Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-01-22
From wednesday's Daiiy. IL NJ 3,
EA MASS OF RUINS.
\ Central School Building De-
4 stroysd by Fire at an Early
II s4S Hour this Morning.
\ Library, School Records and
Most 81 the Furniture Go
~ Up In Smoke.
Origin Of the Fire a Mystery.
Probably the Work Of an
Incendiary. E. .5ssa


III high school work Was conducted
the leading educational institution
~ this city IL now u mass 0f snloul
4. derinR ruins and ashes. the result ri /.
fire which caught ut nm early hOu
rs this morning. Not nnly IL the build
4 ing Il total loss, but -he school re-.
/. cords III the . flee III Snpt. Thatcher
the high school apparatus and most
Of the furniture and hooks, Went SnI
a IN til"cnnfng.ation despite the he
rnic,rf,rts tllatlwere made to save
them.
3 At ubont6 o'clock. this morning
as Janilor; Nick *Freisrnger and hit
aOh Mat. we're approaching the build
ing t. kindle the fires, aud do The
other morning work. they discovered
that the southwest wing Of the
I. building was on fire. They immedi
{ ately gave the alarm, and when the
fire department arrived 4 few min.
4 ties lat Fl 1t was fOnDd that the In
terror of thu. whule south wing was
mass Of flames. 5!tsS p +,
The Roadway gained ny the fire
y b, fOrs, its discovery was Sd great
that although Supt. Thatcher ar
rived ON the scene at the same time
the fire department did, and immedi-
ately directed his attention toward
\ "a wing the rec Jr,ls. he was unable to
do SO. and was driven away by the
flames that rushed out Of the window
I Of his office locatrd In the central
part Of the south wing. Anxious to
have the records saved MIR. Thatcher
and others secured hooks and at
. tempted to turn his desk to the
window so tina, it could ne broken
open and the desired documents Sc
cured. but they were again driven
away NV the topping Of the chimney
which fell shor,Iy after they gave
up rheir work in that direction.
The department got TO work i'm
media ttly, on it's arrival, and soon
had several streams turned on the
burning building, hut despite their
efforts the fire. communicated from
the sou n to the central and north
wings. and tine building was entirely
consumed. s5.-$. &. 81
5s The building being old and con-
struc ten III pine. burned with terrible
rapitiity; and but II short space Of
time was afforded In which to save
the furniture Of the north wing,
which was devoted exclusively to
grade work. This short time was
made good use Of, and a large part
OF the furniture, including desks,
seats. etc, were removed, though
some were considerably damaged by
reason Of their being fastened to the
door with screws and had to be
wrencbed from their fastenings.
The most expensive Of the contents
were located In the south wing. IN
" hich the high school work was con-
Quoted. In this part Of the building
was located the high school labora-
tory, containing all the apparatus
used in physics and chemistry; also
tile school library, containing about
1000 volumes.
N Several Of the teachers lost books
and personal effects, that were useful
IN their " Ork, in some cases the &C
FOUNDATIONS Of several years and
which would cost q considerable
aum to replace. s5
The origin ~ the fire is q mystery
JanitOr Freisinger states that when
he arrived at the building at about
8 O'Clock he discovered 1t On fire, and
Immediately gave the alarm. The
lire ia thought to have originated in
the northwest corner Of the south
wing, but from what source It ia i'm
possible to do more than surmise.
The general belief is that It was the
work III tramps, an 1t does not seem
possible that fire could have
smouldered In the building from the
Elme IL W09ElSs0S14 = uSOuOy esSCs uOOn
until 6 o'clock this morning with
ont bf eakinR out somewhere. Evil
dence has been discovered before Of
tran, pa having occupied the building
during the night. and az the locks
/ were old 1t was an easy matter for
Il 1 person. with almost any kind u
!. key, to gain an entrance. 81
The original building, the cen ter
\ portion, waa built In 1874 by n.
NORM and N. & Gravel, and the addt-
tions have been built to It at differ
4 ent times since. s551 s ay9s s. NJ.
The cost Of the building was some
thing over SIS 1000, but It could be
duplicated for less money at the
\ present time. There was I'll 900 In
h surAnce, carried as follows:
4 81 3 BUILD ,
Fire AssOciotion, Philadelphia 200
4 Hamburg Bremen q. 49,. ...... 900
Imperial ...........,..............:. ,WO