USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 15
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CHAPTER XHI
THE GREAT MILWAUKEE FIRE
The most serious fire that ever occurred in Milwaukee was that which broke ont October 28, 1892, often referred to as "the Great Fire." The fire started in the evening of the date above mentioned at 275 East Water Street, between Detroit and Buffalo streets, on the premises of the Union Oil com- pany, and quickly communicated to an adjoining wholesale drug establish- ment. The fire spread to other large buildings near by and involved a large portion of the Third ward before it was finally got under control, destroying sixteen bloeks which included extensive residence districts. The surging flames shot high in the air and the reflection of them in the heavens conld be seen at a distance of thirty miles from the city in various directions.
"The conflagration," writes Mr. E. P. Bacon in Conard's history, "was prevented from extending farther northward than Detroit. Street by the strong wind which prevailed from that quarter. It extended eastward and sontherly to the lake in one direction and to the main arm of the river in the other. It swept over the side traeks of the Chicago & Northwestern railway which were filled with standing cars, and there were 215 ears con- sumed, most of which were loaded with merchandise of various kinds. The freight houses of the company were partially destroyed, with a large portion of their contents.
"The loss sustained by the company, ineluding claims paid to owners of freight damaged and destroyed, amounted to $160,000. The total number of buildings destroyed by the fire was 440, of which 81 were brick and 359 were of frame or wood. The value of the buildings and contents destroyed, as estimated by the officers of the fire department, was upwards of $4,500,000. The insurance thereon was $2,111,450, which was collected by the owners."
Fire engines from other Cities .- Two firemen and an unknown man were killed during the efforts made to combat the flames, besides a minber se- riously injured. Fire engines from the cities of Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Oshkosh quickly arrived in the course of the evening and rendered effective aid. Four engines from Chicago with forty men came by the Chicago & Northwestern railway, the train making a speed of fifty-six miles an hour, but they did not reach the scene until near midnight when the fire had been brought pretty well under control. They afforded great relief, however, to the almost exhausted force of the Milwaukee fire depart- ment in staying the further progress of the flames.
"The region devastated by the fire," contimies the narrative, "was one
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of the oldest quarters of the city and contained a large number of frame dwellings which had been occupied for many years by a class of laboring men with their families, mainly of Irish origin. Large business blocks, how- ever, used for commercial and manufacturing purposes, covered the western portion of the region, a large number of which were destroyed. Hundreds of families were driven from their homes by the flames in their rapid progress. without opportunity being given by the ovenpants to resene any of their possessions."
Relief Measures Organized .- A mass meeting of citizens was called the following morning by the Chamber of Commerce in the exchange room of their building, and measures were promptly adopted to afford relief to the vietims of the conflagration. A committee was appointed to take general charge of the work of providing relief, known as the "Board of Organiza- tion and Control," consisting of the following persons: E. P. Bacon, F. G. Bigelow, C. C. Rogers, J. E. Hansen, I. C. Payne. Washington Becker. Jas. A. Bryden, P. I. Somers, Patrick Cudahy. Rev. J. J. Keogh. J. G. J. Camp- bell, Frank Siller, James flannan, and George W. Porth. Mr. Bacon was elected chairman.
A special Relief Committee was appointed at once to which all applica- tions were to be made, and through which the distribution of funds should be administered, consisting of J. G. J. Campbell. chairman ; Rev. J. J. Keogh, James Hannan, George Koeppen, Frank Siller. Bernard Goldsmith, Adolph Meinecke, Rev. Judson Titsworth, Rev. James D. Foley. Paul J. Foley, Cor- nelins Corcoran. G. Frellson, and R. D. Whitehead.
Efficient Aid Extended .- The committee had the advantage in organizing their work of relief of the example furnished by the Chicago Relief and Aid society in their work of a similar character after the great Chicago fire. twenty-one years before. The report of the Chicago society was published in a thick volume of 440 pages, in 1874. The report gave a complete history of that great event and of the disbursements made in the vast work of relief after that unparalleled disaster. and the committee had access to the record there printed for their guidance.
