Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-09-14
SCENES OF DEVASTATION IN
MICHIGAN.
Seven Hundred and Fifty Thou
sand Acres Traversed by Fire.
Six Hundred to Ono Thousand
Lives Lost.
Fifteen Thousand Homeless Peo-
pie.
Special to the Cincinnati Commercial.

Special to the Cincinnati Commercial.
DETROIT, Mich, September 10.-The |
horrors of the Michigan forest fires of the |
present week will never be contemplated in |
all their awful reality without personal |
visit to the burned district. The CONNER |
cial correspondent has this evening re- |
turned from hurried trip to one section |
lately devastated, and is convinced that of
the many heartrending stories of the raw
ages of the fire, not more than one-half has
yet been told The burned district COM
prised not less than 10000 acres of land,
the fires running about sixty miles one way,
and thirty-fv to forty miles the other
Everything is swept away save here and
there house, which in some way escaped
the fury of the flames.
Your correspondent paused before one
section above Sand Beach, where formerly
stood piece of woods covering at least 500
acres To-day not tree is left That 800
acre tract is blackened waste. Driving
along the roadside, where once had stood
the homes of thrifty, well-to- do farmers, as
seen from the steamboats, on Lake Huron
month ago, vine-ciad amid the waving
green, the beholder sees naught but ashes,
and it is among the farming. community
that the blow falls with the greatest Sc
verify. Many came there pioneers, when
the country was an unbroken wilderness.
There they have toiled for more than a
quarter of century, paying for their
lands, building substantial homes, good
barns and stocking their farms with i'm
proved stock, educating their children,
buying farms for their sons and helping
them pay for them, finally, settling down to
enjoy O comfortable old age and the
fruits of honest toll. In less than
an hour their entire possessions are
destroyed by fire. Here is where the blow
will be felt as it was not in 1871. These old
men and middle-aged can not take hold as
they did then. They must be placed upon
their feet and aided in more ways than one,
or they will soon become paupers, tramps
and exiles.
The work of relief is going rapidly for
ward, but your correspondent has seen
enough to demonstrate that the relief can
not come any too soon. At least million
dollars will be required to carry this stricken
people through the winter. Shanties and
temporary houses will have to be built as
soon as lumbtr can be procured, and it is
thought that by spring they will be able to
take care of themselves.
| Later returns indicate that the loss of life
! has not been overstated. The number who
! perished is at least 600, and may run up to
1 1000 as soon as the back country can be
reached The number of homeless persons
will not fall short of $1,000.
| Thus far $50 bodies have been buried at
Sand Beach alone. These bodies were
found in bitches, wells and water pools,
where the victims had taken refuge with no
avail. Many were found on the roadside
and some on the open fields where they
were suddenly overtaken by the heat and
smoke.
At Point aux Barques, way up the mouth
of Saginaw Bay. everything was burned
save the light house on the reef. An intel
ligent man past middle age stated that he
and his neighbors really thought the proph,
ecy of Mother Shipton was being fulfilled
and that the end of the world was at hand
The sun had an unusual, reddish yellow
color. 1t became so dark at MONDAY that
the white sand along the shore became in
visible and the roaring of the flames seemed
i to the panic-stricken people the sound OF
J the last trump.
am told that many of them sank il
their tracks and others rushed right into th'
fire. The sufferers in many places remote
from the villages have subsisted for thre.
r days on the potatoes roasted in the ground
. At Sheridan forty persons were on the verg
of starvation when relieved.
1t is the refugees who remain away from
the villages who suffer most from hunger
, but many of these were SO helpless after th'
fire that they could do nothing but wande
aimlessly about the old homes. Outside o
Sand Beach twenty eight bodies have beel
3 found in five townships.
, The fires are still burning in the swamp
j., in the northern part of Sanilac County, ant
: if rain does not soon fall more damage will
{ be done. One hundred and fifty refugee
from the burned district have arrived il
y Detroit. They are all Poles, who hav
friends here. AS they told their stories il
the native tongue, their quivering lips ant
terrified eyes gave evidence that they ha,
t passed through trying ordeals. These per
sons lived in Paris, where at last account
forty Eight bodies had been found
In Delaware Township, ten persons wer
g found suffocated N well. The survivor
v agree that more persons died from suffoca
h ton than from the fire directly When
began to grow dark Monday, the cattle diet
by the hundreds from fright, and gangs 0
s men are going about burying the carcasses
8 the stencil being sickening.
Several persons state that while the fir
was raging the most iercely, the smoke wa
so great that no flames could be seen, bu
= their terrible roar could be heard, adding t,
J. the horror of the situation. The blacl
cloud was accompanied by terrific hurri
cane and an overpowering heat which ren
dered rea'hing almost impossible. Whe
r it passed away the sky again became re-
J.. and finally brown.
/