The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1881-12-28
LICKED UP BY FIRE.
The Holiday Holocaust still
Holding Its Reign.

A few minutes before u m. yesterday
the report reached this side of the river
that an extensive fire was raging in East
Waco, and those who cast their eye in
that direction could plainly discern the
smoke and flame. The ,fremen and a
large number of citizens went in haste
to the scene. No alarm was tolled for
the reason that it could be plainly
seen that the location of the fire
was beyond the reach of water
and the services OF the hook and ladder
brigade would have been of no avail
Those who reached the scene recognized
in the burning building the beautiful
home of Alderman Byron McKeen. At
the time the fire broke out Mr.. McKeen
was at his place of business and there
| was no one in the house except Mrs.
| Mckeen and the servants. Mrs. Nc
Keen states that at the time she first
! discovered fire she was sitting in an ell
Of the building in one of the rooms en-
gagged in some household matter,
when suddenly she found the roof on
| fire. She at once sent colored boy
for Mr.. McKeen, who ran his horse as
fast as he could from his store to the
house, but when he got there found the
entire roof of the building one solid
mass of flames There being no hope
of saving the house he and the neigh
bors who gathered IN succeeded in saw
ing the piano, some of the finest furni-
ture, and few articles of bedding, cur
tains, pictures, etc. The building was
known to be one of the best constructed
in Waco, modern in all its appointments,
and elegantly furnished. Besides the
loss of the building, a large portion
the peach trees, shrubbery, vines,
etc, are rLined, and the beautiful forest
trees which threw their branches on all
sides of the house are probably killed.
So intense was the heat that during the
fire the trunk of one of them, though
very green, was seen in sheet of solid
fame. No one seems able to account
for the origin of the fire. The building.
furniture and library were insured for
$1,000, Downs Il Fort having $500 on
furniture and $500 on library, and J. G.
Harrison $500 on furniture and $500 on
the house. Another severe loss may
be set down for the proper
ty destroyed was the accumu
lation of many years of Mr..
Mckeen's married life, and many ar
ticles have been swept away, which time
or money cannot replace. Among the
list OF sufferers from the fiend whose
loss we are sorry to hear of is Mr.. Geo.
Patton, of Aquilla, who on last Saturday
night had his gin and mill totally swept
away at his home at Patton's mills. Mr.. |
Patton and family, as we learn, had just
seated themselves at the supper table |
when, upon looking out, they saw the
buildings on fire. As both had been |
shut down for the season, and had not |
been in operation for week, no other |
conclusion can be reached than that the
fire was the work of an incendiary or |
some very careless person. The burn |
ing of these buildings entails upon Mr.. |
Patton very heavy loss, for they were
far superior to the ordinary mills, and |
gins, and the machinery was first-class. |
The worst part of all is that as far as
we have been able to- learn Mr.. Patton
did not have a cent of insurance. This, |
in connection with past reverses of
similar character which he has had, are
rather more than one man ought. TO be |
called upon to bear, but. it seems that
"misfo tunes never come singly.'