Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-08-03
TOWNS DESTROYED.
FURIOUS FOREST FIRES BURN
WIS CONSIN VILLAGES.
Weeks of Dry, Hot Weather without Rain
Make the Conditions Favorable for "a
Fearful Conilagration-M Many Hundreds
of People Homeless and In Sad Want.

Oh IeODle anu III SAu w anu
Dispatches from several Wisconsin
cities tell Of awful devastation from
forest fires in various portions of the
state. Owing TO railroad bridges and
telegraph wires being destroyed there
is little communication with the burned
districts and particulars are very scarce.
From Ashland the following is sent
out:
Forest fires are producing great suf-
fering and loss throughout this vicin-
ity, and railroad companies have never
before experienced such damage from
fires. On the Wisconsin Central il is
impossible to move trains. Phillips,
the headquarters of John X. Davis
lumber company, a manufacturing
town of 1000 people, is totally de-
stroyed by fire. a dispatch from
Fifield. a small station few miles
from Phillips, says that 800 women and
children from Phillips are in the woods
there without shelter They sent n
request for food and supplies, as the
supply at Fifeld is very short. A re-
lief train was started but was obliged
TO return, as bridges are totally de-
stroyed a few miles south. Communi
cation with Fifeld is now shut off and
it is feared that that town is also on
fire. Along the Omaha line the fires
are raging with terrible ferceness.
Shores Crossing n little village eight
miles west of Ashland, was destroyed,
and the homeless families were brought
TO Ashland. The railroad bridges near
there were destroyed and fast Omaha
freight and Is loaded ears were entirely
burned. Both the engineer and fire.
man were injured and the brakemen
are missing.
Mason. small town south on the
Omaha line, caught fire The White
River Lumber company's mill with
40, 600 900 feet of lumber in the yards
were destroyed and when the latest
report was received the entire town
was threatened. The Omaha bridge
across the White River at Mason is
burned. Railroad officials say the loss
at Mason is fully million dollars.
Homesteaders in the outlying dis
tricts are all fleeing into the nearest
towns, leaving their homes TO the fury
of the flames. The fire department
is carefully guarding the outside limits
of Ashland, and the city is not in any
immediate danger. News from lIur-
ley states that the town has been
enveloped in dense cloud of smoke
all day, with fires on nearly every side.
Thirteen Lives Lost
LATER.-Dispatches from an impro-
vised telegraph station at Phillips,
Wis, tell of the loss of - lives as
result of the fires at that place.
Thirty buildings out of seven
hundred stand amid smoke and ashes
on the scene of what was the flourish
ing city of Phillips, the county seat of
Price county and one of the wealth
lest and most prosperous of all the
towns in the timber regions of Wiscon-
sin. Three thousand people are home
less except those who have been offered
shelter in the neighboring towns.
Worse than all, at least l3 people are
known TO have lost their lives. All
the dead were drowned in Elk lake
while trying TO escape from the fire,
except an unknown man whose body
was found in the ruins of the house of
+. w. Sackett, editor of the Phillips
Times. The property loss cannot at
this time be accurately estimated, but
it will reach at least Sl.25O,O 900. The
immense plant of the John II. Davis
lumber company is a total loss,
amounting TO between $500, 900 and
SGOO,OOO On this property there is an
insurance of about four-tfths of the
value of the plant.
Briefly summarized the fires in that
locality have burned as follows: The
city of Phillips is entirely wiped out;
the city of Mason is practically de-
stroyed. with the White River Lumber
company and 80, 200, 900 feet of numbers
headquarters of the Ashland lumber
company, near Shores Crossing, is
entirely wiped out; a special train on
the Omaha, consisting of 16 cars and
the locomotive were all burned, hav-
ing broken through the bridge near
Ashland junction; the camps of the
Thompson Lumber company were
burned at White River; two bridges on
the Wisconsin Central road, both on
the main line south of Ashland. These
are the losses specifically. Besides the
above the damage to timber and logs
scattered through the woods to indi-
vidual homesteaders, houses and other
property, to cut cord wood, etc, will
swell the general damage to appalling
jgures.