The Newtown bee., 1896-04-10

A~A'A1A'
 URDAY NIGHT.
 One of the most disastrous fires that ever occurred in Newt0wn WAS the one of Saturday night, April 1, 1896, when 1 the barns and dwelling house of Turney Northrop in Palestine district were total. l ly destroyed, together with l9 head of cattle, three horses, all of his wagons, 1 farming tools, hay, and grain, together with nearly every article of household 1 furniture, and wearing apparel, and but for the heroic exertiOns of their nearest neighbor, Richard Kendall, who, having some little pigs in the house he WAS try. ing to carry through the cold snap, got up about midnight to feed them. Awak- ened out of a sound sleep, he thought it unusually light out of doors, and to his cOnsternation he discovered the barns to be all one solid sheet of flame, and the west end of the barn was already falling in. He could do nothing at the barn, and went across the road to the house some 10 rods away, where the fire was already crawling from the foundation up the whole width of the front between the sid ing and lath, having caught from cindels that fell on bog hay that had been placed around the underpinning to protect the cellar from the winters cold lurney Northrop, with his wife and six months old baby, were sound asleep in the south east room on the first floor, and boy of l2 years sleeping in chamber above. When they got out, the house was almost one solid sheet of fire and they had no 1 tune to take any clothes along with Lhem George Beers, living half mile away. was the second one to appear, and at great risk to their lives they removed from one room very few pieces of furni- ture. \ few other neighbOrs soon came, and they succeeded, in saving three small buildings, little way to the south of the house, wood house, corn crib and hog house. In the barn were 10 cows, 8 pair of oxen, and some young cattle, and three horses, 22 head in al Two yearling that were not tied escaped from the barn without any help, or without hair being singed, showing that there was an open door through which they escaped before the fire reached them. MT N0rthrop says he was at the barn about 10 o'clock, as was his usual custom before going to bed, and everything was all right and all doors were shut. The probabilities are that the fire was started at the north west corner of the barn, as that part of the barn was the first to fall in. How, it started is, at the time of writing, a mys tery. There was an insurance on the buildings and contents of SI0OO in com panies represented by William A. Leon ard. The loss will far exceed that amount, and the family have the sympa. thy of the whole community. The cows were in stanchiOns, the oxen and horse. were tied in box stalls, and their roasted bodies lying where they fell, were a mns sickening sight. The body of Richard kendatl's faithful Shepherd dog was alse found in the ashes. Itis natural in speak
 ing of a fire to auude to the ruins, but 1T this ease so great was the fcrocity of the flames that hardly a scrap of timber wa' left. The farming tools were nearly new, of the most approved patterns, anC among the wagons was new surry just brought in for family use. Taken alto gether, it was a great loss to the young couple, just starting their family lite.