The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-11-03
WISCONSIN FIRES.
Psrsicslsr, Of the Ds:truction OF the VII
Terrible Loss Of Life and ProPerty.


MENoxoNEE, Oct. III, 1871.
The village of Peshtigo 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 sudden,
when the wind was blowing 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 large barn
! belonging to the Peshtigo Company and
were burned up in it.
Oconte mainly, as being the nearest vii
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 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
acre of ground escaped unburned. If the
owners could cut the pine which was burned
80 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 a tree of any size was left standing,
only 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 forest Of evergreen
pines.
Wherever there was a 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 a mile on each side of the road.
The farm houses were scattered along this
road for distance Of FIVE miles Not
building nor 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
splinter Of woodwork Of the wagon was
left. The skeins had dropped in their
proper places, with the tires lying around
them. The chain used to iasten the oxen
to the wagon was stretched out from where
the forward axle would have been, and at
the other end of the chain lay the irons of
the end of the tongue.
Near by where every farm house had
stood, were lying dead horses, cattle and
hogs. Through this settlement runs small
stream of water the fish in it were dead.
In this district but one family was saved.
They ran down into creek behind small
mound Of earth others went into the stream,
hut were found dead. None of the inhabit-
ants were burned in their houses. They
were found scattered in the fields and woods.
A Mr. May was found three-quarters Of
mile northwest of his home, his wife about
the same distance north, and his little boy,
four years old, about the same distance north
east. The Newberry families, consisting of
seventeen persons, were all lost. They lived
near each other. They owned a mill and
three farms. Old Mr.. Newberry was not
found. Charles Newberry ran about half
81. onJ foil and his two little beys run