Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-08-31
A ssDnET. BARN BURNED.

a RsCUEk BARN hU ASA EAF'
THE BARN OF COL. j. G. SHIELDS AT
RIVERSIDE +" FARM, WITH ITS CON-
TENTS, DESTROYED BY SPONTANEOUS
COMBUSTION.
Riverside" the home and heritage OF
Col. J. G. Shields in Rockbridge. about
thirty-six miles South of Waynesboro,
has been made model. All his long life,
though engaged in journalism. he has had
strong interest In agriculture, and when
he retired from the Richmond 'Whlg'
to Riverside, his pride consisted in making
it a model farm. He succeeded, and the
enterprise he expended on Riverside, as
is always the case, spread to the neighbor-
hood, and a little village is springing up
around it. OF all the belongings of the
place, the barn might be said to have been
his pet idea and he had put every improve
ment into it. Saturday, he left his desk at
the spectator" office to make his usual
weekly visit home, and on the cars made
an engagement with J. A. Patterson, Jr.,
to send carload of wheat to bis mill.
He little thought that the next day his
store of grain would be swept away. Sun
day morning. about 10 O'Clock, the fine
barn was discovered to be on fire and was
soon destroyed. A representative of the
VINDICAToR saw Col. Shields On his re-
turn to Staunton, and obtained from him
an account of the FIRE. 1t will be the more
interesting to farmers on account of the
way in which the fire occurred. Col.
Shields said:
THE BARN
was woOd-frarae building 60x20 feet, Is
feet high on the sides, with high cone
roof. The ground on which it was built
sloped, and the frame work of the building
at the Southwestern end was feet above
the surface. 1t rested on solid side walls
of stone with a row of stone pillars along
the entire center. The side walls of the
frame were covered with plank vertically
placed with narrow joints. say from J to
inch, left 80 purposely for ventilation.
The floor space was equally divided into 8
parts, a NOW in each end. and what is
usually called threshing floor in the
center, this made each of the three spaces
20 feet each way. Each NOW had on both
sides 2 slat windows. There was also
window in each of the gables. making ten
in all, and a VentilatOr in the center of
the roof, which was of shingles. The
center space of the barn had folding doors
of the full space 20 feet, each door being
10 feet wide and 10 feet high. The doors
fastened by hooks and eyes to an upright
portable column, which. when the doors
were opened could be removed as occasion
might require. In one of these doors was
a small wicket door feet high and wide,
affording ingress and egress without dis
turbing the large doors. This door, as did
double stock lock and large key. The
body of the barn was whitewashed,
and the doors, windows and ventilator
painted. Lightning rods were also at each
end of the building, the one at the South
western end however, had been injured
recently and not in place. The floor was
dressed narrow pine plank, tongued and
groved joints, and as close as those of a
good residence. The barn was only used
as a granary, stacking sheaf grain or hay,
when hauled from the field, and after
threshing time it was the place for hous-
ing corn, which was generally hauled up
IN the shuck so that the shucks could be
used for market if not fed to stock which
were always wintered there. There were
no stalls attached to or about the barn.
The end highest from the ground and be-
tween the stone walls and under the floor
were winter quarters for small flock of
sheep. Cattle and sheep were the only
stock fed there. The stable for horses and
the enclosure for hogs, we're separate and
some distance away from the barn.
ITS CONTENTS.
had about forty acres Of wheat, nearly
all of which was harvested with a binder,
the sheaves tied with Irvine. Rain was
troublesome both in cutting the crop and
housing the sheaves. AS | am informed
due care was not taken in examining the
interior of some Of the sheaves which
were packed about the center Of the NOW
In which the combustion occurred, but
W it'll the large doors opened daily and the
good ventilation otherwise provided, the
young man in charge thought after sever
al weeks of such precautiOn the crop was
safe from the effects of dampness.
FIRED BY SPONTANEOUS
COMBUSTION.
Sunday morning, the 26th inst. was at
my home, having gone up the day previ-
GUS. Between 9 and 10 O7c lock in the
morning, my son and [ walked out and
were on the lawn when we heard the cries
of fire, and recognized the voice of Mr..
Charles Reid. the foreman of the Shenan-
doah Valley Railroad at Riverside. whose
residence has full view of the barn. [
further recognized from Mr.. Reid's ex-
clamation, that he was making his way to
the barn. My son first saw the smoke and
said it was coming through the ventilator
on the roof. Mr.. Reid and his brother, an
all thoro hofOro VT O
reached the spot. The doors were all tight
ly closed and an entrance was forced.
There were neither fire nor smoke about the
base or the floor or sides of the NOV, but
the smoke rising from its top was dense.
Mr.. James Reid made his way up to the
top and next to the roof but there was no
fire observed, but the heat and smoke was
suffocating at that elevation, so much so
that he was forced back. The sheep, which
had free access to their quarters whenever
they chose to occupy it, had been there the
night before, and after turning out the
mich co US the attendant also drove out
the sheep. All of US examined carefully
under and on the sides Of the NOV, but no
fire could be seen. At this stage of the
situation the idea which occurred to me
that tramp had been in or about the
barn was disposed Of, and the conviction
Luat III Was luL0Tudl ucdt Was COHCluSiFo.
In that dilemma L suggested that we pro-
cure ladder, which was 300yards distant,
and open the gable from the outside and
throw off the top sheaves, in order that
we might reach the source of the trouble.
Whilst it was being conveyed TO the place
l continued my examination at every
point, and still saw no fire. Mr.. Charles
Reid assembled the ladder, and just as he
had forced the window in the gable, saw
under him and about midway the eleva-
tion of the NOW. through the joints of the
boards. particles of straw burning. My
apprehensions we're confirmed and called
to Mr.. Reid to hasten down the ladder for
he was in danger, and before he reached
the ground. smoke. condensed air and
flame were forced through the joints of
the boards, and in few minutes the top
surface of both mows and the roof were in