The population of Chicago at the time of its great fire (in 1871: was 334,270. The loss of life was estimated to be not less than three hundred persons though the mumber was never accurately ascertained. The property losses were given at $196,000,000. One hundred thousand people were driven from their homes by the Chicago fire. In the work of relief the vast sim of $5,000,000 was disbursed, contributed by every civilized country on earth as well as by every state and nation of the western hemisphere.
The Chicago World's Fair was dedicated October 21. 1892. seven days before the great fire in Milwaukee occurred. It will be remembered that the World's Fair was not opened to visitors until May first of the following year, namely, May 1, 1893. An interval of over six months took place between the "dedication" and the formal "opening." The immense amount of news in regard to the World's Fair which filled the ordinary channels of the newspapers prevented the wide publicity which the great importance of the Milwaukee fire would otherwise have claimed.
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The work of the Milwaukee committee was of much the same character as that of the Chicago committee though of course was not on so large a seale. Both committees discharged their Herculean tasks in a thoroughly eredit- able manner, so that both cities have always taken pride in the splendid record made by them.
Methods of Relief .- The first and most pressing needs were food for those rendered destitute, and shelter for the homeless. The Milwaukee com- mittee lost no time in supplying food and money as the first requisite and then proceeded to make plans to provide houses for the victims of the great conflagration.
"This committee devised a plan for the systematie canvassing of the city for funds," says Mr. Bacon in his account, "but voluntary contribu- tions were offered so freely that solicitation proved wholly unnecessary. The spontaneity and liberality with which money was poured into the hands of the committee by all classes of citizens, was a demonstration of human kindness and sympathy rarely witnessed. Many of the individual contribu- tions were three or four times as large as would have been expected if solicited. and people of all conditions of life and of all creeds, were par- tieipants alike. Over $53,000 had been contributed before three o'clock of the day following the fire."
The population of Milwaukee in 1890 according to the Federal census was 204.468, and ten years later, in 1900, it was 285,315. Thus for the year 1892, the year in which the fire occurred, it was not far from 230,000.
"Telegrams were received from the mayors of several eities and from various commercial organizations offering aid, which were gratefully ac- knowledged, but the kind offers were courteously declined on the ground that local contributions were on such a scale that they seemed likely to meet all requirements. Several contributions were, however, received from indi- viduals residing elsewhere who were former residents of Milwaukee, or were specially interested in her welfare.
"Collections were taken for the relief fund in all the churches of the city on the Sunday next following the occurrence of the fire (October, 30), which amounted in the aggregate to $6,293. Members of several branches of trade and elerks and employees of large establishments, and some benevolent societies also, made up separate funds among themselves, which they con- tributed to the general fund. Several newspapers. both English and German, opened their columns for subscriptions to the fund, through which medium $10.448 was contributed and added to the fund. Proprietors of the principal places of amusements gave benefit performances, the proceeds of which were contributed to the fund. By the 14th of November the contributions amounted to $136.825, and the Board of Organization and Control adopted a resolution to the effect that a sufficient amount of money had been subscribed to meet all probable requirements for the suitable relief of the sufferers by the fire, and directed that the public be so notified through the press of the city which was immediately done.
"The two principal railways whose lines concentrate in Milwaukee, namely : the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the Chicago & Northwestern, each
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contributed $5,000, although the latter suffered a very heavy loss from the fire. The Milwaukee Street Railway company also contributed $5,000."
Work of Various Committees .- Other committees were appointed in order to make more effective the work of relief, one of which was an advisory committee to give aid and counsel to the fire sufferers in their endeavors to better their condition, and also to aid in the proper adjustment of insurance claims. This committee consisted of Bernard Goldsmith, chairman : Rev. J. J. Keogh, Benjamin M. Weil, Matthew Keenan, and Peter Doyle. The committee rendered valuable assistance in numerous cases. A committee on providing quarters was also appointed to devise some plan for temporary quarters for families unable to privide dwelling places for themselves. This committee con- sisted of S. E. Hansen, chairman ; Jeremiah Quin, John Johnston, Edward Bar- ber, and Emil Durr.
