Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-11-09
CHARACTERISTIC IN G. l.
DENTS OF THE MICH
IGAN FIRES.

apprehended any danger. Farmers
had set fire to slashings to clear the
ground for fall wheat, but this happens
every fall, and the fact that not drop
of water had fallen in from fifty to
seventy days was not considered by
those who saw the smoke clouds and
replied that there was no danger
There was danger Behind that pal
of smoke was greater enemy than an
earthquake, and it had tornado at its
back and two hundred miles of forest
in front. From noon until two O'Clock
strange terror held the people in les
grip; then all of sudden the heavens
took fire, or 50 it seemed to hundreds
In some localities it came with the
sound Of thunder. In others it was
preceded by terrible roaring as if the
tidal wave were sweeping over the
country Almost at the same minute
the flames appeared in every spot over
district of country thirty miles broad
by one hundred in length.
At Richmondville, ten miles above
Sanilac, one hundred and fifty people
had comfortable homes, stacks of hay
and grain, teams, co rs, pigs, sheep,
and no fear Of the fire which they
knew was burning nile away. AT
2 O'Clock the flames rushed out of the
woods, leaped the fences, ran across
the bare fields, and swallowed every
house but two, and roasted alive a
dozen people. II is hardly forty rods
to the beach of the lake, and YET many
people bad no time to reach the water
Others reached it with clothing on fire
and faces and hands blistered. The
houses did not burn singly, but one
billow Of flames seized all at once and
reduced them to nothing in ten min-
pte5.
saw many and many spot where
the pillows Of fire jumped clean half
mile out of the forest to clutch house
or barn. The. Thornton family were
wiped out with the exception Of boy
ThprHtop had hitched up his team to
drive the family to place of safety,
but when he saw that they were all
surrounded by the flames he unbitched
the horses in despair. Before they
coqld be Embarrassed they bolted in
different directions, and the old man
become so confused that he ran directly
toward big slashing, which was then
a perfect mass of flame, and dropped
and died with his head toward it
Meantime the mother and children
had taken refuge in the root house.
This was structure mostly sunk in
the ground and the roof we'll covered
with earth. Here they were all right
for time, but when the father failed
to join ahem one of the sons went out
to see what caused the delay. He
was hardly out of the place before the
door through which he bad passed was
in flames. In this emergency he ran
to dry creek, and by lying on bis
face and keeping his mouth to the
ground he lived through it.
/ talked with woman who lived
neighbor to the Thorntons and who
escaped by fleeing to-a field of plowed
ground. This was only few rods
from the root house, and she said it
was fully an hour before the screams
and shrieks and groans from the peo-
pie inside grew quiet in death. One
by one they were suffocated by heat
and smoke, and their bodies presented
a most horrible appearance. To one
riding through the district it seems
miraculous that single soul escaped.
The fire swept through the green trees
as well as the dry. 1t ran through
fields of corn at the rate OF twenty
miles on hour, and fields of clover
were swept as bare as the floor. Dark
and gloomy swamps filled with pools
OF stagnant water, and the home for
years Of wildcats, bears and snakes,
were struck and shriveled and burned
almost in fash. Over the parchcd
meadows the flames ran faster than n
horse could gallop. Horses did gollop
before it, but were overtaken and left
roasting on the ground 1t seems as
if every hope and avenue of escape
were cut off, and yet hundreds of lives
were spared. People spent ten to
twenty hours in bitches and ponds, or
In fields under wet blankets, having
their hair singed, their limbs blistered,
and their clothing burned off piece by
piece.
In dozens of cases the first flames
spared houses and barns, but after
seeming 10 have passed on for miles,
suddenly circled back and made clean
sweep of everything. Unless one
rides over the burnt district he cannot
believe the eccentricities of forest
fire. In the great swamp between
Sanilac and Sandusky, itburned every
thing to the roots fora mile in breadth.
Then it left patches from ten feet to
ten rods wide, leaving half mile Of
fuel on either side. In the timber it
seemed to strike the green trees harder
than the dry ones. 1t was like great
serpant making its way across the
country. 1t would run within three
feet of wheat stack, and then glide
away to lick up house. 1t would
burn a stack and spare barn ten feet
Of.
People felt the heat while the fire
was yet miles away. 1t withered The
leaves Of trees standing two miles from
the path of the fiery serpant. The
very earth took fire In hundreds Of pla
ces, and blazed up as if the flames
were feasting on cordwood. The stout
est log buildings stood up only few
minutes. The fire seemed to catcf
them at every corner at once, and af
ter whirl and roar nothing woult
be left. Seven miles off the beach, a
Forester, sailors found the heat un
comfortable. Where some houses ant
barns were burned we could not fine
even blackened stick. Every log
beam and board was reduced to in'
ashes.
Seven miles back of Forester far