Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-10-26
WISCONSIN FIRES.
Particulars of the De.truction of the VII
TsSr,,SIa TTrSS M T,osa ~ LIZ ana .onssa1

os Of The Of
Terrible Loss OF Life and ,operty.
MENoMoNEE, It. IL, 1871.
The village of Peshtig6 is burnt to
the ground, and 1000 persons are out
of homes and employment.
Fire had been raging around the vii
lage some days before, but had become
subdued, and the people felt secure;
when on Sunday night, all of a sudden,
when the wind was blowing a rnado,
it again broke out from the fires of the
camps of the hands at work ON the |
railroad, and Immediately overwhelmed |
the village, inmates of houses having |
only time to escape as they rose from |
their beds.
The people living in the main portion |
of the village were driven by the rush !
ing flames directly towards the river, |
and, horrible to contemplate, cattle had
preceded them and blockaded up the
passage to the bridge; consequently
human beings had to take to the water,
where large portion were either burned
to death or drowned.
1t is reported that some $50 men, find
ing escape cut off, took to a large barn
were burned up in it.
Oconto mainly, as being the nearest vii
lage, which is south of Peshtigo. The
villages of Marinette and Menomonee,
six miles north, being themselves partly
on fire, offered no chance for help or
protection to the sufferers from that
quarter.
Menomonee has suffered to some ex-
tent, how much we are unable to tell.
1t is conceded some of the mills and
some dwellings have been burned. The
mill on the Point, known as the Gil
more mill, the property of R. Stephen
son & Co., has been destroyed.
At Pensaukee between twelve and
fifteen barns and dwellings on the Little
River road were burned. The farmers
in that section have suffered generally
in the loss of fences and hay, and many
of them have been burned out wholly.
From the Fond du Lac (wis.) Commonwealth.
GRAPHIC ACCOUNT BY ONE WHO HAS BEEN THERE.
The first news of great disaster is gen.
orally exaggerated, but the first reports of
| the recent fires in the northeastern part of
| this State fell far short of the truth. When
| we heard that Peshtigo was burned and
sixty lives lost everyone said it must be an
exaggeration. They could not understand
| how, in a village, so many lives could be
| lost; but recent visit to the fields of desc
lation and death made us wonder how any
| were saved.
| From Oconto, twenty-five miles north of
| Green Bay, we went by teams through the
burnt district to the Sugar Bush, Peshtigo
and Marinette. The FIRE came close to
| Oconto, the people having to work hero
| ically to save the city. For the first eight
miles north of the city the country was
| burned over, destroying immense quantities
! of timber and some houses Scarcely an
1 of
| owners could cut the pine which was burned
SO badly as to kill it, and get it manufac-
| tured into lumber this year, the loss would
not be so fearful; but it would be impossible
to cut so much in one year.
Eight miles north of Oconto the tornado
began its terrible work of destruction. From
| this point to Peshtigo, distance of twelve
| miles, the timber was very heavy. Where
| the tornado began the timber was mostly
pine, and farther on it consisted of oak,
beach and maple, many trees running up
| eighty feet to the first limbs. 1t is probable
that the tornado carried the fire along with
it with wonderful rapidity. For mile after
mile not tree of any size was left standing,
only a sapling here and there bending to
the blast, withstood the storm. The trees
were blown down, the roots in many in
stances, after the trees had fallen, standing
twelve to fifteen feet high, with rocks and
dirt among them, were left. The ground was
either covered with ashes or burned until it
looked red. The underbrush, the small
limbs of the trees, the bark, the leaves,
were all burned. 1t seems impossible that
a week ago it was a forest of evergreen
pines.
Wherever there was culvert in the road
built of logs and covered with ground it
was burned; also, the logs in the corduroy
road, leaving the ground hollow. There
was no sign of life, either animal or vegeta-
BILE. Deer and partridges were lying along
the road burned to death. About fifteen
miles north of Oconto is the lower Sugar
Bush Settlement. The road through the
bush runs east and west. The land is
cleared back and cultivated about three
quarters of mile on each side of the road.
The farm houses were scattered along this
road for a distance of five miles. Not a
building nor a fence is left. The clover
fields were burnt over as if stubble; every
stump was burned black, and in many in
, stances in plowed fields the stumps were
, burned entirely up, leaving holes in the
ground where the roots had been. The
heat must have been intense. We saw the
iron work of a wagon by the roadside, and
there was no evidences of any combustible
material near the wagon, and yet not a
splinter of wood of the wagon was
, left. The skeins had dropped in theil
proper places, with the tires lying around
them. The chain used to iasten the oxer
4 | to the wagon was stretched out from where
| the forward axle would have been, and a
Y the other end of the chain lay the irons o
, | the end of the tongue.
! Near by where every farm house had
= stood, were lying dead horses, cattle anC
hogs. Through this settlement runs a small
stream of water; the fish in it were dead
q In this district but one family was saved
/ They ran down into a creek behind a small
+ mound of earth Others went into the stream
4 | but were found dead. None of the inhabit
y ants were burned in their houses. The,
| r IL 4 l.. 4 4
A Mr. May was found three-quarters of :
II mile northwest of his home, his wife abou
e the same distance north, and his. little boy
{, four years old, about the same distance north
" east. The Newberry families, consisting o
: seventeen persons, were all lost. They lives
l. three farms. Old Mr.. Newberry was no
J. found. Charles Newberry ran about half
mile and fell, and his two little boys, run
ming hand in hand, were found a little be
yond the father, side by side, while the wifi
and mother was found on the road near
3 bridge; she, forgetful of her own suffering
6 tried to save her babe. Her chsrred han
i was pressing the head of her chill upon tn
II ground, so that it might not breatAe the fire
q The child's face was all that was uninjured
One of the Newberrys was found dead il
water under the bridge. Warren Church
probably to escape a worse death, cut hi
y throat with a jack-knife. Charles Lam
II took his wife and four children in a wago
e when the fire began; the horses became un
N manageable, and ran away; the childre
. were thrown out one by one; finally Mrs
Lamb was thrown out. Mr. Lamb wa
dragged into the corner of field, and wa
l. the only one of the family saved. Mrs. Cal
r oline England, expecting to be confine
d every hour, rode four and a halt miles, t
le Peshtigo, stood in the water five hour
,e saved three out of four of her sisters chi
# dren, and gave birth to daughter the da
off In La of 0r,na ptrch H.,
jumped into barrel of rain water this
y stood near the house, but seeing his lathe
le and mother in a green turnip patch, starte
le to go to them; but getting badly burned g
j. he tried to climb the fence, he went bac
$ and got into the barrel again. The fathe
20 and mother were burned. The boy wa
70 found there, two days after, alive. Th
* Davis family found refuge in a well. Th