there in a minute. I then set about seeing how the firemen could best reach the blaze. I ran to the Broadway sidewalk and already No. I hose cart was coming down. I looked into the house at this juncture and saw flames had burst from the elevator. I yelled, " Right this way, gentlemen !" Two firemen rushed in with Babcocks, but they saw it was too late for them and hose was run in. I ran into the house and the first ones I met were Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Cramer, in their night-clothes. Two men came in then-officers or firemen-and requested me to let them into the bal- cony. I did so, but the balcony door was not locked. By this time one man had jumped on to the balcony. Mr. Antisdel called me back to the office and asked for the key of the safe. I took it from the cash-drawer and gave it to young John Antisdel, who was nude, and I gave him one of Mr. Lee's coats. I took the valuables out of the safe, jumped out of the office and handed Mr. Freeman's buffalo overcoat to Mrs. Cramer, who asked me to go to their room and get them some clothes. I tried to do so, but had to come back and told her I could not get to the room, and she said, " Never mind." Parlor C struck me just then, where I knew was Tom Thumb. Run- ning there I found a policeman, and I awoke every body in that neighbor- hood. I then run up the north stairs and met Mr. Starr, with Mr. Ludington
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.