Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-02-26
THE TOWNSHEND FIRE.
Testimony Given at the Inquest.

%
Very Closely Questioned by states At
torney Robb.
The testimony in regard TO the fire in
! Townshend on the 22d of December, taken
at an inquest held Dec. % and 20 before
j. II. Merrifeld, justice of the peace,
! has been filed in the county clerks office.
The inquest was held upon application of
the selectmen of Townshend. The exam
ination of witnesses was by States AttOr
ney G. II. Robb. Thirty-four witnesses in
all were examined. The fire, it will be re-
membered, destroyed buildings owned by
| F. II. Ober, S. II. Sherman, Nelson Wins
| low, d. f. Boutelle and II. w. Sanders.
In Mr.. Sherman's building was the store of
! b. NJ. Adams. The witnesses which were
most closely questioned were b. NJ. Adams
and his wife, Fred l.. Lowe, clerk for
Adams, Mr.. and Mrs. Ober and one or two
others. 1t can hardly be said that the tes-
timOny at the inquest added anything es-
sentally new TO the facts which were pub
! lshed at the time of the fire. The fire
started, as then stated, in an open shed at
the rear of the Ober house. The Ober
house and the store building were separat-
ed by only few feet, and it would have
| been almost impossible for one building TO
burn without setting the other on fire.
Fred Lowe, the first witness called, testi-
fed in a general way to the fact that the
store was on the lower floor of the Sher-
man building and the Adams family occu-
pied tenement overhead. Lowe slept in
a room in the Adams tenement on the side
next to the Obers. He was awakened on
the morning Of the fire by a cracking
sound, looked out and saw the light of the
fire in the Ober shed and went at once to
Al. I l., Id
| on the door several times and shouted to
them. When Adams came TO the door
| and answered, in course of minute or
two, he asked where the fire was. Lowe
was sharply questioned as to how light it
was in the hallway, whether he could dis
| tinguish Mr. Adams clearly, and whether
| he was dressed, but Lowe persisted in his
! answer that it was too dark to distinguish
I clearly and he was too much excited to
take particular notice Of anything. 1t was
his belief that Adams was not dressed.
Lowe first got out his own trunk and over
coat He went to Mr.. Blood's to have the
church bell rung, crying fire as he went.
The essential part of loves testimony
from this point was the reference TO what
was done about getting things out of the
building. There were two rooms to the
store with door TO each and hallway be-
tween. They first got out Adams's desk
and papers from one OF the rooms, and
then began carrying out household effects
from the tenement upstairs. In carrying
out the desk the door on that side was un-
locked. The other door was not unlocked
but was burst in by people who came to
help. One of these doors Lowe had locked
himself because he Thought it better be
locked than to have folk in there smashing
stuff"
Mr.. and Mrs. f. II. Ober testified to
being aroused by the fire, which made
their room as light as day Mr.. Ober had
a tin and stove store on the east side of his
building. On the other side was Miss Bar
ber's drug store. They had three school
girl roOmers in the attic The Obers and
the three girls were questioned closely as to
the contents of the she'd and what was done
with the ashes from their wood fires. Mr.
Ober said it was his custom to carry away
the ashes as soon as they were taken up
and spread them on his land. The ashes
from the girls stoves were taken up in a
tin pail. The pail stood on the platform
of the woodshed upstairs. There never
were any ashes downstairs in the shed
where the fire started.
The fact was drawn out that GOODNESS
had sprung up between the Gbers and the
| a
ware in competition with Ober and had cut
prices on il. Adams seems to have done
this in retaliation upon Ober for selling
tobacco There appears also to have been
feeling between them on account of the
poisoning of several dogs, Mr.. Ober's being
among the victims. The women of the
two families had been intimate when the
Adams's first moved there, but of late had
nothing to do with one another.
1t appears TO have been the impression
of all concerned in the fire that it was of
incendiary origin. There was talk of a
team having been heard to drive through
the village during the night, but no wit
ness who was called heard the team or
knew anything about it. Some of the wit
nesses thought from the raPidity with
which the fire spread to the store building
that kerosene oil or some other substance
must have been poured over the wood
work, but there was no evidence to prove
this. j. G. Taft said it was real "tlashy''
fire as though the wood had been satur-
ated with kerosene.
There seems to have been an impression
that Adams's trade was not prosperous and
that he was not keeping up his stock
Different witnesses testified to his being
, out of -four much CT the time, and that
, some of the time, he did not have tea, cof
, fee, sugar and other common groceries
When Adams himself went upon the stand
he said he had not kept flour because there
was no money in it. When he had beer
out of other groceries it was simply be
cause it happened so, and it did not pay tC
order Just one thing. The testimony o.
! Adams and his wife corresponded with
that of Lowe about the way Lowe gave
the alarm. Adams refused to admit thai
his stock of goods had decreased, bu
claimed that, on the contrary, it had in
!, creased. He was sharply pressed to know
y why, after the alarm, he first began to save
his household furniture in preference to the
9 store goods. His answer was: "Thert
= were good many things up there coulC
never replace and the store l could" IL!
said that his original stock cost him be
= tween $1200 and 1890, and the stock
burned out was "probably some owe
: twice as much as the stock he bought
He took an inventory last March. HI
. was carrying insurance of $2250 on stock
$500 on his furniture, and 5000 on hi
: soda fountain. He admitted that he haC
been trying to sell out, but this was be
cause he wanted TO go to Greenfield, wher
he wanted to buy the Wilcox bargain store
He had told A. V. May that his stock ant
fixtures would inventory $500. He haC
bought $75 worth of Christmas goods, bu
they were very slow about coming.
Mrs. Adams was pressed TO say that sh
knew her husbands trade was running
down, but she refused to admit this ant
said she wanted to get away because sh