The report of the last named committee recommended that barracks be constructed for 100 families, or such portion as might be found requisite. on such suitable publie or private grounds as might be seenred for the pur- pose. The recommendation was adopted and the committee was authorized to proceed at once with the erection of the barracks. Before the close of the week the barracks for ten families were erected in the Lake Shore Park grounds. It was then found that dwellings and apartments had been secured for occupancy by the homeless families to such an extent that further provision was unnecessary. In a short time all the homeless families were comfortably housed and provided with needful furniture and bedding.
The Board of Organization and Control held two meetings daily during the first three days following the fire, and daily meetings thereafter during the ensning week, then less frequently until the 15th of December. A few days after the fire the relief committee was authorized to give to the head of each family made destitute by the fire the sum of $50, and, in addi- tion thereto, $5 for each child or other dependent of the family. for the purpose of immediate relief. On the 5th of November the sum of $70 to $100 was authorized to be given to each family for furniture, varying according to the size of the family, excepting to those whose loss of furniture was made good from insurance.
No money was given to any person or the family of any person owning real estate or other available property. Pupils in public or parochial schools who had lost their school books in the fire were supplied with new ones, and mechanies who had lost their tools were provided with money to purchase a new supply. Sewing women were supplied with sewing machines and work- ing girls received money for new clothing. "The case of every applicant for aid in any way, " continues Mr. Bacon's narrative, "was carefully investigated by the relief committee. It is believed that very few if any received aid from the fund that were not in destitute circumstances and had become so in consequence of the fire; and on the other hand that none who were rendered so destitute were refused needed aid."
Expenditures for Relief .- During the winter months following the fire aid had been rendered to 1,710 persons, including members of families and single persons, mostly old people in the receipt of monthly allowances. By the 6th
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of May, 1893, the number requiring continned aid was reduced to fifty-seven persons comprising old, and infirm people, widows and invalids. The amount remaining in the hands of the treasurer was $655, which was ordered to be distributed among the remaining beneficiaries from month to month until exhausted. The total amount thus distributed, according to the treasurer's statement was $137,436.
"It is worthy of note, " coneludes Mr. Bacon's chapter, "that the entire expense incurred in the administration of the fund was only $1,158, being less than one per cent of the amount disbursed. There was received for in- terest on deposits $1,016 which nearly covered the expenses of administra- tion."
The systematie manner in which the work of relief had been performed by the various committees working in cooperation reflected the highest eredit on the public-spirited citizens who devoted time and means to the relief of distress resulting from the losses in the great fire of 1892.
The Great Fire of 1871 in Chicago .- During the preparation of the man- script for this history the City of Chicago has been engaged in the eommemo- ration of the fiftieth anniversary of its great fire which occurred on October 9th, 1871. This event also elaims the particular notice of the people of Milwaukee because of the distinguished share they had in the work of relief and aid rendered by them in that dreadful event.
In the report of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, published some three years after the great fire, in a volume of over 400 pages, there oeenrs frequent mention of the aid rendered by the people of Wisconsin and Milwaukee in particular to the sufferers in that great calamity. The numerous proclamations and telegraphie messages calling attention to the extremely serious nature of the disaster, and the words of sympathy thus extended, accompanied by more substantial gifts of money and provisions to the people of the stricken city, are briefly noticed in the following quotations from the report.
On the day of the great fire, the governor of Wisconsin, Hon. Lueins Fair- child, issned a proclamation. in which he appealed to the people of the state for aid to the sufferers from forest fires, then raging, in the regions of the northern part of the state. That part of the proclamation referring to the Chicago fire was as follows: "The telegraph also brings the terrible news that a large portion of the City of Chicago is destroyed by a conflagration, which is still raging. Many thousands of people are thus reduced to penury, stripped of their all, and are now destitute of shelter and food. Their suffering's will be intense, and many may perish unless provisions are at once sent to thent from the surrounding country. They must be assisted now.
