The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1906-05-25
so DECLARES A DETROIT PAPER
Correspondent at ouinnesec Falls to
Find Hundreds of Destitute PEG.
pie" -ouinnesec Got Searching, But
Not From Forest Fires.

recent forest hreS winch are SAID lC
have destroyed so many northern
Michigan towns:
Since my dispatch of "a hours ago
written soon after my arrival in the
northern country, have either per-
sonally or by phone interviewed
enough men to warrant me in say
ing that there has never been a spell
OF disaster in Michigan where news
paper writer's of fakes have worked
off on reputable newspapers such a
volume of lies as has been printed
about the upper peninsula fires Of the
past week. I will produce witness.
es today to substantiate this state
ment, and will produce more in a few
days.
Take Quinnesec first, for that is the
largest town said to have been burned
by forest fires, which after weeks of
smouidering were last Friday famed
into hurricane fires. The Chicago Tri.
bune, depending on resident cores
pondents, last Sunday printed, "Quin.
nesec destroyed, all residents home
less" This under the heading OF
Forest fires" Now for the facts.
Quirnesec has a population of about
500. 1t Is 4S miles from Escanaba.
Mrs. Patrick McKenna, widow, aged
IS, owned four frame stores on Main
street which she rented.
One tenant set fire to pile OF rub
bish in the alley Friday, the wind
came up and about $4,000 worth of
property in the center of the village
burned. The fire jumped over the
catholic parsonage and burned the
church, of which FIR. Nosbisch, OF Iron
Mountain, is pastor.
Supervisor Cundy, of Quinnesec
township; FRI Nosbisch, Village Clerk
Pat Wilder and others say forest fires
had no more to do with burning Quin.
nesec than a fire in Detroit.
No forest fire came within four
miles of the village. Thirty-three
buildings were burned, and sixteen
families lost their homes. Iron Noun
tain and Norway, big towns Of the
county, will take care Of these. Re-
ports that three children burned to
death in the village are not true. The
steel trust has two big boarding
houses in Quinnesec. Neither burned.
One Oh Mrs Pat McKenna's tenants
was alone responsible for the Quin-
nesec fire.
Quoting again from the Sunday Chi.
cago Tribune: Antoine, mining town,
ell but few of the 700 people home.
less" Tom Hanna, publisher Of the
Iron Mountain Press, says Antoine is
a suburb of Iron Mountain, and that
all that was burned in Antoine was
seven ties and two cross-.rees. Tri.
bune correspondent sent to it for Sun
day that Powers was wiped out"
Powers is one of the Northwestern
railway junction points and has about
500 reople. l have been there to-
day. There has been nothing destroy
ed in Powers People there got much
alarmed Friday, but the fire did not
come within four miles.
The Chicago Tribune said, Dagget,
VII lllt 4NOl lllMtOlCln ltllN SlY. DtlNO'-i
Quinnesec and Escanaba, was wiped
out. Dagget wasn't touched. Also
that Saunders was destroyed. Not so.
Saunders is 16 miles north Of Iron
Mountain and Editor Hanna says moth
ing burned there but a mill that's been
abandoned five years.
Cornell, 900 people homeless" on
the Escanaba railroad has, so Dan
Wells and his cousin, Supt. Wells, 81
the railway, says only about half a
dozen families. Commissioner Dan
Wells says the Escanaba railway has
about 100000 acres along the line,
which is about 120 miles long. The
lands extend eight to ten miles each
side OF the track, and there's hardly
square of it where the fire didn't
appear
Yet Commissioner Wells, after wor;a
ing with his agents for three days,
says he can find but ii of 10 home
steaders who were burned cut in the
entire 100000 acres. The takers have
reported that hundreds" in this dis
tllNb NOlC JUL Su Oul, nut give no
names.
The Northwestern railway lost It's
station at Quinnesec, but little more.
At Niagara. three miles from Quin-
nesec, is the pulp mill of Kimberly
Clark, said to be the largest in Michi-
gan. Il employees about 700 hands. A
representative of the mill reports that
comparatively little of its supply OF
timber was injured by the fire.
They do not think any pulp mill will
be Inconvenience by the fires.
Some of the takers are now printing
stories that upper peninsula business
men, for reasons OF their own, are
trying to belittle their stories OF the
fires. Why business men should do
so Is not explained. One Chicago
faker said it was so smoky in Escana-
ba Friday that he could hardly see
to write his dispatch. There's one sa-
loon tp about each 125 of Escanaba's
population. Still, great many peo.