Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-10-18
Incidents of the Chicago Fire, Related
by an Eye Witness.

/ The Chamber of Commerce took
fire at two o'clock Monday morning
and in half an hour was in ruins.
About the same hour the gas works
blew up leaving the city in total dark
ness. The Court House took fire
about three o'clock and was burned
with two cells full of prisoners which
were confined in it awaiting their
trial. The flames reached the Sher-
man House about the same hour and
our informant tells US that five min
utes after it first caught, escape from
the building was impossible. A num-
Der of persons were lost in the Sher-
man, but how many or who, will
never be definitely known. They
were guests of the house who slept
until escape became impossible.
The Bigelow House burned about
two O'Clock A. NJ. with q rapidity
that was positively amazing. Thirty
minutes after it began burning the
outer wall fell into the street. A
crowd was standing opposite and as
the torrent of heat poured across the
street they all, but one, bent close to
the ground and escaped. In the
streets and yards on the margin of the
burnt district, horrible scenes appear
ed on every hand, women in rich
dresses with children half clad and
crying for food, crouched behind walls
and fences, or lay prone Oh the ground
with the faces in the dust striving to
escape suffoeation, and in this position
were trampled over by the maddened
hurrying crowd fleeing from the fire
or attempting to carry valuables out
of danger. Thousands of tender chill
dren and delecate ladies were abso-
lutely without food or protection,
crazed with terror and nearly dead
with fatigue and famine. One invalid
carried on a bed down the stairway
of her own residence when the fires
overlook the bearers and they left
their burdens to the flames. The loss
Of life must have been terrible. Hack
men were offered as high as $500 to
carry a single load of valuables be-
yond reach of the flames. The fire
originated on the West Side, near the
South Branch, in a barn where a
Norwegian woman was milking a
cow. The lamp was kicked over and
the fire started.
The following streets running north
and south are totally destroyed from
the river as far south as Harrison
street, which is the first east and west
street south of the Michigan Southern
Passenger Depot: Market, Franklin,
Wells, Lasalle, Clarke, Dearborn,
Fourth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, State,
Wabashc1Avenue, Michigan Avenue.
The following Streets, running east
and west, are destroyed from the
river to the Lake: South Water, Lake,
Randolph, Washington, Madison,
Monroe, Adams, Quincy, jackson,
Van Buren, Harrison, West Polk.
The Tribune building stood the fire
nobly, but finally some brick build
ings in its rear burned with such an
intense heat that the rear wall of the
Tribune building fell in and the whole
magnificent structure went up like
finder box.
Many familias gathered their valu-
ables and removed to points on the
streets where they supposed they
the fire would break out again, and
they would be driven from point to
point like terrified animals.
Potter Palmer is supposed to be
totally ruined. Not an insurance
company in Chicago was worth cent
alter the fire reached the building of
Field, Letter & Co.
The suffering is still terrible, our
informant having found it impossible
to obtain a mOrsel of food or even a
drink of water from Sunday night
until after dark on Monday evening.
Large crowds of poor women with
their children and the few household
goods they could secure, took refuge
in the tunnels under the river. The
fire burning close up to the openings
at either end Of the tunnels prevented
their escape, and in these horrible
pens scores perished from suffoeation.
Along the streets women with rich
dresses half torn from their persons,
covered with dust and cinders, lay in
the cutters asleep, overcome with ia
tigue and famine and the terrible pros
tration that follows intense nervous
excitement.
Horses by hundreds were roasted !
to death in livery stables, in private !
barns, and even in the streets. So !
terrifying was the heat, the smoke, |
the roar of the flames and the rush of |
terrified crowds that the animals lost |
all instinct and could not be driven |
from the destruction that awaited |
them.