Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-11-01
THE WISCONSIN CALAMITY.

Mr.. LRnguntby, who went from
Milwaukee as agent for the Chamber
of Commerce, to carry supplies to the
suffering in the Peshtigo district, after
giving an account of his disposition
of supplies, says:
visited the hospital at Green Bay
where two hundred have been cared
for, but those injured least have been
removed to other quarters and only
fifty to sixty of the worst cases are
retained in the general hospital-al-
though all are yet charge In the
hands OF the committee. / have
visited many army hospitals, but
have never had my sympathies so
much enlisted as in this one at Green
Bay.
For miles between Ahnapee and
Horns Pier the fire has cropped out
black and sombre to the waters edge.
There came into Little Sturgeon,
while I was there, Smith Weldon,
wife and two children, who were
saved by taking to a small creek, and
keeping themselves wet through the
intolerable heat on both sides. Sc
bastian Zimmerman, with his Spartan
wife and four beautiful children,
came aboard the TruesdelI at Pesh-
tigo, who also saved themselves in
the same manner, each of the parents
taking two children. They were in
the water five to six hours, and suffer-
ing from heat and cold.
Mrs. Williamson of Williamsonville
informed me that herself and one son
are all that are left of the family of
eleven persons, having lost her hus-
band, three sons, one daughter, two
daughters in law, one grandchild, and
her niece. Fifty-nine were burned
to death in an incredibly small space,
out OF a population of seventy. The
eleven saved are more or less burned,
some Of them badly. She was saved
herself by getting upon large stone
In a potatOe field. A woman was
burned at her feet, in such close prox-
unity as to much endanger her life.
The burns she bears were from the
burning dress of her neighbor. She
says the first intimation she had of the
coming firewas hearing the roar of the
approaching tornado. She looked up
and saw the flames above the tops Of
the tallest trees, while there. was as
vet no fire below. In an instant the
fire swooped down upon the fated
settlement, embracing about four acres
cut out from the surrounding forest.
Truly the race was to the swift. and
Fire was the master, and it almost
seems ss if it were possible that the
oxygen of the atmosphere was en-
ployed in a detached condition as a
special conductor.
In the hospital at Green Bay I saw
a mother SCARED and crisped from
head to foot, who had wrapt her child
in a blanket and fled before the fire
king; but human speed was INSULT
cient to cope with the relentless mon
ster, for she was overtaken. The
horrible contrast between her dread
full appearance and that of her
smiling babe shows the depth Of
a mothers love grated In the human
heart by the Masters hand. Such
unselfish love must be immortal.
No man can travel that vale of woe
and misery without having his SYM
pathies actively aroused, even il they
are lower down and buried deeper
than the attraction of gravitation.
N early Tie 6BllIc bcbNlcIueHlS III OOOT
and Kewaunee counties are stricken
from the face of the earth, and Sena-
tor Harris, who is intimately &C.
quainted there. thinks that not less
than ONE THOUSAND persons have
met the horrid fate Of death by fire.
1t is as yet impossible to traverse the
country, for the grim sentinels Of the
forest have bowed their lofty heads,
the lesser branches bnrned off, the
links black and sharpened and either
lie PROSTATE on the ground or at such
angles as to present an impenetrable
d6dttis to man or beast. There they
lie, sombre and impressive monitors
of the fury Of the fire fiend; there
many of them will lie, sable monu-
ments of a great human sacrifice,
until we shall be forgotten on this
earth. Twill close this hastily written
report by saying that the most urgent
need of the sufferers for the present
will be feed for their cattle and horses,
although hundreds of them have met
the fate of their owners.