Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-09-02
ONTONAGON IN ASHES.
Forest Fires Wipe Out a Lake
Superior Town.
Only q Dozen Houses Left Standing
Thousand People Homeless.

Ontonagon, Mich, Aug. 25.-Fifteen
scorched dwellings on the outskirts OF
the village and a waste of ashes and
charred timbers are all that is left to
mark the site of this, one of the pioneer
towns of the Lake Superior copper dis
trict.
Forest fires had been smouldering IN
this region for several weeks, but they
are common to this season of the year
and little attention was paid to them.
Ontonagon felt even more secure than
Rockland or any of the other places in
the district for the reason that it was a
very old town and had the double pro
lection of a complete fire fighting outfit
maintained by the Diamond Match COM
pany to protect its plant valued at mil
lions of dollars and also good volunteer
fire department.
About noon the wind began to rise and
by o'clock it was blowing a gale and
the smaller vessels on Lake Superior
were scudding to the shelter of Ontona-
gon bay. It was quickly Seen that the
gale would carry the forest fires, already
famed into a wall of fire, right into the
yards of the Diamond Match company.
No alarm was given for none was needed;
the whole population was already OUT
and ready to fight the flames.
The people waited until the last mo
ment, when pieces of burning boards
from the mill yards were carried all over
the village by a -mila-an-hour gale,
setting houses on fire in all parts of the
place. Then the mad flight began.
There was not even time to pack up
valuables and load them on wagons.
Many people rushed for those docks
which had not already been destroyed
and went out into the lake, there to
watch the destruction of their homes.
The only place of safety for the rest was
up the railroad track towards Sidnaw.
By 5 o'clock the destruction of the vii
lage was complete, and not soul re-
manned in the town proper. Prior to
abandoning his post at the railway depot
the operator had sent out an appeal for
aid. The regular train headed this
way was caught at Pori. The engineer
was told TO disregard schedule and get
to ROckland as quickly as possible. He
carried out his instructions and the train
came flying into this station ahead Ct
time. From here towards Ontonagoh
progress was slow, owing to the dense
smoke but the engineer managed to
get within about q mile of the doomed
village. The train picked up all the
people found beside the track and
brought them TO this place, where they
were made as comfortable for the night
as the limited accommodations of the
hamlet would permit.
Many pathetic as we'll as heartrending
incidents took place. The infant child
Of Mrs. McDermid died and at almost
the same instant the house took fire
from the flying brands. Snatching the
dead body of her babe from its bed, the
grief-stricken woman fed to the streets,
where she rushed wildly about until per-
suaded to leave the child in the Catholic
church. She deposited her precious bur
den at the foot of the altar, hastily
breathed short prayer before the i'm
age Of the virgin and had barely time to
get out before the church was in flames
and the remains Of her little one were
cremated
A Swedish family wandered about
with little white coffin iR which was
the corpse Of a child that had died the
day before. They finally made a rude
grave for it at the waters edge All. fAzt
day took it up and buried it in the GENE
terry.