"In the awful presence of such calamities the people of Wisconsin will not be backward in giving assistance to their afflicted fellow-men. I, there- fore recommend that immediate organized effort be made in every locality to forward provisions and money to the sufferers by this visitation, and suggest to mayors of cities, presidents of villages, town supervisors, pastors of churches, and to various benevolent societies, that they devote themselves immediately to the work of organizing effort, collecting contributions, and
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sending forward supplies for distribution. And I entreat all to give of their abundance to help those in such sore distress."
Response to the Call of -Humanity .- From far away Switzerland was re- ceived a message from the United States minister to that country, Hon. Horace Rublee, well-known in Milwaukee (having been appointed to that post by Pre- sident Grant, the year before), addressed to Mayor Mason of Chicago, enelos- ing a draft for $1,500 for the relief of the fire sufferers. In the accompanying message Mr. Rublee said, "this sum is the amount of divers contributions made in Switzerland for the benefit of the sufferers by the great fire in Chicago, and forwarded through this legation."
A message was received by Mayor R. B. Mason of Chicago from H. Luding- ton, mayor of Milwaukee, on the day of the fire, saying, that a car load of pro- visions would be sent the next morning, and this was followed up by the visit of a representative from the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce with offers of further supplies and contributions. Mayor Ludington closed his letter accompanying this offer with a warm expression of sympathy in these words: "Yours with respect and sorrowful feeling for the sad calamity that has been east upon your once beautiful city."
Many ear loads of provisions and materials of all kinds were sent to during the period of distress through which the city passed in those troublous Chicago by the kind and generous people throughout the state of Wisconsin. days.
CHAPTER XIV
LINCOLN IN MILWAUKEE
The centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln occurred February 12, 1909, and the anniversary was distinguished at that time quite generally throughout the country by a great number of newspaper articles and remin- iseences concerning this renowned man. The vast volume of literature in existence, know among collectors as " Lincolniana, " received a great acces- sion in that year and has continued to increase ever since. Much additional information in the form of the recollections of former friends, neighbors and associates has been published, and the newspapers of former years have been carefully searched for every serap of mention or reference to the great Eman- eipator.
Thus we find that Milwaukee has had a notable share in the incidents of Mr. Lincoln's wonderful career. In a previous chapter of this history we have described Mr. Lincoln's appearance in Wisconsin, first as a captain of Illinois volunteers in the Black Hawk war of 1832, and some years later as a visitor to Milwaukee and Port Washington while on a search for a location for a future residence.
Again, in 1859, Mr. Lincoln came to Milwaukee to make an address at the State Fair, in September of that year. An article by J. E. Moriarity was printed in recent years, in the Milwaukee Free Press, giving interesting de- tails of h's visit, and quotations from his speeches made on that occasion.
"Few among us remember the day, " writes Mr. Moriarity, "when Mil- waukee was just branching out of its inlaney, that Abraham Lincoln spoke before the people of this city at the State Fair, held September 30, 1859, at the old Broekway Fair grounds. There was nothing about Abraham Lincoln in those days to distinguish him much above the average man in public life. True, it was just following the close of the famous 'Lincoln-Douglas' debates which had trained the eyes of the continent on the rising young lawyer of Illinois. fle had battled his way in a few short months to the front rank among the orators, and when the time came for choosing a speaker for the annual exhibit of the Wisconsin Agricultural Society Abraham Lincoln was invited as worthy of that honor.
Previous Visits Referred To .- "Before going further," continues the writer. "we might state that this was not Mr. Lincoln's first connection with Milwaukee. Few among us know how close Milwaukee came to being the home of the martyred president of the United States. Back in 1836 or 1837 (the exact date is not known) when young Lincoln was a member of the
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Illinois legislature, he began to look about him for more lucrative prospects in his law practice. He was then living in New Salem, and it was about this time that he came north fo Milwaukee which was a thriving town in those days. He found the prospects here favorable but went on to Port Washing- ton for further investigation, He returned to Milwaukee after a short stay, and soon afterward he went back to his home in Tinois." The writer then quotes from Henry Bleyer, the veteran newspaper man, who said of the visit, "he did not meet with much encouragement in Milwaukee, however. The same was true of Port Washington."
