Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-04-08
BURNING or THE RICHMOND
THEATER.
A Rare HIstorical Decument

A Rare Historical Document.
From the Richmond Examiner.l
The following letter, written December
%, 1911, from Richmond, by Major A..
s. Woodbridge to Hon. James Peasants,
at Washington, b. c., is given to the
public for the first time, and ia rare
contribution to the local history CT that
city:
DEAR SIR-Thursday evening the
Richmond theater was consumed by fire
and from one to two hundred persons
consumed. Awfully fatal was the event
Of that disastrous night and not one
family in Richmond but mourns the loss
OF some dear connection or esteemed
friend. Among the dead are numbered
the chief magistrate of this Common
wealth, the president of the bank, Mr..
Bolts and family, Ms Gallego, Mrs.
Patterson, and many others of your ac-
quaintance. The Governor had effected
his escape, but returned to rescue his
daughter, and with her was consumed.
Yesterday lis body, out Of sixty-nine
which we're taken from the ruins, was
the only one known; and for that conso-
lation his friends are sl.ne indebted to
his stock.buckle which, uninjured, bore
testimony to the identity of his person.
I'm Mr.. Bolts untimely death and
much lamented exit is recorded course
as amiably magnanimous as rare and
unexampled. AS he could not release
his wife and little children be chose to
bow to the supremacy Of death sur.
rounded by his family, and was seen by
some of his friends standing or an emf
nerce in the house, when all prospect Of
escape had passed away, and with
composure and resolution truly aston.
ishing, consigned an infant he had left
at home to the care of some friend.
After which as the flames approached,
he tore the hair from his head and fed
the fire; and eventually met death in
the embrace of connubial and parental
enthusiasm. Had he lived to the age Of
Methuselah-nay, even to the end of
time, perhaps so glorious an opportunity
might never again have offered, in which
be could bear equal testimony to the
triumph of husband and father over
the loss of life.
1T is said that Mr.. Venable effected
his escape several times, and at last was
buried amidst the general destruction, a
martyr to the finer feelings Of humanity.
A young man by the name of Glib
bon has purchased renown on earth
and an asylum in heaven by having
snatched from the flames a beloved
mother, whom he bore to safety, and re-
turned to rescue her to whom his future
life was pledged He olasped her in
his arms and endeavored to save her,
but the flames enveloped them, and they
died as they would have lived-tendery
dear to each other. Mrs. Patterson
leaped from a window fronting the
second row of boxes and luxated her
neck. A Mr.. Marshall, from one of the
Western counties, saved a number of
women by dropping them through an up
per window, and as he attempted to
save himself by Jumping from the win
dow a lady elssped him round the neck
He was killed and she escaped in safety.
Mr. Edwin Hervie edwin j., son of
General John Hervie, colonel in the
commissary department of Virginia
during the Revolution, NJ c. and regis
ter of the State land registry Office
General John was the father Of General
Jacquline B. Harvie--R a. B whose
heroic exertious will long be recolect-
ed, it is supposed will expire to-day