Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-11-15
PERSONS persisted.
Three Others Fatally Injured and
Seven Badly Hurt in a Hotel
Fire at Poplar Bluff, Mo.
THE CLIFFORD HOUSE MAS DESTROYED.
The Missing Guest -ay be Dead IA
the Rufns-An woman
believed to Have Been Fatally
Injured-There Were Many Hair
breadth Escapes.

Poplar Bluff, No., Nov. 13.-Four
lives are known to have been lost,
three persons fatally injured and
seven badly hurt in the burning of the
Hotel Clifford, a large three-story
frame building, in this city.
The Known Dead.
Hick Clark, Doniphan, Mo.
Rebecca Owens. Poplar Bluff
Shelby Dehort, Poplar Bl1f.
Curley Berry, Poplar Bluff.
Fatally Injured.
Eta Hargrove, Poplar Bluff.
Winslow Stowe, Tennessee.
Missing.
Eugene Dalton, Hot Springs, Ark.
BadI, Injured.
I. A. Smith. Poplar Bluff; burned
| about hands and face.
Barney Pernaud, De Soto, No.;
hands and face burned.
Charles Stardly, Poplar Bluff
bruised and burned.
Mrs. BENJAMIN Shelby, Poplar Bluff:
! back injured: bruised and burned.
Pink Berry, Poplar Bluff; severely
burned.
Elmer Freshour, Poplar Bluff; Sc
verely burned.
James Upchurch, Poplar Bluff; Sc
verely burned.
Besides the names given an un-
known woman is thought to be fatal
Nv injured and bou a dozen more
xeSe slightly burned or received
! brGses in trying to escape from the
building.
Eugene Dalton, who is missing, may
be in the ruins.
The fire originated about 1890 u.
M, in the rear of the hotel and IN d
few minutes the building, which was
entirely of wood, was a mass OF
flames.
There were in the neighborhood OF
forty-fve guests in the building, and
the porter, the only person awake IN
the hotel, wa unable to give an alarm
the smoke and flames driving him
back.
The fire department was on hanC
early, but they were unable to render
any assistance to the inmates.
The guests on the second and thir'
floors were caught like rats in a trap
the fire preventing their escape by tn
stairs and they leaped from the sec
ond and third story windows.
One of these, Heck Clark, jumpe'
and broke his back.
Eta Hargraye leaped from a third
: story window and suffered broke
limbs and internal injuries, which wi
cause her death.
, One guest, Benjamin Shelby, force
his wife to leap from a second-stor
window and thereby saved her If,
: but lost everything they possesset
Mr.. Shelby tried to escape by tn
! stairway, but the smoke and flame
drove him back, and he, too, spran
from a window.
He asserts that he saw ten or ii.
E teen persons in the hallway overcom
q by smoke. If this is the case, a doze
r or more bodies may be found in til
ruins.
n Many of the guests had han
e breadth escapes in their nightclothe
!: losing everything else. their ha
r and eyebrows were singed by til
D flames.
Numerous feats of heroism are r
8 corded. AS yet, it is impossible to tie
just how many lives were lost.
Quite a number of the guests WEI
not registered and their names al
unknown. Every o in the hous
= As in number, was occupied. Men al
now at work on the ruins, but it WI
probably be several days before tt
complete list of deaths will be obtain
able.
:. The Clifford house was one of I'll
oldest hotels in southeast Missouri.
w. p. Norrid was the proprietor. I
4 and his wife escaped, but lost ever,
thing.