Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-10-16
them to meet horrible death in one gran,
funeral pyre.
The burning of the Court House.

From Farwell Hall the flames darted over an
eutire block communicating with the dome OF
the Court House. Almost Immediately it was
a mass Of FIRE. The flames leaped, and danced,
and caroused about, darling far into the heav
ems. The Imagination cannot conceive a spec
tacle more grand Words fail to express its
subimity aud, once seen, il can never be for
gotten. la ten minutes the entire structure,
built in the most massive style, presented the
appearance Of a mammoth furnace, superheatel
with the fires Of hell. At seven minutes before
two o'clock the dome was seen to sway in the
wind. IL rocked to and fro for few moments,
and then fell down, down, three hundred feet,
into the heart of the building, with deafening
crash that resounded all over the city.
Other Prominent Bui.dings.
In the meantime the dre-king ragged with un-
abated fury elsewhere. The block OF buildings
intervening between the Court House and Far
Well Hail had been seized upon, and were rapid
~ devoured. Pope's Block, the Board Of
Tale building. Smith a. Nixon's hal.
and other enormous structures of stone and
brick were speedily reduced to ruins. On the
west side of La Sale street the immense insur-
ance buildings shared like fate.
a Desperate Remedy.
At this point, il having become evident that
all ordinary means Of fighting fire were useless,
another destroying agent, gunpowder was
brought into requisition, in the hope that by
leveling n few blocks to the ground the course
OF the destroyer would be stayed. Half dozen
barrels Of powder were placed under the Union
Bank Building, on the corner of LaSalle and
Washington streets; an explosion followed, and
It was RACED to the ground in an instant But
the remedy, desperate as it was, had been ap
piled too late. The flames had already reached
the Merchants Insurance building, in which
the telegraph office was located, and, before the
heroic men who were fercely battling to sub
4, -. q l.l.a sl,..
tions, had extended over the entire block and
reached far toward the main river to the
northward. From that point nothing could be
done TO impede its course, and the entire dis
lance west Of LaSale street. and from Harrison
street on the south to the river on the north,
was gigantic sea of fire. Every structure was
under the dominion of the fre-hend, and fell
into dust and ashes at the magic touch.
The sherman House.
From the Court House to the Sherman House
was but step, and long before the dome fell the
latter structure afre from roof to founda-
ton. The gueAts had all escaped some of them
carrying their trunks upon their shoulders
while others had barely time to esca pc with their
lives. Those who remained, in tho vain en-
deayOr to save whatever of value remained in
the house, had to fly for their lives before the
tornado of fire, and not q few, il is said per-
ished in the awful holocaust. Onward sped the
cUHutGr8lloht llcklhS up everything IN It's track.
The fremont House, the Adams House, the
Great Union Depot, the long blocks of palatial
stores on Lake and South Water streets, Alike
went down before the awful judgment from
Heaven. Nothing was left in its track but the
charred and smouldering walls of what had
been less than twenty-four hours before Chi
Cages proudest boast.
The Pacific Hotel.
While the confagration had been raging in
the track indicated, those located further south
had not escaped. Another current had swept
further east, that was quite as disastrous. The
new Pacific Hotel, nearly com pleted at a cost OF
almost million of dollars, and located on the
corner of Jackson and Clark streets, had caught
fire and was burning with terrible fury. The
ediice was eight stories in height, and built of
Cleveland stone in the most substantial manner.
II occupied an entire block, and was calculated
TO accommodate, when completed, nearly 200
guests. As the flames rushed through its open
corridors, m united through its floors and poured
out of its thousand windows the spectators gazed
speeches with awe. What "A splendid spectacle
il presented and how forcibly did it illustrate
how futile were all appliances of man when op
posed to the all consuming element! The flames
roared with the noise .ot Niagara, mounting
higher and higher, twisting and eddying in
the wind, shooting hither and thther like the
outbursts of the Internal regions. Dante in
his lDferno, never pictured a scene more appal-
ling or narrowing than that which was spread
out before the upturned gaze of the gathered
thousands.
More Devastation.
The new building of the Lakeside Publishing
Company was the next to fall a prey to the
fiery element. It was hardly finished, but its
walls tottered and crumbed and fell within a
few moments. Away to the north rushed the
torrent. DeHaven block the new Bigelow
House, just completed and about to be oceu-
pied, the two magnificent marble buildings of
ii. ii. HOnore, Lombard block, the Post Office
and Custom House, the offices of the Times,
Post, Stats Zeitung and Union, one after an
other fell, burying beneath the ruins countless
thousands OF dollars worth Of property. From
Van Buren, street down to Madison the fire
confined itself to the west side of Dearborn
street, leaving Sheppard block, the Tribune
building, Anderson's European Hotel McNick-
er's Theatre, and a large number of business
blocks to the eastward intact, and it was hoped
that the line thus marked would be saved. But
all such hopes were doomed to disappointment.
From the Times office the flames stretched
across the street aud enveloped the Dear
born Theatre, the popular home of min
strelsy, from thence passed on east and north
carrying everything before it. From Portland
Block, on the corner of Dearborn and Washing
ton streets, the tongues Of fame reached across
70 Crosby's magnificent Opera House that had
Just been redeoorated at cost Of $40 600 and
IN less than twenty minutes it was numbered
among the things that were. The st. James
Hotel and the long row Of six-story marble
stores fronting on both sides Of State street for
a distance of three blocks, followed in quick sue.
cessOn.
Field, Letter a Co.'S Store.
Day had now broken, but only served 10 rem
der more apparent the horror Of the scene. For
a long time 1t was supposed that the large store
OF Field, Letter a. Co. would survive the terri
bic srleal. The buildings surrounding
it on every hand were burning
hercely. That alone seemed to stand
superior to the fire. For an hour and a half
hundreds of brave men put forth every energy
70 save it from destruction. Scores of lines OF
hose were employed to quench the flames that
ever and anon caught about il. As the walls Of
the building adjoining it fell all danger was
supposed to have passed, and shout Of joy
arose from ten thousand throats. But alas
abou, this time the water works on the north
side were burned, the supply of water gave out
and the building had to be abandoned to its fate
That fate soon overlook it, and, together with
almost its entire contents, consisting of goods
valued at nearly three and a half million dol
lars it went down just as thousands of less pre-
tentloas buildings had gone down before.
From here the course Of the carnival of FIRE
was untrammeled. Along the line, as fast
as the gunpowder could be carried in
buildings were blown up remorse-
iessly. The detonatons were heard in
every direction, and each explosion told the
fate of some stately pile of brick and mortar
But yet the Internal fire ragged, all efforts to
check its progress being as impotent as would
De the effort of fly to stop the speed of P rail-
road train. All nOrthward and northeastward
of the building was leveled to the ground.
scarce one stone being left above another to
mark where the most pretentious structures
had once stood 4: last it died for there was
nothing more to burn. every vestige of the
lower part of the city having disappeared in
smoke and ashes.
Another Current of Flame.
As have already mentioned, the last cur
rent of the fire had passed down the west side
of Dearborn street to Madison, and thence east.
ward leaving still valuable portion of the