The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1895-06-11

Town Wiped Ont.
Sp,eiGI from a S;qg CorrttaoadcnL
CAMERON, W. Va, June l0.-The flra,
accounts OF tho disaster that overlook
tho lIttlo town Of Cameron, last night
and this morning, go far as cStima,es OF
the property loss by fro atp concerned.
woro away below tho actual facts A:3
o'clock this morning II conservative os-
timate. aa wired tho lSTELrLGRScER was
SlO0OJ0, pcrhapI loss. Since daylight
has como, however, tho full Cxtcnt OF
the fro that wiped out almost tho en-.
tire North Side is seen. and the estimate
given below showing an actual loss OF
nearly S9j0Oe), on which tho insurance
is but $4,000 or $4,000, is reliably cor.
rect. Fifty.two buildings iell prey to
the flames, OF which tweaty.iour were
business houses and twenty.eishs dwell.
ings. Probably the enti.o property
value OF tine town is Slj0,00O,' and OF
this nearly twO-thirds has gone up in
smoke.
People in Wheeling can hardly rcalize
tho calamity that has bctallcn little
Cameron. Suppose Wheeling had an
SS,0O0,000 fire on which the insurance
was hut Sl,O00,OO0, and you have ap.
proximatUly- an idea OF the situation
here. On tho North Side, out Of twenty
six business establishments bu: two
remain, Sam ReiRheimcr's clothing
store and Francis & uendc-son's gem
oral store, which stood apart from the
main business portion OF the town and
were saved on very scan! margin.
Had the Atlantic engine not been
wrecked ut RoSeby's Rock it would have
arrived here in time to save probably
SO, 900 or 100000 worth OF property, as
the fre burned iurlously for two hours
after the limo that the engine would
have arrived.
The origin oil the fire was the lighting
OF the hay in the loft OF the livery stable
OF L. W. Fitzgerald, on Main street,
half way up the hill and right in the
center OF the business district. The
manager of tho stable asserts that there
WAS nobody about the stable after $3.50
last night and at that hour all lights
were put out. There arc two theories
as 10 the start OF the fire that ended go
disastrously. Some say that party OF
young mon were in tho lott playing
cards and that the hay became iguited
from matches. Tho other theory is n
startling ono. Many reputable citizens
say that it was noticeable TACT on Sun.
day night that an unusual number OF
strangers were in town, many OF them
tough looking characters, whom nobody
knew. These mon, it is thought by
many people, deliberately set fire to the
stable in tho hope OF securing plunder.
The latter theory is made plausible by
tho fact that an immense amount of
merchandise taken from the burning
buildings was stolen without pretense OF
secrecy duringthc fire. as an instance,
a crippled man was set TO watch goods
taken out OF one establish ment. and
while nobody was around three strange
men, none OF whom tho wntchman knew,
walked up and. grabbed bundles of
clothing and walked away This was
repeated throughout tho night. 1t is
also asserted that people camo from the
country side and took goods away in
wagons. Certain it is TINT there was
snrprIslng amount of ,hievGry going on.
and for this reason it is claimed that
the fire was tho work Of q gang OF in
ccndiCriea.
1t had been quiet Sunday here and
at 1880 o'clock probably nine out OF