It was not until 1859 that Mr. Lincoln again came to Milwaukee, this time as the state fair orator. "There was no brass band to greet him at the depot when he arrived. There was no crowd of hacks or swarming reporters. It was just plain Abraham Lincoln, the citizen, who was met by a representative of the State Fair board and quietly conducted to the old Newhall House where he was to stay."
The old Broekway Fair grounds were located at Twelfth Street and Grand Avenue which was "the edge of the city" in those days. Just where the platform stood from which Lincoln spoke is a much disputed question. It was somewhere, probably, near the intersection of the two streets-near the grand stand not far from the gate. "It was a dusty day, a high wind sweeping the grounds, making it uncomfortable for speaker and audience. The papers of the next morning made slight mention of the occasion, merely that "at the conclusion of the address three lusty cheers were given to the . Kentucky boy.' "
"That was all." proceeds the account. "And yet but a few months later the country over was ringing with the name of Abraham Lincoln." In the National Republiean convention. held in the following May at Chicago, he was nominated for the presidency and triumphantly elceted in the following No- vember of 1860.
Epitome of the Address .- "One feature, I believe, of every fair is a regular address." Mr. Lincoln began. "The Agricultural Society of the young and prosperous state of Wisconsin has done me the high honor of selecting me to make that address upon this occasion, an honor for which I make my profound and grateful acknowledgment. I presume I am not expected to employ the time assigned to me in the mere Hattery of the farmers as a class. My opinion of them is that, in proportion to numbers, they are neither better nor worse than other people. In the nature of things they are more numerous than any other class, and I believe there are more attempts to flatter them, the reason for which I cannot perceive. unless it be that they can past more votes than any other. On reflection I am not quite sure that there is not a positive suspicion against you in selecting me. in some sort a politician, and in no sort a farmer, to address you. The farmers being the most numerous class, it follows that their interest is the largest interest. It also follows that that interest is most worthy of all to be cherished and cultivated and that if there be inevitable conflict between that interest and any other, that other should yield."
"Mr. Lincoln then branched into a discussion of labor and capital, the
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relation of one to the other, a discussion that has often been repeated, and which has been heard many times in Milwaukee sinee in the Socialistie campaigns," continues Mr. Moriarity. "But he was not a Socialist. Mr. Lineoln's argument aimed rather at the existence of slavery and he had not talked many minutes before he struck right into the heart of his subject.
"He met a willing audience. He was in the heart of the abolition north, in the country where everyone was excited, where the Missouri Compromise was being fought ont as bitterly as the conflicts in the war that was to follow.
"Those farmers of Wisconsin, whom he did not flatter, whom he did not praise, were attracted to him as a man, and according to the few survivors who remember his speech, cheered him repeatedly throughout. They were free men, believed in free labor, and his comparison of the lot of the 'mud tiller' with the 'free laborer' touched them with sympathy for the black men of the South who were held in bondage to the soil which they tilled : who were sold as so many cattle, were traded back and forth as so many horses, who worked their lives throughout, creating wealth for their owners but never a eent for themselves.
"No community whose every member possesses this art (the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil) can ever be the victim of oppression in any of its forms. Such community will alike be independent of the crowned kings, money kings, and the land kings."
Took Interest in the Fair .- Lincoln was given a rousing applause, "three Insty cheers for the 'Kentucky lad.' " "Sneh words today," continues Mr. Moriarity's narrative, would be hurled across the continent, printed from coast to coast in a single day. He was attacking an institution. that institution that while it was tottering seemed to be on its strongest legs, bound to exist as long as the South was the South and the North was the North.
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