The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-07-12
FIRE IN UPsHUK COUNTY.
Six Persons Burned 10 Death in One
House.
From the Buckhannon News of the 7th.

six persons bufueu 10 Deutu IN Onf
House.
From the Buckhannon News of the 7th.I
One of the most terrible and heart
rending accidents which has ever hap
pened in our county occurred on the
night of July I'd. The house of Mr..
John Quick was destroyed by fire, and
most sad to relate, his wife and three
children, and two children of near
neighbor, Mr.. Kimball, six in all, per-
ished in the flames.
How the fire originated is not known,
as none of the neighbors discovered it
until the next morning, and of those in
the house not one was left to tell the sad
tale. Mr.. Quick himself was absent
from home, as he is engaged in carrying
the mail to Beverly.
On the morning of July 3rd, some of
the neighbors seeing the house no long
er occupied its site, crossed the river to
see what had happened, and to their
horror, discovered the roasting remains
of the victims in the ruins. They were
all clustered together as if the children
had flown TO the mother for help and
thus had perished together. 1t is GER
elCdb uOhC 90
capped, and there are various theories in
regard to it; one is that the house was
struck by lightning, and all either
killed. or stunned so as to be unables to
escape, by the same bolt that fired the
house; another, that they had been
murdered, and the house fired to conceal
the crime; but either surmise is, we be-
lieve, untenable, and the true facts in
the case will perhaps never be known
until the last great day.
Since writing the above we have re-
ceived the following account, furnished
by f. J. Burr, Esq, who lives near the
sad scene: -
On the night of the I'd inst, in Wash.
ington township, near the mouth Of
Truby's run, on the east bank of the
Buckhannon river, Upshur county, the
house known as the Berlin property was
destroyed by fire, and six persons burn
ed to death-Mrs. Quick and her three
children, and two girls of Mr.. Kimball;
the Oldest about thirteen years and the
other ten. Mr.. John Quick, the hus-
band and father, had gone to Huttons-
vile, carrying the mail from that place
to Sage. His wife, being afraid TO
stay alone, Mr.. Kimball's children
were called in to stay all night. How
the house caught fire is not known,
but is supposed to be accidental. They
were all lying in back room in the
lower part of the house-three in bed.
l arrived at the place about six o'clock
A. NJ. l shall never forget the awful
scene-the house in ruins, the six bod
les burning; three lying side by side,
and the others in the same way at an
other place, apparently just as they
were lying in bed. My first conclusion
was that they all suffocated before the
fire reached them. Mr.. Kimball, the
father of the oldest girls, had got there
few minutes before. The poor man
was almost frantic with grief aud sor-
row; he met me few rods from the
smoking ruins exclaiming, "Oh! how
can | stand this; oh that | had died
with my children" tried to comfort
him, but in vain. He went back into
the hot ashes over the remains of one
of his children and tried to raise it.
advised him to let them be till Mr.,
Quick would come. In short time a
person was sent to meet him on his way
back from Huttonsville-he arrived in
the evening overwhelmed with grief.
1t was surely heart-rending to see the
poor man.
A coffin having been made by this
time, the remains that could be foun
were placed in it, and buried on Sunday
at IL o'clock A. NJ