Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-12

that visited that place.
Human annals do not surpass, in equal
time and space, the immensely and intensi-
ty Of suffering and death crowded into the
meager epitofne of one single hour. The
scene of thriving industry, and the home
of nearly hundredpeople,t the place, though
isolated from any human vicinity, had
maintained a flourishing and Tranquil vital
ity. The single mill, with its coadiutant
industries, gave employment to the entire
people, women and children dividing the
easy labor of shingling and binding There
were but four buildings onthe clearing-the
MILL the general boarding house, a store
and the barn Economy and. convenience,
curious to say, had dictated the selection of
this remote spot. The timber inexhausti-
bly, covered the place, and it was of I'M
equalled quality; lazy little stream mean
dering through the gnarled roots and soft soil
offered a supply of water, enough with ar
tesian wells to drive the mill machinery. II
was cheaper to work the great logs into
marketable shape here. where they were
right at hand, than establish the mills on the
lake or bay and drag the immense timber
over miles of Wfetched roads. The fiery
experience of the west shore-Of the whole
Northern Wisconsin-had been the expert
ence of this wood-immersed hamlet. For
weeks, incesSant, laborious battle had been
waged night and day, reliefs of men, and
even women, taking turns in the exhaust
ing contest, 1t was hoped that all danger
had been waided off, when wide belt,
fully a mile deep, had been burned outward
from the clearing. The serenity of assured
safety had come upon the people when this
black Recommendations was cOmplete-the
very night before the calamity. On that fatal
Sunday morning the mill operations suspend
ed, and the men who had homes in the neigh
boring towns Of Big and Little Sturgeon
made an early start through the
woods. When night came some
kindly providence detained them, and the
massacre was so much less. The night
came on TRANQUILITY, the humid air gave
grateful promise of coming rain, and the
last lingering distrust was banished from
the timidest inhabitant. Early in the night
most of the little population in the hamlet
were in doors or in bed. II was still early
when those casually astir outside saw a
great glowing light shoot atwaIt the south
ern sky, and spreading rapidly west and
northward, continue with dazzling brilliancy.
Presently a slender column of fire shot for
ward, and, caught by whirlwind, came
blowing through the solid timber toward
the mill. By this time the solid seepers
| and all had rushed from the barrack in a
wild, clamoring consideration.
Three brothers, Williamsons, owned the
mill, and had in the colony mother, father,
sisters, wives and children. Hastily eharg-
! ing the women to care for themselves, the
brothers set about saving the property if
possible. But before the hose could be
! brought TO bear, the saving of life alone be-
came the stake in The dreadful encounter.
| TIE brothers, as proprietors, seem for atime
to have been full of calm, brave discretion,
and, with the full realization Of the sudden
| danger in the first rush of the tornado, at
! tempted systematic plans of preservation.
| The women were directed as far as possible
! TO put on mems clothes Throughout, as offer
/ ing less chance FOR the fire to catch. So far
| as known, not a woman needed the advice.
! Had they done sO,their lives might not have
been sacrificed on that ignoble pyre. Even
! if life had not been spared, the most
! revolving sights Of the massacre
would have been spared for
! heaTt-brOken survivors. This was the last
| shred Of coherent conduct among the fright
ened people. Swift whirling columns Of
/ fame had cut through the intervening tim
! Der, and felf voraciOusly on the light frame
buildings. The whirlw ind lashing the trees
into fragments caught the fire in roaring
| surges, and flung it about in billowy waves
among the tree-tops. Slender tongues of
! fire falling from above played in malevolent
| currents across the clearing. a desperation
Of terror filed men, women and children
a terror as natural as fatal, for, had COM
mon fOTtitude led the group, not soul need
have persisted. With one impulse the fran
tic mass, battling and crowding, rushed to
the potato patch. Here a rising ground was
| crowned by shallow pit, not six feet
around, and hardly, at the deepest part, two
feet below the surface of the ground. Men
now living, who came almost unsclthed
through that night of doom, tell how, before
the evil time, when the fires were raging,
this spot had been fixed on as a place Of
safety, because, almost in the center of
the clearing, with no infiammatCry
matter near, it seemed to promise a breath
ing in case Of a general cOntagration. There
had been constant jocosities and banter
about this "center of salvation and some
one actually attempting to enlarge the cavi-
ty, had been driven off by gOod-natured
ridicule. Even as late as Saturday it had been
used as place Of refuge, notwithstanding,
and, when the actual danger came, the cred
ulOuS mass remembered the delusiYe pit. II
that fatal spot had not been, if the whimsi-
cal belief had not obtained a firm hold
there is not the slightest doubt but the for
ty-seven that persisted would have escaped
in the neighbOring woods Into that cramp-
ed place, crowding, bufleting, begging, curs-
ing, imploring, praying, shrieking, men
children and women elbowed and fought in
] II.
terror. Not large enough to admit a dozen
by the closest packing, nearly fifty wrestled
! and crowded in and about the fatal spot
With ostrich instinct, in the abjectness o.
their unreasOning fear, men plowed theil
, burning heads under the living pyre. Al
iueXtricable pyramid of bodies, in all sort:
of conceivable poStures, stood in the fame
: swept place.
There were a few in this awful time that
preserved an amazing equanimity. The EN-
gineer of the mill, Byron Merrill, a young
fellow of marked character and intelligence
battled resOlutely till the last chance to savC
his employers property, and only when tn,
, futility of the effort and the danger to lifl
became obvious was his seIfimposed dut,
resigned A bit of romance tinges TIN
qlaring picture. His sweetheart was TN
relative of the nill-owners, Miss Magc
Williamson, a girl, it is said, of rare beaut,
and attraction. The young fellow, brigh
, and cultured beyond his kind, regarded witt
favor and affection for many mile around
had won her heart and the two were t.
, have been married. The girl, wit
her kindred, had fed to the potato patch
and here, sutiocating with smoke
their garments in flames, and writhin
i'm awful agony, the young fellow foun,
the chief part of the people. lie tried t
Z scatter the infatuated group; with his ha
pressed closely over his mouth and nostril:
2 he directed the group to break and TAX
- shelter in the edge of the timber. Hopeless
} The roar of the hurricane, even the blood
= curdling shrieks Of the sufferers d-oWne
= his voice. He tried by main force to tea
2 the hideOus mass aSunder, but the Strengt
f of the giant could not have broken th
maddeued clutch Of the wTetched sufferers
G The group was immovably fixed to the fata
T spot, and rose from burning sand, fer
: LAGOON struggling with the coiling flame,
t Merrill, hastely fetching wetted blanket!
o threw them over the nearest sufferer
{ meantime shouting To them to break for III
r timber, not twenty steps away. Useless
o With the skin hanging in shreds upon Ii
c Lands and forehead, lac carried water an
n poured it on the infatuated group, while I'll
e iguoble crowding went OIL madly anon