Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-24
FIRE AT CLINTON.
Loss Estimated at $4,000
Insurance, $4,000.
Shoe Shop, Saw and Grist Mills,
aFactory and One House
Swept Away-Man Badly Injured-100 Per.
sons Thrown Out Of Work.

Clinton, Dec. -(SpeciaD There is
year, for, today, the larger part of the
manufacturing industries of the town
have gone up in smoke. In few hours
more than $40, 900 worth of property was
destroyed and over 100 hands thrown out
of employment.
Between and 3 O'Clock, this afternoon,
Mr. Morrison of the shoe factory, was sit
ting in the office at the factory, writing.
The room was warmed by an oil stove and
in turning in his chair, Mr.. Morrison up
set a table, which, falling on the stove,
tipped that over. The oil at once took
fire, and becoming excited, Mr. Morrison
could do nothing to extinguish the flames
but ran from the building and gave the
alarm. Through the open Office door the
flames spread to the other houses of the
factory, and igniting the oil on the floor,
ran rapidly the whole length of the build
ing, so that in short time the whole
building was mass of fire.
The town has an old hand fire engine,
but the machine has been suffered to re-
main unused for over year, and not only
were the valves dry and useless, but wa
ter in the bottom of the tank was frozen,
so that the machine was of no use what
ever.
From the shoe factory the flames broke
out on the north, setting fire tosthe saw
mill and croquet factory, and on the south
setting Mr. Morrison's dwelling house on
fire 1t then looked as though the whole
village was doomed, and aid was called
from Waterville.
A special train with the Waterville
steamer arrived q little after a. Engineer
Barton making very quick run. The
fire at that time had gotten so strong a
hold on the grist mill of Hodgdon & Smith
that there was no hope of saving the
building. Spaulding's clothes dryer fac
tory was also beyond hope and half a
dozen other buildings were on fire.
The work of the Waterville firemen
was directed to the saving of the buildings
which were just beginning to burn, and
pouring water into the piles of lumber in
the mill yard and aided by the strong
north wind which was blowing at the
time, the fire was subdued.
During the fire III. j. Crummett fell
from ladder quite a distance to the
ground, sustaining IL lTdCturcu icS anu,
it is thought, internal injuries.
As nearly as can be ascertained, this
evening, the losses are as follows;
Shoe factory building, built by the
Clinton Village Manufacturing Associa-
ton, of which Manley Morrison is the
largest owner, loss, s4700; insured for
$4,000. Stock and fixtures, owned by W..
II. Page, loss, S12, 500; insured for $500.
Sawmill and croquet factory, owned by
William Lamb, loss, S12, 800; insurance,
$4,000.
Grist mill, Hodgeden & Smith, loss,
$4,000; insurance, S2400.
Clothes dryer factory, A. r. Spaulding,
loss, 5000: covered by insurance.
Dwelling house of Manley Morri son,
loss, 5000; insured.
There are many other smaller losses on
surrounding buildings, which took fire and
er, saved, which will probably swell
the total loss to $40, 900 or more.
1t is certainly black eye for the town.
At this writing nothing can be learned
as to the prospects of rebuilding, though
probably some of the places at least will
be rebuilt.