The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-09-16
THE MICHIGAN FIRE (!
A Tale Of Horror - Description of an
Eye Witness

The Rev. z. Grinnell, Jr., pastor
OF the First Baptist church of Detroit,
arrived from Sand Beach at noon on
Friday the 9th inst. passing through
most of the burned region in Sanilac
county. He gives graphic and fear.
full description Of the calamity as he
saw it. and heard of it from eye.wit.
nesses. For the most part the country
was without a sign of animal or
vegetable life-a country abandoned
by God and man, and to which it was
impossible to imagine one returning.
One of the most singular and appal.
ling phenomena accompanying the
calamity was the awes0me darkness
which preceded it and remained un-
til all was over. The experience of
Sand Beach will illustrate that of the
whole lake shore. At sunrise Mon
day the air was as clear as usual. At
about l. p. NJ. the people began to
observe a singular copper.colorcd ap-
pearance of the whole armament. A
little later this deepened to a deep
red. and by 2 o'clock 1t was so dark
that people were compelled to take
lanterns to find their way about out
of doors. Mr.. jerks, a %well-known
citizen, said that he passed his hand
back and forth.before his face and
could not see it. This fearful dark.
ness continued all the afternoon, with
an occasional rift through which the
sun darted furtively with unnatural
brightness, to be succeeded imme.
diately by still more binding dark
ness. Many thought the end of the
world was at hand and were filled
with terror. The horrors of the i'm
agination were soon intensified by
the approach Of the flames, the stories
OF the universal desolation to the
west Of them, the dread that they
were fated to a frightful death, and
then by the arrival of the charred.
blackened and shapeless remains of the
poor Victims This awful condition
continued all along the shore until
Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock,
when the wind turned suddenly from
the north, carrying the cool, moist air
of the lake to the fevered heads and
smoke and ash.begrimed faces Of the
people. 1t was sweet as the breath
of God, and was accepted as thank
fully. The scenes of horror we're too
frightful for any pen to portray. Tho
dead were found everywhere, very
rarely recognizable, and in most cases
undistinguishable as human beings.
Many were mere masses of burnt
flesh, which fell apart when touched
and in very few could sex or age be
distinguished. From one body the
head fell when it was lifted up ; from
another, that of a young woman, the
iC8 cOR0AotCu oAA0 huiib ouSHCuucu Uy
the tendon. In some places families
were found reduced to an indistin-
guishable heap of roasted and black.
end blocks of flesh where they fell
together, overwhelmed by the rushing
flames. The manifold horrors of the
calamity were multiplied by the fear
full tornadoes which cut off retreat in
every direction. The awful heat of
the atmosphere raised the smoke a
little from the ground, and 1t hung
above the earth in an impenetrable
mass: shutting out every way of light,
and leaving the poor creatures below
helpless and blind, until the fire
caught them and closed their agony
in death. Now and then the flames
shot up in tremendous masses which
would be seized by a tornado and
carried bodily a quarter Of a mile
away and then pushed down again to
start the flames in q new quarter. In
this way the helpless fugitives flying
for life were penned In by seas Of
fame, and roasted like rats In a cage.