Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-09
AN AWFUL CALAMITY,
The d. eadful Forest Fires.

AN AWFUL CALAMITY.
The Dl eadful Forest Fires
Iu addition to the destruction Of prop
erty and lives from forest fires reported
in our telegraphic advices yesterday from
Michigan Mrs. Strong and two children !;
Humphrey, stage driver; Mrs. Frank
d, nnison, child and sister, and George
krietch, who went to their rescue have
perished. Twenty persons are arc reported
to be burned to death in Custer nownship,
Sanilac coaOty. In Bingham township !:
Thomas Barnes, wife, sister, mother and
two children. In Austin township, an
old man named Payne, and Michael
Welsh, wife and two children. Nearly
every farmer in thA township has lost
either his house. barn or crops, or
all Of them. The loss of life and
property is immense. Dead bodies
are being brought in from all di-
rectiOns. 1t is estimated that 500 human
beings have perished, aud that 5000 peo-
pie are homeless and in want of immedi-
ate assistance. The farmers in tho newer
townships lose stock. houses, barns, crops
Everything. a farmer from Austin
township saved his family Of eight chill
dren in field of buckwheat, but the whole
country in that part is totally destroyed
and many lives have been lost. The loss
of livestock is simply immense. The older
settled townships escaped with but little
loss, but in most of the newer townships
nothing remains but tire-swept, black.
ened Wilderness.
The entire section of the country lying to
the north and east of Marictte has been on
fire, and the number of families rendered
homeless will reach the hundreds. Seven
teen persons are known to have met their
death by fire. Tho horse of Ira Hum
phrey, 4 mail courier, came home badly
burned, with a card attached to the saddle
written by Humphrey, stating his peril
from fire. A relief party found him in the
road dead. He was entirely denuded, his
clothes either having been burned Oh his
person or taken off by himself in his des-
pcratiOn.'
In the township Of Argyle, Sanilac coun-
ty, the following were burned to death !:
Paul Whistle, wife and five children
George Gratch, wife and three children !;
Mrs. Morris Welch and two children :;
Mrs. James Gibson and two women re-
Gently from Canada, names unknown.
There were also several so badly burned
that they cannot live. In some sections
the fire swept everything before it, and
spread with such rapidity that the people
were obliged to flee with only the clothing
on their backs. In Lapeer and Huron
counties back from Lake Shore, the de-
vastatiOn has been more serious, especial
ly in loss of life, although the property
losses have also been severe. The loss in
Tuscaloosa county is estimated ut $50,
600.
The work of forwarding supplies of food
and clothing from Detroit began last night
by boat and rail.
In MillinstOn township, Tuscola county,
81 families are left homeless; ; in Denmark,
Guilford and Tuscola townships, of the
same county, 90 or 30 families have been
burned out, and many acres Of timber
and crops and many miles of fences de-
strOyed by the flames. The Indian set
tlcment, seven miles below East Saginaw,
which is surrounded by dense forest, is
reported to DO burned, and, doubtless, a
number of lives were lost Thirty fami-
lies lived there, and there was no mode OF
escape.
Flames In Eastern Woods.
The Delaware valley is filled with dense
smoke from the forest fires which arc
breaking ont in every direction about
there. The beech woods, thousands of
acres in extent, in Wayne and Pike coun-
ties, Pa, arc atirc, and fires AZ. reported
in Shohola and Blooming Grove town
ships, Pike county, and in Sussex county,
N. J.. The large swamp at the head OF
Fletcher lake, at the west side of Ocean
Grove, was set on fire by sparks from 4
locomotive, and tho fire is slowly eating
it's way thrOugh h the dried peat.
Furious mountain fires have prevailed for
several days past in the Berks county
mountains and the sky is Obscured by
dense volumes of smoke. Thousands Of
rails and many cords Of bark, together with
miles Of valuable timber, have been de.
stroyed, entailins Il loss Of thousands Of
dollars. AT MilIer's tavern, on the sum.
nit of the Blue Mountains, rattlesnakes
arc fleeing from the flames and have taken
possession of the hotel. A great many
have been killed. Along sOmo Of the
railroads not a single panel of fence re-
mains.