Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-12-22
IN OUR OWN STATE
PownaI's Leading Industry Wiped
Out by Fire Friday Afternoon
Entire Plant Of Wright Health Under
wear Company Destroyed-Loss 500, 900
with $4,000 Insurance.


wear Company Destroyed-Loss 800, 900
with $1,000 Insurance.
TWO employees were seriously injured
and the lives of about so others were en-
dangered Friday in a fire that burned to
the ground the four-story mill of the
Wright Health Underwear company of
Pownal There was a panic among the
mill hands and several jumped from the
windows.
The seriously injured were George
Maloney, foreman of the spinning room,1
who was hurt internally from jumping,
and John Tigh an employee of the same
department, who was seriously bruised
other persons were slightly bruised in
the rush from the burning building. Mrs.
James Morgan was caught by the flames
and her hair burned.
The damage is 100000 and there is
practically no insurance. The mill was
the towns only industrial plant.
Many acts Of heroism were performed
in the saving of life. All the hands were
at their work when flames suddenly were
discovered in the picking room on the
ground floor Without any warning the
fire had leaped from a big duster used
TO clean cotton and had communicated
with infiammabie cotton all about and
then with the woodwork.
The sudden burst of flame struck Mrs
Morgan as she was fleeing from the
buster and burned all the hair from her
head The woman fell unconscious, but
was raised by the other employees Of the
department and carried out with them as
they ran into the open air.
The men at work on the ground floor
either shouted cry of warning up the
elevator shaft or ran up the stairway to
the second and third floors. BY this time,
however, the flames were passing through
into the second story and the thick smoke
which rolled upward and outward from
the building warned all within that their
lives were imperiled. Already the stair
ways were damned by the mill hands,
who were rushing to the exits, and those
who came down from the fourth floor
found the smoke so thick that they were
forced to grope their way to the open.
That the lives of some of those on the
top floor were not lost is believed to be
due to Mr.. Maloney who, when the fire
was discovered, rushed from the second
story to the fourth to warn the opera
tives. Not only did he warn them, but he
assisted the women to reach the stair
ways safely
The last persons on the top floor were
Maloney and Tigh, who, when they were
ready to leave, found their way barred by
flames, which had leaped up the air and
elevator shafts and spread through the
foorings and enveloped the stairways. BY
this time the entire mill was burning
fiercely and was apparently doomed.
Maloney and Tigh broke a window in the
rear, and jumped to the roof of the dye
house underneath. From here they were
removed by other workmen.. Maloney's
face was cut and bruised, his right ankle
was sprained and he was injured internal
ly, as a result of the fall, while Tigh was
bruised about the legs and body.
Within an hour almost the entire mill
had been reduced to ashes All the hands
lost their effects. The mill was built in
1868, and was damaged by fire 10 years
later. There Is an insurance of only $4,000
on the loss of 100000. The Wright
Health Underwear company has branches
also at Troy and Cohoes, N. Y. Solomon
Wright is the manager. The fire is be-
lieved to have been started by friction
caused by some foreign substance falling
into the duster.
Representative Haskins has introduced
into the House of Representatives a bill
providing for the erection of a government
building in Barre at an expense of $751;
900.
The difficulties between employers and
employees which resulted in closing the
granite works at Hardwick have been adj
justed and the men returned to their
labors this week.
Patrick A. Brown, an employe of the
Fairbanks scale factory in st. Johnsbury,
died at his home in East st. Johnsbury
one day last week from lockjaw. The
physicians are unable to account for the
cause of the disease.
Gov. Bell has appointed Enos c. Fish
of West Rutland high sheriff of Rutland
county to fill the vacancy caused by the
death last week of Daniel P. Peabody of
Rutland who had held that Office q years
Mr.. Fish is 65 years old and has been
deputy sheriff continuously since 1877.
Nearly the entire bar of Rutland county
petitioned for his appointment.
DR.. j. NJ Ellie of Newport is under $500
bail on a charge arising from his reports to
the county clerk, which show that of 400
prescriptions for liquor issued in the town
during November, he wrote 299. The au-
thorities suspect that some of his orders
for liquor were not for medicinal pur-
poses. 1t is the first case of the kind since
the new Vermont liquor law went into
effect. The case will be stubbornly fought
At the concluding session of the annual
meeting of the Vermont State Horticul-
tural society, held at Burlington Dec. IA,
the following officers were reelected
President E. S. Brigham, st. Adams;
secretary, William Stuart Burlington;
treasurer, A. M. Vaughan, Randolph; au-
ditor, T. L. Kinney, South Hero The
president and secretary were authorized
TO appoint the IA county vice-presidents.
An unusual family reunion was held at
Newport Saturday, when six sisters, whose
homes are scattered all over New Eng
land, met together for the first time in
3s years. They are Mrs Samuel Burbank
of Coventry; Mrs. ]. T. Moody of Lisbon
N. H; Mrs. James Noyes Of Bath, Me
Mrs George H. Ide of ST. JohnsbuIy; Mrs.
Homer Thrasher and Mrs ID. M. Camp OF
Newport. The youngest, Mrs. Camp is
3d. and the eldest, Mrs. Burbank, is II.
When the father died, 40 years ago. he
left seven daughters and two sons.
Thanksgiving dinner in 1867 was the last
occasion for which all were assembled at
"a. oh, Af an
over 200 pounds. All have buried chill
dren, and three have buried their hus-
bands and all their children.